Lemon & Blueberry Layer Cake

In honor of B's birthday today, I'm doing a cake post!
Only I didn't actually make him a cake.
Although, I was thinking of doing this one.
I know it seems like a total copout but I know he'll love it.

This cake is the result of 3 different recipes and 

several different inspirations like this.

The ending result was fantastic.

Lemon blueberry cake with lemon curd filling and a lemon buttercream frosting.

Although it sounds extra lemony it's not too tart at all.

The cake is dense and the blueberries sank when baking,

creating that great streak of blueberries.

I stacked the cakes with the ends towards the center cake which does not have blueberries in it.

The cake recipe (and candied lemon) is adapted from Martha Stewart, 

the curd is my own recipe (doubled and the tiniest bit extra was served alongside the cake with a spoon for curd enthusiasts to add a dollop to their cake is so desired) 

and the frosting is from the Lemon Drop recipe in the Baked Cookbook

Lets start with the lemon curd as I really think you need to make this first and 

stick it in the refrigerator so that it's nice and cold when you use it.

The warmer the curd, the thinner and the more you lose to 

oozing out the sides when you stack your layers.

The Easiest Lemon Curd Ever

1 cup lemon juice

4 tsp finely grated zest (I run a knife over mine after zesting with a microplane)

2 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp

Cream your butter, add sugar and zest and mix well.

Add your eggs in, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Throw in your lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Mix, mix, mix.

At this point it will look all curdled and gross. Don't worry.

Pour the mixture into a pot and cook over low-medium until thick, stirring constantly. I'll be honest, I always put it up to medium because I'm super impatient. As it heats it will start to thicken. You'll know it's ready when the curd coats the spoon and stays in place when you run your finger (or another utensil) down the center.

You can keep this in the refrigerator for several days or break into small batches and freeze.

Lemon & Blueberry Cake

• 1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs plus 4 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup plus 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded
• 2 3/4 cup blueberries or about 3, 12 oz packages 
• 2 cups will go into the cake and the rest is for decorating 
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• 
  
• Butter and flour three 9-by-2-inch (or 8 inch if that's what you have) cake pans, tapping out excess flour. 
• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
• 
  
• In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 3 cups sugar until light and fluffy. 
• With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. 
• Beat in 1/4 cup lemon juice. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined.

*You can make your own buttermilk by taking a 1 cup measure, adding 1 tbs lemon juice, filling the remainder with low fat milk and allowing it to sit for 10 minutes.

• Pour 1/3 of the batter into one cake pan and smooth the top.  Add 2 cups of blueberries to the remainder of the batter and fold them in, then split between the 2 remaining pans and smooth the tops.
• 
  
•  Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32 to 35 minutes. Let cool in pans 10 minutes. 
• Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack.

• 
  
• While cakes are baking, bring remaining 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a boil in a saucepan. 
• Add lemon slices and simmer 25 minutes. 
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer lemon slices to a waxed-paper-lined plate to use for decorating later. 
• Stir remaining 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice into syrup.
• 
  
• Using a toothpick, poke holes in warm cakes on rack. 
• Brush with lemon syrup. I did this several times.  Let cool completely.
• 
  
• Once cooled I put them in the refrigerator because it makes them easier to frost.

If you wanted you could make these ahead and freeze.

• 
  
• 

Lemon Drop Frosting

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup lemon curd

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk sugar and flour together.

Add milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, 

until the mixture comes to a boil & has thickened, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.

Beat on high speed until cool.

Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; mix until thoroughly incorporated.

Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of the lemon curd and continue mixing until combined.

If the frosting is too soft, put it in the fridge to chill then remix.

If the frosting is too firm (like if you made it the day before) let it sit out a while,

or place it over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.


You want it firm enough to hold it's shape.

Assembly


Place your plain lemon cake (without blueberries) on a flat surface and trim to make it level.


