Merry Merry May with Cake ~~~

Hello Friends!

Happy May Day!

Tis the Merry Merry Month of May!

Oh, yes, there must always be cake ~ and the cake I will share with you later.

Everything is waking up in the garden, and getting ready for a Springtime Garden Party. As I wander through the garden I wonder and ponder at the miracle of life surviving the winter months: the evergreen trees that never give up their colour, such as the yew tree and the camellias; the bare branches of deciduous trees, dormant since their autumn glory, and now bursting open wildly into a myriad shades of green; shrubs and plants of all kinds that dropped their leaves but kept their berries and seed heads to feed and nourish the birds all winter long; plants that disappeared only to reappear with sturdy new shoots above the soil, continue the cycle of life; and tiny green seedlings sprouting everywhere, evidence of last summer's flowers renewing their vow to return ~~~ and so it goes!

Here's what's blooming in the garden this week ~~~

Aquilegia Columbine

Cowslip Primula Veris

Osteospermum Cape Daisies

Seed head of Pasque flower

Seed head of Pasque flower

A beautiful demon!

Well hidden in amongst the leaves of the Arum lily

Arum lily

Spanish bluebells

Aquilegia Columbine

Apple Blossom

Apple Blossom and plenty of it!

My 'free' mint plant going from strength to strength each day now! How quickly it grows.

The return of wintry weather has brought a halt to most gardening jobs for a few days at least, but we need this rain badly and there are always plenty of happy things to do inside the cottage while the winter has a final fling outside ~~~ such as baking cake, for there must always be cake ~~~

Last Monday evening, the programme "Paul Hollywood's City Bakes" came from Reykjavik, Iceland. Of course I was glued to watching it as I lived there for four years and it was a real trip down Memory Lane to see the beautiful Icelandic land that is so dear to my heart. Every weekend I visited the town of Hveragerði so I could buy island~grown tomatoes, cucumbers, bananas, lemons and more grown in their geothermal greenhouses! I watched with great interest as he visited a local baker who uses the free, geothermal energy to bake delicious barley and rye bread, and rich fruit cake ~ all baked, or steamed, in the steam rising from the volcanic vents!  Later, he visited with the Mayor of Reykjavik and in his home made the traditional Laufabrauð which I wrote about here in December 2016.  Then, with lots of other explorations into Icelandic cuisine, he made his own version of a sponge cake using the unique Icelandic ingredient Skyr, which is a high protein, low fat dairy product similar to yogurt.  So, I just had to make one, and the recipe can be found here.

Well, this is my verdict. It has a good texture rather like a pound cake, so good with a cup of tea. According to the recipe, you bake it in two 8" pans, but I think it will bake well in a Bundt pan with and temperatures adjusted accordingly.  It is not the most elegant looking of cakes, rises to quite a dome making it difficult to fill, so I might halve the recipe and bake one layer, then cut it in half horizontally to fill it. I think you could use a thick yogurt, such as Greek style in place of the Skyr. The recipe says to serve eight, but it is such a deep cake it would easily serve twelve, or more. I found it rather bland, so I maybe ground cardamon would be a good alternative to the ground ginger, especially if serving with coffee {cardamon and coffee go so well together} ~~~

Until next time ~~~
~~~ Deborah xo