Lovely Lemons- Baking Traditional Home's Cake and Gardening

It's been a while since I've done a cooking post, probably because I've not done much cooking of late! Over the weekend though, I used our cul-de-sac Easter Egg Hunt party as the perfect excuse to try out the Lemmon Poppy Seed Coconut cake featured in this month's Traditional Home Magazine. Truth be told, the recipe did not actually appear in the magazine and readers "lit up" TH's Facebook page. (I wonder if that means Traditional Home will no longer feature fabulous food photos or if they'll start offering recipes? Design and good food seem to go along so well together. Remember Met Home's fabulous recipes?)

It's a slightly complicated, yet not terribly difficult recipe. And the results are worth it. Here it is, interspersed with my pictures.

Lemon Poppy-Seed Layer Cake

Prepare Lemon Curd filling the day before you bake the cake. Chill overnight.

Note: Forgot to make ahead of time. Put in fridge for the initial stage of cooling and then the freezer for a bit. Worked fine.

Lemon Curd (see recipe)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1-3/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons finely shredded lemon peel (from 3 large lemons)

4 large eggs

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon extract

3 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Coconut Buttercream Frosting (see recipe)

4 cups natural raw chip coconut (about 5 to 6 ounces), toasted*

Note: I used regular bagged coconut and it was fine!

Fresh strawberries

Prepare Lemon Curd. Cover; chill at least 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two (9x1-1/2 inch) round baking pans. Set aside. In very large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar, and lemon peel on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in lemon juice and lemon extract. (Mixture may look curdled.)
Note: it looked very curdled. Not to worry!

In another large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Fold in poppy seeds.

Yummy!

Divide cake batter evenly between prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans; cool completely. When cakes are cool, trim tops of cakes if necessary to make them flat. Split cakes in half horizontally to create four cake rounds.

Note: Mr. Southern did a fabulous job. I am miserable at cutting in a straight line, be it a cake or wrapping paper.

To assemble, place one cake round on cake plate. Spread with 1 scant cup Lemon Curd. Top curd with another cake round and another scant cup of curd. Repeat with third cake round and the remaining curd. Top curd with last cake round.

Note: Use more than a "scant" on your first layer or you'll have lemon curd left over. Better yet, divide it into thirds so you know how much to use! I added a bit of the frosting in the middle layer as well.

Frost top and sides of cake with Coconut Buttercream Frosting. Sprinkle toasted coconut on top of cake and press into sides of cake. Serve immediately with fresh strawberries, or store cake in refrigerator.

Let chilled cake stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

So while my cake is not quite as beautifully styled as the one featured in the magazine, it looked pretty good! (I think).

Lemon Curd:
In large saucepan stir together 1-1/3 cups sugar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Stir in 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel, 3/4 cup lemon juice, and 1/2 cup water. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly.

In large bowl lightly beat 7 egg yolks. Slowly stir about half of hot lemon juice mixture into eggs. Return lemon-egg mixture to saucepan. Cook, stirring continuously over medium heat until mixture comes to gentle boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/2 cup butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, until melted and well combined. Cover surface of curd with waxed paper or plastic wrap. Chill curd at least 8 hours or until firm. Makes a scant 3 cups lemon curd.

Coconut Butter Cream Frosting:
In large mixing bowl beat 1 cup softened butter with electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Gradually beat in 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat in 3 tablespoons milk and 1 teaspoon coconut extract. Gradually beat in 4 cups additional powdered sugar until smooth, with spreading consistency. If necessary, beat in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to make spreading possible. Makes about 3-1/4 cups frosting.

*To toast coconut: Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread coconut in shallow baking pan. Heat about 5 minutes or until coconut is fragrant and just barely toasted, stirring once. Cool completely.

For the Gardening portion.... let's take a look at my Improved Meyer Lemon tree, which we just moved outdoors. Ahhh, beautiful flowers (and they smell fabulous!)

Unfortunately, you can see that the leaves aren't as healthy as I'd like...

I believe we have an infestation of spider mites(??). So off to get Horticultural Oil and get rid of those nasty buggers. Oh how I long for a green thumb.

Oooh and I almost forgot- our little Easter Bunny! We have a big adoption weekend coming up, so I'm training her to look as cute as possible.

Have a Happy Week!

Emmie

READ MORE - Lovely Lemons- Baking Traditional Home's Cake and Gardening

It's a Brand New Day!

Great quote: Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad, is a full minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Good morning! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Mr. Southern and I got a bit of gardening accomplished- mostly weeding, admittedly, but rather cathartic! Madison, our youngest furbaby, tossed up Daddy's sock that she apparently had eaten last week when Mommy was out of town. Of course, we thought the culprit was Tilghman! (sorry, that is probably TMI). Needless to say, she is feeling much better and is now getting along fine with foster dog Kaylee.