Place one cake layer on a plate or platter, top down (upside down).
Surround it with wax or parchment paper (cut into strips) 
so that you don't have to worry about frosting mess.


Pipe a ring of your frosting just inside the edge.
This will keep the curd in when you stack your layers.
If you feel your frosting is too soft, place the layer in the fridge for a bit.
Fill with about a cup of lemon curd.
Take your plain lemon cake and place in on top, then repeat with the frosting ring and the curd.
Finish with the third cake, bottom down (right side up).
Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Frost the sides and top of the cake.


Garnish with the candied lemon slices, pile the blueberries on top
and around the base and top off with one lemon slice, cut and twisted.


Refrigerate the entire cake for another 20 minutes to help it all set.
You can place this in a cake saver and store in a cool room for up to 3 days.
If it's too hot put it in the fridge just allow it to sit at room temp for 2 hours before serving.


I actually didn't have a cake saver so I just stuck it in the refrigerator and made sure there wasn't anything smelly near it :)


It was perfect.


This cake looks like a lot of work but everything can be done in phases ahead of time.
Everyone loved it.


Make this cake!

Pumpkin Patches in OC

Halloween is just a few weeks away and there are pumpkin patches to be visited!

Check out my article for a few favorite pumpkin patches in the area.

I can't wait to take Peanut for a gazillion pictures to pick out a pumpkin!

Doughbot Donuts, Sacramento

B's friend Mike knows how much we love food and suggested this place to us.

I was sort of sold when he told me their tagline is "Resistance is Futile".

We checked out their website, finding they are a couple (she is pictured below) who started off 

making donuts out of their kitchen for friends 

while they scoured the internet for deals on the equipment they needed to open a store.

The first thing I noticed when I walked in were their bicycles up against the wall.

Good food and bikes?  I'm sure B was sold right then.

We came in after the morning rush and it was quiet and calm with the smell of 

doughnuts and coffee hanging in the air.

The decor is fantastic and makes me wonder where they found all these 

vintage, retro and modern goods.

So much personality in such simple decor.

The menu changes daily and it makes me want to go back again and again

just to see what they are coming up with and try them all.

What you see above is the PB & J.  

Simple and delicious, why didn't I think of that?

I ordered coffee and she prepared it in a french press while I drooled from the smell of it.

I already have a list of donuts that weren't available that day

that I must try.

Meyer Lemon Creme-filled with meyer lemon glaze and candied meyer lemon on top.

S'mores- cinnamon sugar donut filled with chocolate, locally sourced handmade marshmallow,

glazed with cinnamon and graham cracker.

I know, genius.

They also have quite a few donuts available in a vegan version.

On the left you see a bite of the PB & J with that fantastic strawberry filling.

On the right you see the chai.

I really loved the chai and wanted a cup of glaze to dip my donut in.

This is the apple bacon fritter which I really liked although 

I would have considered it more of a donut.

I'm not really sure what defines a fritter so maybe I'm off on my definition.

Really though, unless you have your heart set on a traditional fritter, 

I'm not sure it matters.

It tastes good.

I want to eat it.

I had The Dude first.

Do you know what I'm referencing when I say The Dude.

The Dude abides.

My college boyfriend and his friends spent months watching The Big Lebowski

over and over again, spouting off quotes and whatnot

until just the mention of the movie makes my right eye start to twitch.

The man calls himself "The Dude", need I say more?

I loathe the movie.

I do not however, loathe White Russians, The Dude's drink of choice.

The translation into doughnut is a White Russian Bavarian creme-filled 

doughnut with perhaps a coffee glaze? on top.

The creme was light and airy and incredible and I woke up this morning thinking about this doughnut.

Perhaps now I've been cured of my eye twitch

because whenever The Dude is mentioned I'll think of this doughnut.

Perhaps I'm not cured at all as my eye twitch will be replaced with drooling.

I think the eye twitch may be more socially acceptable.

