Yesterday, Wayne and I celebrated my friend, Josephine's birthday out on a boat. It was actually pretty chilly yesterday (in the mid 60's with the possibility of rain), but it turned out to be a great day. There weren't a lot of boats out on Lake Union so we could navigate around the lake pretty well. Plus it was a ton of fun meeting new people, blasting music and enjoying the day!
Me and the b-day girl.
Poor Wayne kept losing at the game we were playing. He was pretty torched by the end of the day.
Me and the b-day girl.
Gorgeous boat
Cute house boats - reminded me of Sleepless in Seattle!
Pretty South Lake Union
Ms. ducky watching us as we dock to get some Ivars.
Some of the boys jumped into the water too! I'm glad Wayne didn't jump in! It would have given me a heart-attack.
As you may be able to tell, it was a fun day. I'm really glad I got to meet some cool people. Anyways, today I decided to make Josephine a chocolate cake for her birthday. She was one of the first friends I made out here and one of the reasons I was drawn to her is because of her genuine nature. I've come to realize that my good friends all share this trait. They're good listeners, really funny or sarcastic, they can be blunt but are also very genuine about their emotions. Growing up, I often fell into the slot of being the listener. So, I've come to cherish the friends who can return the favor. They just listen and I value that.
So besides the fact that I am glad to have this friend out in the pacific northwest, the other part of me just really wanted to bake a cake for fun. A birthday is a pretty good excuse to go to town and bake a cake! Cakes are finicky - not as bad as pies though! I feel like you really need to watch the recipe and exactly measure the ingredients with a cake. (The boxed cake does not count!) The only time I extensively baked a cake was for Wayne's 25th birthday. It was hard not going to lie. But it did help at the time I had my roommates Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer.
It's hard to justify spending close to $300.00 on an appliance I won't use every day. Plus they take up a HUGE amount of counter space. Which to be honest, when you're living in a tiny apartment complex, you need all the storage and space possible. But they're so pretty! I love how they come in multiple colors. I like how it gives the option for people match the kitchenmaid mixer with their color scheme.
I LOVE red kitchen stuff. I have red dish towels, pot holders, red utensils and red dish drying pads...Red is known to be an invigorating, powerful, empowering and emotional color. Many food companies incorporate red (like McDonald's or KFC) to encourage eating and making quick decisions. Red has always been my favorite color growing up. I want red accents in my kitchen because it invokes energy, warmth, excitement and determination. All of those emotions pop up when I cook. I have the energy to cook because I enjoy it. There's excitement behind it because I try new recipes and learn new things. There's also determination because I want to create a yummy dish to actually eat. Then there is warmth because I enjoy sharing my food with people that enjoy it. So, my dream kitchen would have: light grey, red & white subway tile as the backslash with grey cabinets, a white farmhouse kitchen sink and either white quartz, light grey honed granite or a recycled counter top.
I like the layout of the kitchen. How the table extends out of the kitchen island. I definitely would want a kitchen island in my dream kitchen. I like how I could use it for rolling out dough or using it as a table for other things like magazines or bills from the mail.
This is also a pretty light grey color for cabinets.
I like the grey cabinets and farm house sink in this photo... Okay, enough of dream kitchen porn. I nabbed this recipe from The Vanilla Bean Blog. Sometimes people ask me where I find my recipes. I just poke around and make note of what inspires me. I think I stumbled upon The Vanilla Bean Blog from another person's post. Either way, I like her photography and the complexity yet simplicity of her recipes. Like she has recipes for mini-coconut cupcakes with a cardamom goat cheese frosting or a plum blueberry upside-down cake with cardamom. Both of those recipes are stemmed from traditional cooking but add a twist of ingredients. It kind of reminds me of life. Life is so complex yet so simple all at once and that is what makes it so beautiful. Let's get started! I first preheated the oven and lined the cake pan. Then I washed the raspberries.
Then I mixed the dry ingredients together.
Then I mixed in the wet ingredients - eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee. The batter was pretty goopy so I was kind of worried at first. You can see how wet the batter is from the photo below.
While the cake was baking, I made the raspberry puree and removed all the seeds through a fine strainer. Then I mixed up butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, the raspberry puree and a pinch of salt for the frosting.
The cake turned out great. Thanks to Wayne for helping me perfectly flip it!
Then I frosted this puppy! The frosting was a bit softer than I expected it. So I felt my frosting job was kind of sloppy. But Wayne says I'm too hard on myself.
But after some cute candles, bento box panda decorations and sprinkles, I'd say it turned out pretty cute! Then again, I don't have a stand mixer or a handheld mixer. So I guess, the fact I did this all by hand is pretty impressive. I've always done stuff by hand though. The only time I used a mixer was when someone else had it around.
Ta-da! Here is the finished product!
Close up. Aren't the panda decorations cute?!?
I then invited Josephine and her bf over. I was really happy. She was really surprised and liked the cake! Overall, this weekend was great and I can't wait for Wednesday when I start my new job!
The Vanilla Bean Blog's Chocolate Cake with a Raspberry Buttercream can be found here.
Stay tuned for more adventures in the pacific northwest and in the kitchen!
Emma
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