Speaking of dogs, last week we attended a fundraiser for the Atlanta Humane Society, hosted by the fine folks at Sweetwater Brewing. We got to meet Lemonhead, an incredibly sweet Staffordshire Terrier rescued from a dog-fighting ring in Atlanta. After socializing (and after I-nicely- finished grilling of one of the directors), we had a tour of the facility.
Friday night, Habersham hosted another Garden Party with a few tasty snacks and wine. Few things better than sipping wine in the garden.
It's no secret that I would replace all of the grass in our backyard with gardens and pathways if Mr. Southern would allow me and Habersham is just the place for inspiration (I also posted about them last Fall).

Honestly, not to knock anyway, but how many garden centers have staging like this?

Not to mention their fabulous indoor spaces, a respite from the chilling temps, featuring items that look equally great indoors as out.

Love this little guy...This little house was too expensive for my taste (well over $200!) but oh so cute.


This little bunny would be a welcome visitor in any garden... and just in time for Easter.



LOVE the look of these edibles.

And as we did last fall, we finished up at Alfredo's, a great old-school Italian place.


Have a fabulous week!!

READ MORE - It's a Brand New Day!

Manuscript for a Southern Garden

I hope y'all had a great weekend! Mr. Southern and I spent some quality time doing yard work- the tilling in the back yard is almost complete!  I have a new enemy in the garden- the squash borer, which has decimated all of my squash and zucchini.  

As I mentioned, I am participating in the Summer Reading Challenge and recently finished Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding.  Near the end of the book are some fabulous description of Ellen's garden in the Mississippi Delta- I hope you enjoy reading this as section as much as I did! (Background- Ellen is pregnant with her 9th- I think- child, goes out with her gardner Howard, a few days after daughter Dabney's wedding.  Others mentioned- Bluet, her youngest daughter, Battle, her husband, and Tempe, her sister-in-law).

via Flikr Trout Fishing in America

Ellen in the morning cool walked in the yard in her old dress, her scissors on a ribbon around her neck, and one of the children's school gloves on in case she wanted to poke around or pull mulch.

She reached down and pulled up, light as down, a great scraggly petunia bush turned white every inch.  In those few days, when she had forgotten to ask a soul to water things, how everything had given up, or hung its head.  And that little old vine, that always wanted to take everything, had taken everything- she pulled at a long thread of it and unwound it from the pomegranate tree.

via Flikr- blackwellsr

The camellia bushes had all set their buds, choosing the driest and busiest time, and if they did not get water they would surely drop them, temperamental as they were.  The grass all silver now showed its white roots underfoot, and was laced with ant beds up and down and across. And in just those few days, she must warn Battle, some caterpillar nets had appeared on the pecan trees down in the grove- he would have to get those burnt out or they would take his trees.  Toward the gate the little dogwoods she had had brought in out of the woods or saved, hung every heart-shaped leaf, she knew the litter turrety buds were going brown, but they were beyond help that far from the house, they would have to get along the best they could waiting for the rain; that was something she had learned.

via Flikr- blackwellsr

A bumblebee with dragging polleny legs went smothering over the abelia bells, making a snoring sound.  The old crape myrtle with its tiny late old bloom right at the top of the tree was already beginning to shed all its bark, its branches glowed silver-brown and amber, brighter than its green.  Well, the cypresses in the bayou were touched with flame in their leaves, early to meet fall as they were early to meet spring and with the same wild color.  The locust shells clung to the tree trunks, the birds were flying over every day now...  

via Big Easy Tours

And there was that same wonderful butterfly, yellow with black markings, that she had seen here yesterday.  It was spending its whole life on this one abelia.

via Flikr Kaycatt

The elaeagnus had overnight, it seemed, put out shoots as long as a man.  "Howard, bring your shears, too!  Did this look this way for the wedding? It's a wonder Tempe didn't get after us for that."

She needed to take up some things that would go in the pit for winter, she wanted to flower some bulbs too.  When, when?  And the spider lilies were taking everything.

via Southern Bulbs

Her chrysanthemums looked silver and ragged, their few flowers tarnished and all their lower leaves hanging down black, like scraggly pullets, and Howard would have to tie them up again too..... The dead iris foliage curled and floated wraith-like over everything.  "Howard, you get the dead leaves away from here and be careful, if I let you put your hands any further in than the violets..."

via Bois-Darc

She looked at the tall grass in her beds, as if it knew she could no longer bend over and reach it. What would happen to everything if she were not here to watch it, she thought, not for the first time when a child was coming.  Of all the things she would leave undone, she hated leaving the garden untended- sometimes as much as leaving Bluet, or Battle.