Anyway, this made me think of you mom,
oh lover of both white russians and filled donuts.

I also have to mention the vanilla bean donut.
It's simple and classic but good Lord, how often do you find donuts with actually vanilla bean?
I mean, look at those gorgeous flecks in the glaze.

On the right is the Strawberry Lemonade,
I didn't get to try you but I'm coming back for you my friend.

Doughbot is a great find so head over there and eat some doughnuts!

Sure, I can make that

My friend Tina and I were talking about how we get these great ideas.

We see things online or on TV and decide that we can do whatever it is ourselves.

Most the time we don't even try...

but sometimes we lock ourselves into these ideas.

We had this discussion at her sons birthday party

after she spent hours and hours making BAM!  and SPLAT! and BOOM! cookies

and a gorgeous banner that looked relatively straight-forward.

We know better, don't we.

Oh sure, that won't take much time.

So when I started looking for a costume for Peanut,

I just couldn't decide on what I saw.

I started seeing all these diy owl costumes and ended up with a whole board of them.

We thought that he might make a great vampire, what with the hair do and all,

but I kept coming back to the owl.

I mean, it's his first second Halloween and I get to make him cutesy if I want to.

So my mom helped me pick out a pattern for the body.

There weren't any owl patterns but a pumpkin/lady bug/duck pattern should be fine.

Of course, just opening up the pattern scared me.  

There were 35 different pieces and so far I've use 2.

Of course, I don't understand the directions.

Um mom!  What is basting?!

Like in cooking?

What does basting have to do with sewing?

I figure if I just do what she tells me it really seems pretty straight forward.

For now I'll just spend my evenings cutting out "feathers".

Lots and lots of feathers.

B still doesn't believe I'm going to make a costume.

I mean, just because I've only sewn square (and 1 rectangle) pillows...

and some pumpkins (that were slightly lopsided).

Back to cutting feathers.

The more pictures I see the more elaborate things get,

so I've restricted myself from looking up anymore owl costumes.

He'll be 1, he won't even remember this.

Oh but the pictures will last forever :)

Remind me later that I wanted to do this.

A few days of fall

The day after we got back from Sacramento it was cold and rainy.

It was the first day it really felt like fall.

B stayed home with Peanut (who had a cold from to much partying... or too much shoe-licking)

while I ran errands.

Isn't it amazing how easy it is to run errands without hauling a little one in and out of the car?!

I made 9 different stops in 2 hours.  

Anyway, with the cold weather and the idea of snuggling in for the rest of the day,

I figured it was a good time to go thru our boxes of clothes

and pull out the next size and season.

We've been lucky enough to get clothes from my nephew 

as well as new clothes/gifts from friends and family.

These days are always fun for me because I feel the need to try things on Peanut.

Why are hats so cute on babies?

Not that this is a baby hat.

The size reads size 2T-3T.

Mmmm hmmm.

Peanut thought daddy's beanie was pretty funny too.

We snuggled and had soup and generally made the apartment a disaster.

He is into everything and thinks NO! actually means GO FASTER!

What are we going to do about Christmas?

By the way, it absolutely is not fall without THESE cookies.

I'm seriously, a bit of fall in every bite.

Pumpkin Pecan Cookies with Brown Sugar Butter Frosting

The cookie itself is light and cakey and the frosting adds the perfect amount of sweetness.

Go make them now.

Peanut's Baptism

Although we just got back from Sacramento and I have tons to share, 

I wanted to back track to a very special day in September.

Last month we had little Peanut baptized.

The baptism started just after normal nap time and the Peanut was so tired 

I wasn't sure he was going to make it through the ceremony.

When we approached the baptismal font he perked right up and the chance to play in the pool.

He splashed around, trying to twist towards the water.

He was wet, the deacon was wet and a few of us were wet also.

Everyone agreed that we should have done the full immersion, 

if only to see how excited he would have been to be in the water.

It was really cute.

