How to change an ugly background in pictures with Fotoflexer "for the beginner"

Have you ever looked at at picture and WISHED you could have a different background? Yeah me too, and no I'm not talking about all kinds of complicated stuff, palm trees, or the moon. How about just having a plain solid color background?
For our cake business, we take LOTS of pictures, and since my mom is usually the one taking pictures, I'm often left with a very messy cluttered background for a really beautiful cake. Until I get the photo box made, which obviously needs to be on a much larger scale due to the nature of what we will be photographing, I'm stuck with hundreds of pictures, that need editing. 
I know there are programs out there that can probably do this with a click of the mouse, with very little effort on your part. I don't have any such programs, and am a TOTAL BEGINNER. Even then I managed to do pretty good, and I'd like to show you how I did it. 

Here is the before picture of this really cool graduation cake she did. Notice the background? The mixer, the hooks, the crap back there. Hardly does anything to showcase this cake right? 

Ok, now you have to see what I did with this picture. It's nothing really spectacular, but it is a HUGE difference, and I really want to hear what you think!!!

CHECK OUT THE AFTER HERE

Oh and while you are there, make sure to check out my new linky party. 

Link up ANYTHING PARTY related. 

Food

Cakes

Desserts

Invitations

Decorations

You get the idea right! This is BRAND SPANKING new, and I'm terribly excited about it. Will you please help me by linking up, and adding it to your linky list?

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Editing food photographs - from a beginner...

Ok, so after resisting the idea of editing any photos, I'm finally glad to say I can see the light now, and will slowly but surely go through my posts and do a quick edit of any pics that could use it. Which is probably  all my pics, but for now I'll just stick with the ones that really need it. 
Since I'm not the best photographer, and hardly know anything about staging my pictures, especially food, AND I use the dreaded flash on way too many pictures, I found that even then, a simple edit can make all the difference. Just editing with my iphoto seems to be enough, and does the job. All without having to upload anything to yet another program, which is the whole reason I never messed with editing in the first place. Doing it in iphoto is so much easier, and for the time being I think that is where I will do my basic editing. If I could figure out watermarking with that program, that would be awesome. Does anyone know if that is possible. 
Anyway, here are a couple food pics, that I edited really quickly. I couldn't stand how crappy they looked before, and what a difference it made just adjusting the colors, or exposure. I am a total newbie to this, so ANY tips and tricks, or advice is very much welcome. 

SUPER Yummy KIMCHI PANCAKES

EGG CURRYSO yeah, I think it's a HUGE difference, and while the colors might be a bit off, or even too bright now, I love it. The food pops almost, and I'm very happy with the way it looks. Even without any fancy plates, settings or camera, the before and afters are just amazing. 
Again I need everyones feedback, I might be getting all excited over nothing here. So tell me honestly, if my after pics look better, and possibly make you drool. I want my food posts to eventually get to the point where they make you drool. I know how yummy it is, but how the heck do I make you want to try it for yourselves. I love cooking, and love sharing my recipes with all of you, thanks for being so patient with my crappy pics. If you have any suggestions for staging food, I'd love to hear it. I'm really clueless int that department, and am totally rustic in my approach. I don't do fine china, lol, and we rarely use silverware either, you know eating with your hands rocks. 
Anyway, I promise to try harder, and make them better from now on. At the very least, I can do a quick edit if nothing else right?

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