   

Wister Gardens

"Now those dahlias can just come up out of there," she said, pausing again.  "They have no reason for being in there at all, that I can see..."  She wanted to separate the bulbs again too, and spread the roman hyacinths out a little under the trees-they grew so thick now they could hardly bloom last spring....

via Blue Ridge Blog

"Howard, look at my roses!  Oh, what all you'll have to do to them."

"I wish there wasn't no such thing as roses," said Howard.  "If I had my way, wouldn't be a rose in de world.  Catch your shirt and stick you and prick you and grab you.  Got thorns."  

via Trudy at Garden Guides

"Why, Howard.  You hush!" Ellen looked back over her shoulder at him for a minute, indignant.  "You don't want any roses in the world?"

"Wish dey was out of de world, Miss Ellen," said Howard persistently.

"Well, just hush, then."

She cut the few flowers, Etoiles and Lady Hillingtons (to her astonishment she was trembling at Howard's absurd, meek statement, as at some impudence), and called the children to run take them in the house.  ...

Time, that she had wanted to stand still in the garden, waiting for her to catch up, if only it would fly and bring Dabney home.

READ MORE - Manuscript for a Southern Garden

A Carpeting of Roses

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Not to get too personal, but I have to say, I'm off to a rough day (ah, the joys of office politics). In fact, I had to come back and add to this post. If you watched the Real Housewives of New York City (I did and love those gals)- just picture the Bethenny/Kelly (aka Crazy Girl) discussion when Crazy Girl says, "Bethenny, Bethenny, Bethenny" and Bethenny was like, "What?" That was my morning with a colleague. Just in case you're wondering, I was Bethenny, not crazy girl.

Anyway, I need some loveliness, so here we go!

I have learned not to give too much credence to these new plants developed by marketing mavens in the gardening world. But, I must say that I adore the Carpet Rose by Anthony Tesselaar plants. They have been by far the easiest plant to care for in my constantly-work-in-progress garden. I water occasionally if we haven't had rain and am rewarded with the best-looking flowers in the yard (except perhaps the Dahlia, which I posted about here.)

So, here's some flowering eye candy that I hope helps to brighten your day!

Garden Newsbreak (for Anthony Tesselaar)

Mahoneys Garden

Sustainable Gardening

Tesselaar

READ MORE - A Carpeting of Roses

Sunshine Blooms

We've gone for a spell without rain so yesterday afternoon I visited my various flower beds to give some water. My first Dahlia has bloomed! I am so excited. As I mentioned yesterday, photography is not my forte (yet!), but I hope that these photos bring you a little joy.


Is it just me or is this flower very reminiscent of a sunburst?

Speaking of sunbursts, I arrived today in Ft. Lauderdale. While I have quite a bit of work to do throughout South Florida, I'm hoping to make some time to visit to Gumbo Limbo on Friday. And of course, a few runs on the beach.

Mr. Southern does not yet share my same appreciation of Florida.... but he'll come around eventually after I show him a few of my discovered treasures. There are few other states that offer such diversity. But I love South Florida.

READ MORE - Sunshine Blooms

Yankee-Style Gardens

We're taking a bit of a detour from all things Southern and heading North.  I recently discovered Cottages and Gardens publications- Hamptons, Connecticut, Westchester, and Palm Beach (though the Palm Beach website doesn't seem to exist?)  While I'll always give it up for good Southern antebellum homes, I do have a passion for cedar-shingled homes with bright white trim.  Double points for those homes that feature stone somewhere.

Here are a few that I fell in love with!

What a fabulous trellis/gate to have for this cozy courtyard!  I like that the jacuzzi uses very muted tones too so it sort of blends into the background.  

Westover Landscape Design, featured in This Old House May 2009

Beautiful hydrangea accents...

Westover Landscape Design

More hyndrangeas...and I adore the contrast between the grayed cedar shingles and white porch and trim.

The backyard of the house.  Gorgeous and refreshing.

three above images from Harmonia Creative Landscapes

An inviting, cottage-y entryway.  Note the trellis on the house.  And I adore the cute birdhouse.

No words needed.

Perfect pergola and seating area.

three above images from  This Old House Landscaping Galleries

Adore the pops of orange and the great spring green in this outdoor room.  Would love to throw a party here!

Mabley Handler, HC&G Idea House 2005

Hope you enjoyed our journey to the North! Have a fabulous start to the week.

--Emmie

READ MORE - Yankee-Style Gardens