ON THE MENU: lemon-ginger angel food and strawberry sorbet layer cake from "A Passion For Ice Cream" by Emily Luchetti.
Tonight our friend Kayla from high school is having her 19th birthday party. We decided that it would be fun to incorporate the strawberries we picked yesterday to make her a birthday surprise.
Yesterday, after a near-death experience attempting to load the bikes on top of the car, Ashley and Ali finally made it to Sauvies islandfor a bike ride, pre-strawberry picking. We had a few interruptions by mother nature, but we still managed a 6 mile bike ride out of 13. We arrived at Kruger's Farmer's Market, where we joined Maddie and her mother, Nancy, in the field, who had already picked a flat (and who knows how many they had already scarfed down). This was one of the best weekends for strawberry picking - early enough that the crowds hadn't yet picked over everything but late enough that the berries were bursting with color and flavor (except the ones that Maddie picked).
note ash sneaking a nibble of the strawberries in the middle...
FIELD/CAR TALK:
- strawberry preferences: Ashley like overripe (and hairy and dirty), Maddie likes hers orange with white spots (ew), and Ali is normal... (hehe)
- comparing strawberries to men
- guilt and tummy aches from eating too many strawberries
- Kayla's party and the masses of U of O kids we have yet to meet
- the rooster
- Ashley and Ali's dislike for meringues: "I mean I only eat them when I'm in a situation where nothing else is available. Example: when I'm at a house-warming party and that's the only dessert they offer. Yes I've been in that situation; it was horrible." - Ali
On to the cake: YUMMMMM. Yes, the name of the cake is very long. But it looks delicious. We stumbled upon the cake recipe when we were looking through one of Ashley's cookbooks, "A Passion for Ice Cream", while sipping cappuccinos on Ashley's couch, talking about making strawberry ice cream. The combo ofthe fresh strawberries and Kayla's upcoming birthday made this a perfect recipe.
We ran into some issues with having all the ingredients but Ali came to the rescue. The cake required a lot of appliances: the Kitchen Aid Mixer, a lemon squeezer, a grater to make lemon zest, an ice cream maker, a strainer to separate out the strawberry seeds (we decided against this because according to Maddie all the nutrition is in the seeds. Please note: she really has no idea), cuisinart, and then a lot of measuring tools.
We had some issues with the cake being cooked all the way through. After putting it in the oven for longer, we think it is ok. We'll only truly know when we cut it up to eat :)
TABLE TALK:
- Maddie is growing out her armpit hair.... (??????)
- possible video blog to capture how hyper Maddie is
In case you were wondering what Maddie's family did with all the strawberries that didn't go into the yummy cake, we made jam (using a bread machine!) and froze them. For years I have been using a recipe called "Lunch Box Berries" to freeze strawberries so they come out of the freezer tasting like fresh berries all winter long. The addition of pectin and a small amount of sugar helps retain the shape and color of the berries. Use 1 gallon whole strawberries, 1 cup granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons powdered pectin. Wash, remove hulls, and slice strawberries. Mix sugar and pectin together and stir gently into the berries; let stand 10 minutes for sugar to dissolve and juices to form. Place in freezer containers, leaving 1/2-inch of headspace and freeze!
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