Ripening Garden and Cake Building

So...what did you do for the long memorial day weekend? Us, nothing. We rarely travel or go anywhere on this holiday or Labor day. We hung out at home and on Saturday I built the cake that I talked about in my last post.
The cake was fun to make, and the tweaking I did to it, didn't really alter the flavor that I remember as a kid. The recipe is from the mid to late 1960's and it's called "Cherry Crown Cake." My mom use to proudly make this for pot lucks and always got many compliments on it, and I loved the flavor combinations. She followed it to the letter, using canned cherry pie filling and walnuts, and sweetened coconut. I decided to use organic non sweetened coconut and pecans, because David is allergic to walnuts. I also made my own cherry pie filling using some of the cherries Cyrous' dad brought us. I was going to macerate the cherries and make more of a compote, but I happen to pick up this magazine called at Costco that had a yummy homemade cherry pie filling recipe. I think if I ever make this again, I would like to try the compote of cherries instead. The filling recipe was good, although I just wasn't sure about the cornstarch aspect of it hahaha. It had a whole vanilla bean pod in it and lemon juice, so it really did taste good. This cake has a lot of coconut! You put 2/3 cup sprinkled in the bottom of each pan, then pour the batter on top, then 1/3 cup more coconut sprinkled on top of each before you put it in the oven.
The  odd thing about this recipe was that while making the batter, they didn't have you cream the butter and sugar first. You were to put all the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, then mix the butter and milk into the dry. Lastly you add the eggs and almond extract. Interesting method and much different than other cakes I have made.   I have this cake recipe written out in my mom's handwriting and I found it on Pinterest. If you are curious about it, you can visit my Pinterest board "Desserts."

Oh my...... the yard!! Last year there were so many peaches that we couldn't catch up with all of them and even with the deer eating some at night for their dessert, we still had more! This year, not as many sadly, but look at all those plums!!! Also out there are many nectarines, and pluots. There are also a zillion loquats that the squirrels and other wildlife are enjoying, as evidenced by the mess they have made! Instead of peach pie this summer, perhaps I'll be making some plum galettes instead. There are still peaches, don't get me wrong, but not as many...boo :(  Also above pictured are some things David planted in some wine barrels. Soon we will have zucchini, Anaheim peppers, tomatillos, and some plum tomatoes. We also got one tiny little fig growing on the fig tree plant we bought last year from a local farmer. Not sure what we are going to do with this fig plant, as there really isn't a place to plant it in the yard. Might have to gift it to someone hahaha.

If you are frequent reader, you know my busy month is coming up. Why oh why did we decided to get married in June and have our first born in June??? Combined with Father's day, and David's birthday, we are in for a whirlwind soon! I'm trying to make a better effort to blog more. I let things go and I feel like I don't want this space to drift off like others have done with their blogs. Having said this, I'll try my hardest to document festivities in June. We will be celebrating our 33rd  wedding anniversary this year. I decided to find a nice summer dress for our special dinner out this year. Finding dresses are a nightmare for me. I tried some on recently at Anthropologie, and it was a no go. Today, I wandered into Nordstrom's with zero intent to find anything, only to see what they had. There is was!! The cutest summer dress!  I quickly grabbed it and tried it on. Love at first site, and it fit really nice. This rarely happens for me because of my shorter torso, I always have to have dresses altered. I almost lost hope and was going to attempt to sew something up for myself. I was spared that task thank goodness. I don't mind making tops and skirts for myself, but dresses.....NO! (Side note) Before I found the dress, I saw this really cute line of clothing from France called Jolie. Love this line! BUT they had an eyelet top that was a short sleeved peasant blouse that was nothing really special, except that the actual fabric was pretty, but just cotton eyelet. It was the simplest of tops which would take me maybe an hour or less to make, with an elastic neckline. Price tag.....$300.00  What the heck?! I I don't mind paying good money for well made beautiful clothing, but this top should have retailed for no more than $150.00 and that is pushing it. This is why I hate going clothes shopping hahaha.

The holiday weekend threw me off track to get anything done for the shop. I'll be cutting hopefully tomorrow, in hopes to get some more summer items in. Then soon I'll have to start thinking about fall stuff. I'm trying to make a better effort for fall items this year. It's not as fun to sew for I don't think. I end up consumed mostly in red capes come September/October usually, then I have nothing in there for the fall winter months. Need to get better organized for sure!

Ok, catch you all later!