At the preparation class they mentioned the changing of the clothes into

a white garment after the baptism with water.

I loved that idea.

My family thinks I'm crazy.

Does anyone remember my veil-switching and  dress altering

 during my wedding ceremony and reception?

You can see the changes here.

Anyway, in the picture above Peanut is being blessed with more oil then you can imagine.

It was dripping down his face.

His hair was greasy for 2 days.

He smelled very.... sacramental.

Or as B would say... he must smell like Jesus!

My sister kissed his oily head and her lips went numb.

Perhaps there is clove in there?

Poor kid probably couldn't feel his head.

Peanut did wonderfully and it's such a sweet and powerful sacrament.

It felt good and right and inspiring to be there.

Afterward we headed back to my mom and dad's for a little celebrating.

This is only a very small portion of what we had to eat,

which included

savory artichoke & spinach bread pudding,

breakfast potatoes,

tomato corn pie,

lox,

summer salad,

Puerto Rican garlic pork leg,

fresh fruit and of course,

lots of cheese.

Raise your hand if your baptized today!

I saw these yarn balls on pinterest and had to try them out.

I'll post a review later.

This is a messy project but the result looked good.

We decorated with them as well as hydrangeas.

I adore hydrangeas.

Tina made these chocolate suckers.

The ones on the left have sprinkles and the ones 

on the right have crushed lemon drops.

You could do so many things with crushed candies!

I made 2 different cakes.

I know it's crazy but I didn't want to run out.

I bought the gum paste flowers on etsy.

I think it would have held up better if it were refrigerated after making.

I finished it the night before and it sort of sagged.

Fantastic chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and a vanilla buttercream.

It was really good.

This one held up beautifully and I think it's really pretty.

I will post a recipe for this which was really a hodge podge of recipes 

used to create what I had in my mind.

Lemon & Blueberry Layer Cake

Soooo delicious.

Here is Peanut with his godparents!

Thank you Tina & Rick, I know you will be wonderful godparents.

At the top is Peanut with Bryce who is my godson.

This is what happens when you try to get a nice picture of 

exhausted, delirious Peanut with his great-grandma.

Oh Peanut.

It's time to feel your boobies.

TOUCH YOURSELF!

Its Breast Cancer Awareness Month and maybe the only time I can use a blog title like 

Touch Yourself without losing my lovely readers.

I'm going to step up on my soap box and remind all of you about the importance of the Self Breast Exam. It is so important to learn what your breasts feel like and 

what is normal for you in order to indentify any changes.

I'm going to remind you that I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27. 

That is 13 years before mammogram age. 

I would have been long dead by 40 had my cancer not been found. 

I am alive because a lovely doctor felt a lump in my breast during an exam. 

I did not find it because frankly, I wasn't doing regular breast exams.

Don't rely on luck. Be proactive.

Give yourself an exam. 

Let your partner give you an exam. 

Let a stranger... dear God, I'm only kidding, although I am sure you would get some volunteers. 

Please don't be telling your other half I sent you out to the streets to get felt up.

This page here has information on how to do self breast exams among other bits of info. 

Take the quiz and test your BC knowledge!

Please also know that only 5-10% of breast cancer comes from the hereditary genes. 

The other 90-95% of us just get it without rhyme or reason. 

Women get it, men get it, people of all ages get it. 

So spread the word and encourage the people you love to be proactive!

That being said, if you do feel a lump don't freak out. 

The vast majority of lumps found are absolutely nothing. 

I know so many women who felt a lump or had mammos or bibopsies :) that ended up being nothing. 

The point is that they checked it out. 

If you would like more information about finding a lump go here.

Also, if ever you need someone to talk to about any of this please don't hesitate to email me. 

I am not a doctor and I can only speak from my experience 

but I promise to give you nothing but honest answers or a listening ear.

Now go touch yourselves! Oh, and tell your friends to touch themselves too!