Looking
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
-Albert Einstein
Garden Blogger Bloom Day: March 2013
This is my 100th post...let's celebrate with flowers. Happy Garden Blogger Bloom Day to you!
The variegated daphne is perfuming our front entry.
Mother Nature surprised me with some volunteer daffodils in my front yard. I like to imagine that a
gorilla
guerrilla gardener slipped them into my front bed as a treat.
The Indian Plum,
Osmaronia cerasiformis,
is in full bloom right now. The Anna's Hummingbirds love it and have stopped dive bombing me in the garden. A win-win.
The hellebores are strutting their stuff.
And the Spike Winter Hazel,
Corylopsis spicata
, is in full bloom.
The flowers remind me of yellow taffeta ball gowns. Simply gorgeous.
An alien bloom emerged, much to my surprise.
It's a
Petasites japonicus
bloom. Isn't it cool?
After admiring all of the flowers, I picked a bouquet.
Body Armor and Band-aids
The rugosa roses have grown to a towering 10 feet tall in the
past 5 years and they look like they might just start stealing school children off
the sidewalk as a secondary source of nitrogen.
So, I knew it was time to do something…so I went and asked Rob a few
questions at Shorty’s Nursery. Rob’s
information has never let me down. He
told me that I could prune the rugosa roses back as hard as I wanted, which filled me
with glee. Until I realized that I would have to get near those spiky mean buggers again. They make me bleed. Nothing short of full body armor can protect you from those massive and plentiful thorns.
So, I gathered up my leather
gloves, pruning gear and courage today and attacked. I bled, but in the end, sweet victory was
mine. I sculpted them back to their main form and I’m happy with
them. I’m curious to see how they do
this summer after the hard pruning. I love their fragrant blossoms and rose hips. Definitely worth a few band-aids!
An Alien in My Garden
I've been observing a new alien emerge in my garden. It's maroon red with white flowers and it smells faintly sweet.
These blooms are such a lovely surprise! And so, I cut one bloom and made a bouquet!
For a final flourish I tied some green twine around the throat of the vase and tied it in a bow. My friend, Toni, gave me these fabulous colored twines to use on my bouquets. Thanks Toni for the thoughtful gift! And then I gave my alien bouquet away.
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| Close up of a Petasites japonicus bloom |
And I was briefly flummoxed until I realized that they came up where I had planted my new Petasites japonicus that I bought last spring at the Rare Plant Sale.
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| Petasites japonicus bloom with new leaves emerging |
I surrounded the alien bloom with Indian Plum, Spike Winter Hazel, variegated daphne blooms, and Chinese Fairy Bells with berries.
Bavarian Banana Cake For You
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| A Bavarian Banana Cake or Boozy Booster Banana Cake as we lovingly call it! |
I grew up four blocks, a short walk, from Kienow’s
Bohemian Bakery. Whenever we needed a
last minute dessert, we’d pick up one of their Bavarian Banana Cakes and our
guests would fuss over it with a big smile.
I even bought our wedding cake from them. But, by the time our first wedding
anniversary came around, Kienow’s doors were closed. Permanently.
Fortunately, the Oregonian soothed the angry community
clamor by printing Kienow’s recipe for their Bavarian Banana Cake. But, I never thought to make it until last
March when My Pirate requested a Bavarian Banana Cake for his 40th
birthday party. I was determined to
figure out my own version.
I started with Kienow’s recipe and played with it, using
inspiration from New Season’s version, until I had a nice prototype down. Then I shared it with my friends, the morning
of a big fundraiser that we were throwing. We leaned against the kitchen
counters sipping coffee and talked cake.
My friend Jill brilliantly suggested
adding banana rum syrup to the cooling cake.
And it was the finishing touch that I was looking for. Thanks Jill!
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I made this cake for four events this past year. And then this past Friday, I baked another
one for Maya’s vet, Dr. Hill and the staff, at Companion Pet Clinic. I wanted to say thank you for all the care
that they gave Maya and me during her illness, when I went to go pick up her
ashes. So, I gave them a cake made with
love and care. They hugged me and a
stranger held my hand while I waited for them to bring Maya’s ashes to me. And through my tears, I remembered how Maya
used to come running at the snap of a banana peel and how she loved sampling my
Bavarian Banana Cake.
Bavarian Banana Cake
Or Boozy Booster Banana Cake as we all lovingly call it.
Based on Kienows cake with inspirational touches from Jill and New Seasons
Cook: 17-20 minutes Oven: 350
degree
Banana Cake
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup corn oil
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (approximately 3 bananas)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 egg yolks
In a large bowl, whisk together sifted cake flour, sugar,
baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add
corn oil, mashed bananas and vanilla.
Beat 1 minute in mixer. Add
buttermilk and egg yolks and beat another minute. Then make the meringue.
Meringue
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ cup granulated sugar
In a separate bowl, with clean beaters, beat egg whites on medium. Add cream of tartar and while
continuing to beat, add sugar gradually. Then beat on high until a stiff meringue forms.
Fold the meringue gently into the cake batter until streaks just fade.
Pour cake batter into a jelly cake pan (large baking sheet with a
high edge) that is buttered with the bottom lined with parchment paper and then floured. Bake in a 350 degree oven until toothpick
inserted in center comes out clean, about 17-20 minutes. It takes 17 minutes in my oven. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack. Then, flip it out onto a cutting board. Stab the cake with a toothpick or bamboo skewer and brush and spoon banana rum syrup over the
surface of the cake. Let cake cool for
one hour.
Variation--for a subtle candy crunch, place the cake in the fridge after spooning on the syrup to allow the syrup to harden.
Stage 2: The syrup
Banana rum syrup
¼ cup banana rum or another kind of rum
¼ granulated sugar
Pour sugar and rum into a small saucepan over medium
heat. Stir and simmer until it thickens.
Then spoon onto cooling cake.
Whipped cream
frosting--this is my knock off recipe based on New Seasons' banana cake
2 cups whipping cream--use pasteurized not ultra pasteurized for the best flavor
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup powdered sugar--sifted first to prevent lumps
3/4 cup powdered sugar--sifted first to prevent lumps
1/3 to ½ cup mascarpone or 4 T. crème fraiche--my tasters preferred the mascarpone
Sift powdered sugar into a bowl and set aside. In a large chilled bowl, whip cream and mascarpone gradually
adding the powdered sugar and vanilla. Whip ingredients together to firm peaks.
Banana filling
3 bananas, thinly sliced
Putting it together
Cut the outside edges off of the cake to clean it up. Then cut the cake into thirds and then those thirds into half. Makes two cakes with three layers.
Place one layer on a plate. Fill a pastry bag with a large star tip with
frosting and pipe frosting onto flat surface of cake and top it with a single layer of
banana slices. Place another layer of
cake on top and repeat. Place the third
layer of cake on top and pipe frosting into straight lines or stars. Refrigerate. It tastes best when it rests in the fridge for a few hours up to overnight. Then serve.Cut the outside edges off of the cake to clean it up. Then cut the cake into thirds and then those thirds into half. Makes two cakes with three layers.
Tip: I deliver my cakes in cake boxes that I get at New Seasons grocery store for fifty cents and sometimes for free.
