Cake Love

I woke up this morning with a right eye swollen enough that my parents finally noticed.  I hit my head just above the eyebrow after falling over the basket in the dark in front of the washing machine (doing their laundry) and crashing into the adjacent stone wall.  The root I put on it overnight seems to bind to my skin so the scrape looks black; whatever, I put on my bulky yet protective lifeguard-style hat and a pair of big sunglasses and went on my way today.  But not before photographing the orchid cactus blooms next to the little pond…these are 12” long and I call them a gift from the garden, here the night before~

and this morning~

the cake at the market was a big hit; all eaten; it’s hard to see all the layers here, but this is four layers of Genoise and three fillings; white chocolate with raspberry Crème de Cassis from Dijon; milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts, and dark chocolate.  I added some Onyx Cocoa from Savory to the frosting, which is Dark Chocolate.

People coming together….all ages…to have fun, to eat well, to connect and chat…in addition to our work, isn’t this what life is all about?  After the market ended today, Emilio made a special paella for us; that’s his wife Judy in the red polka dot apron, and their daughter Natalia in the pink skirt; her Flamenco instructor is at right; she also gave us a GREAT dance~

And soon Holly, granddaughter of one of our vendors, got in the show~

We have to do this more often, everyone getting together for great food and that time to connect with each other…..these are all farmers and purveyors and a few of our regular shoppers were also invited.

Oh, the cakes….I left my parents at home with the scratch cake and their diabetes meds.  They prohibited me from removing the cake from the kitchen this morning, but I did manage to bring a large slice with me for friends at the market to taste.  To me this is a very Southern cake; a little dry but GREAT; this is the Burnt Butter scratch cake~ 

The recipe and filling are HERE.  Buy Self Rising Flour instead of the flour and leavening and salt. For the large cake I brought to the market, I used a Genoise recipe (not in this link above) with chocolate, hazelnut/chocolate and white chocolate fillings, finished with buttercream frosting.   Next time I will use the Burnt Butter cake, filling, and buttercream as Tom presents it in this link. 

In France, yes, they might call this cake dry.  To me it is classic Southern, great.  I will definitely be using this recipe again in variations for birthday cakes~~