Bernice's Birthday Cakes

I made two birthday cakes for Bernice, a chocolate one for her to take to work and a lemon and guava one for her family party. I forgot to take pictures of the chocolate but the lemon one is pictured below. This was an experiment in buttercream frosting because the chocolate one was vegan. The cake is easy, just make the always-vegan crazy cake, but frosting is harder. I read up on the frosting tub labels in Safeway and the common thickener seems to be cornstarch. I messed around and it worked pretty well. I'm going to record the recipe although I'm likely to play with it more next time.

For the lemon cake I tried a flour buttercream from The Tough Cookie. It was good although it tasted rather like vanilla pudding and got soft easily.

Vegan Chocolate Buttercream (not pictured)
Mix 1/2 c water, 1/2 t salt, and 2 T cornstarch. Cook stirring constantly until cornstarch thickens. Mix in 1 c sugar and stir until dissolved. Keep cooking to thicken further, watching closely and stirring while reducing heat if necessary.

Cool to room temperature.

With a mixer, beat in 3 T shortening (helps to stabilize it) and 3 T coconut oil (helps it set in the cold). Add 1/4 c cocoa powder, 1 t cinnamon, 1/8 t cayenne, 2 t vanilla. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes. Beat again (chilling should help it stiffen properly if the room is warm) and gradually beat in 1 c of vegan margarine and 3 oz of melted dark chocolate. Continue beating, alternated with chilling time, until fluffy and creamy. Store in the fridge but warm to soften before use. Note that it must be kept cooler than room temp or it will melt and possibly sag and lose the fluffy texture. The cake should be refrigerated after frosting. (and in between layers if needed)

Next time:
Try more cornstarch. Possibly more sugar. Maybe more cocoa. And vary the other flavors as desired.

The lemon cake is layered and the crumb coat is going on

Crumb coat finished

The cake is fully frosted. I just have to remove the parchment shields from the tray.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Liz, Patrick, and I biked to Kenilworth for the Lotus and Water Lily Festival on Saturday. It was great even if we had to dodge around Minnesota Ave because the bike path isn't finished. We saw the Asian Cultural Dances and lots of flowers. I had no idea lotus are so nice!

Here's the cute little boys dancing

And the crowd

The Korean drum ladies

Burmese and Indian mash-up!

Green lotus pod

Lotus opening

A sea of lotus

Lotus fully open

These leaves are huge! (that's my hand)

And here's Liz checking them out

The leaves are superhydrophobic (according to Wikipedia) and water puddles up without wetting them. Apparently this lotus effect cleans the leaves. 

Everyone is a photographer!

Ordinary water lily

Another lotus for good measure

Fancy tropical water lily

I liked the different leaves on the tropical hybrids

This giant round lily leaf looks like pizzas in the water

Some of them are varigated

And the frog is using this one, it was probably a 2-inch frog so you get an idea of the size of the leaves--giant!

Mature lotus seed pod

Sarah, Liz, and Patrick

Happy Fourth of July!

Fourth of July makes me remember family time in Madras. Remember when we filled up the pagoda with crackling snakes and small fireworks and set the whole thing off? I seem to recall a miniature mushroom cloud from that experiment! I won't be lighting my own fireworks this year but I do plan on watching the National Mall ones from the roof of my friend Kori's building. I just finished making a cherry pie and a rhubarb pie to take to the grilling party too. 

We are too far-flung to all get together any now, so I want to wish everyone a fabulous 4th in New York and Minnesota and California and Oregon. May you have friends and family and food and fireworks. 

With love and virtual hugs to all! 

Here is Kori's 4th Feast,