Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Jun 18, 2019

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!




8 comments:

Lisa Lombardo said...

Everything looks so beautiful and your food looks fantastic! I have never made coconut cream...sounds yummy!

Thanks so much for sharing on Farm Fresh Tuesdays!

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks for stopping by!

Susan said...

Those roses are beautiful! I am hoping that summer like weather arrives soon, because my tomatoes and peppers are not enjoying all this cool wet weather. Fallen or not, that Victoria Sponge looks good!

Rain said...

Nancy your strawberry cake looks SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!! :) The flowers are lovely!!

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks, I will try again on the cake

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks!

Leigh said...

I love your new blog look and your photos are divine. So much beauty and color; such a treat. I had never heard of coconut cream - sounds yummy!

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks so much Leigh! I redid my header to make it larger since so many people read this on mobile devices instead of actual computers. And yes all the flowers are looking great they've just been really loving all the rain! And coconut cream is a good substitute for people who are wanting to doing something that's not dairy, since my husband gets terrible stomach issues if he eats any.

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