Birthday Party

Sunday, my daughter and I were invited to a birthday party for our friend, Rachel. The party was at their farm in Aurora, Oregon. There was lovely food - grown locally and on their farm. Each guest was given a lovely bouquet of garden flowers and a basket of their produce.
Lovely afternoon.

Hard to beat Northwest cherries

Late Apricots

Early Apples

Sweet Peaches

Cukes

My favorite plums - Italian Prune Plums  (pared with the Rosemary, sautéed in butter)

Rosemary and wine (thinking I need to pick up some lamb)

Afternoon tea

 

I surprised my friend, Mary a birthday tea. Her daughter and daughter-in-law were in on the secret. Her sister-in-lad, niece, and long-time dear friend were also invited. Mary is married to a Swede, so I made a Swedish birthday cake to go along with all the more traditional tea time food. There were three sandwiches, cucumber, ham, and egg mayonnaise.  Scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, black current jam tarts, lemon and banana tea bread, and teapot shaped cookies. I had my trusty Mrs. Tea maker going at full speed with several tea pots rotating to keep us all with full cups. I prefer a good English Indian tea, like Darjeeling or blended teas like Taylors Yorkshire Gold, Typhoo, or even good old PGTips.  I particularly like the philosophy behind Dilmah Tea Co. If you follow the link it will take you to their website where it explains their wonderful foundation founded by Merrill J. Fernando, a great humanitarian. As a plus, his tea is really delicious.

I'm not a fan of American tea (beige water). I don't like those nasty bitter herbal tisane types the French and Americans are so fond of, either. If I'm not sick why take medicine? No, give me a nice cup of good English or Irish tea that I can stand a spoon in. BTW if you like Irish tea, Trader Joe's has a killer Irish Breakfast Tea that is less than $3 a box of 80. I start my day with a pot of that every morning.

Swedish Cloudberry Cake

Cloudberry Cake

This is one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. It is a traditional Scandinavian cake using the rare cloudberry jam. Cloudberries only grow north of 78°N.

Cloudberry

Ingredients:

Makes 16 servings .

     For the cake:

• 6 large eggs (about 1 1/3 cups), room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, stirred before measuring
• 1/2 cup dark rum

      For filling and decoration:

• 2 cups cloudberry preserves(from Ikea)
• 3 cups heavy cream, whipped (I used Dr. Oetker Whip it -whipped cream stabilizer so I was able to pipe it on the cake for decoration)
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two or three 9-inch, round cake pans with parchment paper. 
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine eggs and sugar, beating on high speed until light and lemon colored, about 5 minutes.
3. Beat in vanilla and salt. With a rubber spatula, thoroughly fold in flour.
4. Divide batter evenly between the pans. Bake until the cake springs back when touched in the center, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool. Loosen edges of cooled cakes and remove from pans. If making 2 layers, use a serrated knife, slice cakes horizontally to make four cake layers in all, or use the 3 layers as they are.
5. For the filling: Whip the cream, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and the stabilizer until stiff.
6. To assemble the cake: Place bottom layer on cake plate, brush cake with rum, and pipe one-third of the filling. Top with the second layer, brush with rum, and spread with 1/2 of the preserves. Top with the third layer, brush with rum, and pipe one-third of the filling. Top with the fourth layer, brush with rum, and spread with remaining preserves. Pipe remaining cream  on cake in a decorative pattern. (If you use three pans, as I do, spread a thinner layer of the preserves on each layer with the cream on top)

 I have linked to

Decor to Adore