The Cake.

I posted a picture of the cake that I made for my birthday last Thursday on Facebook and I had so many requests for the recipe that I figured I'd share it here.  Mom and Lisa gave me the day off from work so I got to stay home and cook and bake a birthday feast for a few of my friends - which was EXACTLY what I wanted to do!  I'm in heaven in the kitchen and I LOVE to feed people so it was an absolutely lovely day.  So, here's the cake:

The cake is a super yummy gluten-free, chocolate cake.  And I mean the kind of yummy that if I didn't tell you it was gluten-free you probably wouldn't know.  The recipe for the cake is from Silvana Nardone's cookbook, "Cooking for Isaiah".  My husband has health issues that have completely changed the way we eat and we're almost completely a wheat-free, soy-free, cow's milk-free household now and Silvana's cookbook has CHANGED OUR LIVES!  If you eat wheat and diary-free this is the cookbook you want for normal, wonderful tasting food that you can actually eat!  Okay, back to the cake - it's a two layer cake with a layer of chocolate frosting in the middle (also from Silvana's cookbook), but you could just as easily put the white frosting in between the layers.  And, here is the frosting recipe:

Whipped Cream, Mascarpone Frosting:

1 half-pint of whipping cream

1 8oz container of mascarpone

Powdered sugar

Vanilla extract

I poured the whipping cream and mascarpone into the bowl of my stand mixer and whipped at medium speed until it started to thicken.  Then, with the mixer at a lower speed, I added the vanilla (about 1 tsp) and powdered sugar (about 1-1/2 cups) until I was happy with the taste.  I continued to whip until it was a frosting consistence (it didn't take very long).

Frost the cake, add strawberries and enjoy!!

Summer Preserving.

Lisa, Hannah and I had SO much fun last weekend canning!  It was a first time for both Lisa and I so there was a lot of "Does that look right?"  "Do you think that's covered enough?"  "Does that look full enough?" If you had been a fly on the wall you would have been giggling at us.

And, of course, we didn't have all of the necessary tools so I had to jerry-rig our rings together to protect the glass from the bottom of the pan.

Lisa was very excited to use her Weck canning jars that she ordered from Heath because of the newest issue of Bon Apptite.

Lisa pickled asparagus.

I made Strawberry Jam.

Pickling Spices.

Summer Colors

Chris and I went to the farmers market on Saturday!  I love farmers markets!  I got to pet an emu, talk to a rancher about his Blue Face Leicester Sheep and their wool (I left with a few ounces of roving - I'll let you know how it goes), buy coffee and leave with a HEAP of fresh fruit (mmmmm!  Peaches!).  I even got a bouquet of flowers.  The garden on mom and dad's property is in full swing - pumpkins, basil, tomatoes, zucchini, corn.  Hannah's been canning and Lisa and I got to join in the other day on the canning experience (I'll share in another post) and I can't wait to do more.  Hope you're all enjoying the summer harvest!