The Easiest Cake You'll Ever Make: Watermelon Cake

While Hannah was looking at Instagram she saw that someone had posted a picture of a cake made of fruit. She demanded it for her birthday, talked about it for the weeks leading up to it and turned down the suggestion of any other cake. I also made cupcakes for the party so that everyone didn't think I was "that mom who would only let her kid have a cake made of fruit!"

This is a crowd pleaser, it's so easy, healthy and looks beautiful.

Watermelon Cake

one large seedless watermelon
strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and kiwi

Turn the watermelon on its side, cut the top and bottom off. Carefully cut away the rind, being careful to not cut too deep into the fruit.

Even the watermelon out, cutting some more off the top and bottom so that when it stands up it has a cake shape. Place on a large serving plate. This step can be done the day before serving.

Slice up the strawberries and you're ready to decorate.

To serve, bring a big knife and cut it up! We've made this a few times since Hannah's birthday, it's such a fun way to bring a fruit plate to a party.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Cordial

First recipe post in months and months. I'm going to try to get back to posting, I miss sharing recipes and thanks for all the sweet messages asking me to get back to it!

Today's recipe is a simple one, it's summer in a glass, refreshing and beautiful. The rhubarb came from our community garden plot and the strawberries from a sweet afternoon of picking out on Westham Island. My friend, Carie introduced me to "rhubarb tea", I'm hooked now.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Cordial

8 stalks of rhubarb, cut into 3" pieces
10 cups water
3 cups strawberries (sweet local summer berries are best), cut in half
sugar to taste

In a large heavy bottomed pot, cover the rhubarb with water. Bring to the boil, reduce to medium low heat and let simmer for 45 minutes. Add strawberries and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Put a wire mesh strainer above a large bowl and line with 2 layers of cheese cloth or a clean old tea towel that you don't mind parting ways with. Pour the liquid through the cloth, straining out the remaining pulp. Squeeze the excess liquid from the pulp and discard.

Season to taste. I added about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of sugar. It totally depends on how tart you like it.

Serve cold and diluted to taste with water or soda water over ice with sliced strawberries on a hot summer's day.

Keeps in the fridge for up to a month in a mason jar.

Happy Summer!

I miss writing on here and sharing recipes, I have the best of intentions and I think it will happen when the weather warms up a bit.

We've been so busy with work, with life, with an action packed and wonderful two and a half year old. Somehow it's February already and I have forsythia blooming on the table. Seasons seem to pass so quickly as a parent.

I've been cooking lots of light and healthy food, inspired by Jamie's Fifteen Minute Meals and Jerusalem.

This video was good to watch, any reminders we can get to live cleanly, leave a lighter carbon footprint and appreciate our surroundings is good stuff in my books.

See ya later, 2012.

beautiful.

I'm having a wonderful day and these photos, taken from Misao the Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat, make my heart so happy and full of love.

Taken from Little More Books: 

Thirteen years ago, photographer Miyoko Ihara began snapping pictures of the budding relationship between her now 88-year-old grandmother, Misa, and her odd-eyed kitten, Fukumaru. Since Misa found the cat abandoned in a shed, the pair have barely ever been apart. Their beautiful friendship is documented in a photo book, Misao the Big Mama and Fukumaru the Cat.

12 years ago, Miyoko Ihara has started to take photographs of her grandmother, Misa. Miyoko wanted to leave a living proof of her.
One day, her grandmother found a odd-eyed kitten in the shed.

She named the cat "Fukumaru" in hope that "God of fuku(good fortune) comes and everything will be smoothed over like maru(circle)".
Even thought she is 87 years old, she still go out into the fields everyday, and Fukumaru always accompany her.
Green fields, blooming flowers and plump fruits ... in the colorful, diverse landscape, the life of an old lady and a cat is captured in the photographs.
It has been 8 years since they first met.
The grandmother whose hearing become weak and Fukumaru who has hearing disabilities are always looking into each other's eyes and feeling warmth each other.
When the white cloud float across the blue sky, the grandmother and her cat go out in the filed today too.

See more of the wonderful photos  >> here.

really good bread.

If you're on Pinterest, you know this bread. You've seen it pinned again and again. When we went on vacation in September to Saturna, I brought my Le Creuset dutch oven along for the trip with the sole purpose of making bread.

It was worth it. This bread is really, really good. Too good even. It's ridiculously easy to make, way too easy to eat hot from the oven with butter. So good, that I took a break from making it because we were eating too much of it.

I followed Simply So Good's instructions exactly, her easy to follow photos make it idiot proof. I've made a bunch of variations, my dad has been making a really amazing honey raisin version, but hands down, my favourite was when I added onions, cheese and black pepper. Here's the recipe.

Onion, Cheddar and Black Pepper Bread

adapted from Simply So Good

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 cup largely grated aged white cheddar

2 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 white onion, finely chopped

a generous grinding of black pepper - about a teaspoon  

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.

All cheese, onions and pepper, mix well. 

Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

 

I haven't been posting lately, summer days stretch long into the evenings and all I want to do is soak up the time with family and friends.

We're off to Saturna Island tomorrow for a week vacation. Matt, Hannah and I - our sweet lazy cat, my best friend and then later in the week a visit with another dear friend.

I've been looking forward to this week for what feels like months. Whenever we pull off the ferry and start driving up the little hill on to Saturna Island, I have this wonderful sense that I've arrived where I should be. Only one more sleep and we're off.

Yesterday evening at Trout Lake Park