Finishing Planting The Veggies & Flowers, Victoria Sponge Cake with Strawberries & Coconut Cream, Pasta & Peas

Finishing Planting The Veggies & Flowers
I think summer is finally here! I bought the last of our veggies this weekend to plant. I bought a Japanese Itchiban eggplant, three small pots of lemon cucumbers to help out with the ones that are a little bit sick from the bad weather. I bought two red  and 2 green bell peppers, several basil and some flowers for the pots-

My baby Basils ready to plant in a pot

 My Nasturtiums I started from seed have doing really great, they're just not flowering yet-

Unless I see a really great deal into next month or two for leftover tomatoes at the local nurseries I think we're pretty well done. The corn, beans, and small decorative pumpkins we started from seed are doing great-

Dave already harvested (he's taller!) 2 Qts. of Service Berries, many more to come. They loved the wet spring. I may make jam, or some small tarts, or both. Nothing like growing your own food!

More flowers from the front yard-

Spirea

Pollinator, but can't remember which one!

Yarrow

Red Hot Poker, almost 40 blooms, crazy with the wet weather too!

  

First berries, Red Twig Dogwood, not edible sadly

Sea Thrift

Roses

Victoria Sponge Cake with Strawberries & Coconut Cream

I always wanted to make a Victoria sponge cake with fresh strawberries. There are a lot of recipes out there, but many are with UK measurements which doesn't work very well for me. I finally found a recipe and decided to try it and was really disappointed. Both cakes fell, which is ever happened to me before in my life. I'm not posting the recipe here since it was not a good one apparently. I realized after the fact that 375° was just too hot for cakes, that should have been cooler with a longer bake time. I did try microwaving the one that was still pretty warm for several minutes to see if it would hopefully cook the batter in the center. When website suggested if your cake fails in the middle or falls in the middle to simply serve it in slices or in a cup with the other ingredients. The second cake came out nice and moist. Disappointing for a Father's Day dessert. Sad, will try a different recipe next time. No More Cake Fails ideas here.

This was a success though, making coconut cream! Since Dave can't do dairy I decided to make this for the cake. Basically I followed the directions on the can-
refrigerate overnight (I put in the freezer for 1 hour or so). Spoon out the solid thick cream. I put in as mixing bowl, added 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 TBS powdered sugar and whipped. It was very stiff. I added more of the milk liquid until it got to the right consistency. I used two cans of this which was perfect for the cake-

It was nice and fluffy and didn't soak the cake the way cream would. I could see adding lemon extract, etc. next time for another flavor.

Pasta & Peas-

One thing I learned from a more plant-based diet is peas are packed with protein! Who knew! I thought they were pure carbs and felt guilty eating them. I added some to whole grain pasta, and topped with an egg. Add some Parmesan cheese and it's what for dinner!