{October Love with an Every Day Post}

Happy Fall to you all! 

It's here and I can't believe it.  Three days until we marry! The time has flown.  Didn't we just get engaged? It seems like yesterday!

Well here in the sweet town of Carlsbad we are going full speed ahead.  The biggest event of my life is quite a bit of work! I must admit I'm just eager for the party to start.  For a quick update, I baked and frosted my wedding cake today! We chose a simple set up, a rich vanilla cake with blackberry preserve as the filling between the layers and finished it with a creamy, toasted coconut frosting.  It's a tiny, darling little cake with two 6" layers.  My Love is so sweet.  I popped in his room and asked him to come see it.  His reaction was just wonderful.  He loves it and shared how excited he was that we get to have a cake we made oursleves. Isn't that just what every baker bride wants to hear from her fiance? I'd say we're a good match. 

In five days we will be flying off to Kauai for our two week honeymoon! We couldn't be more excited.  I did some research and created a little list of places I want to stop by while there.  Kauai has a few GF and V restaurants, coffee shops and local eateries that sound intriguing and tasty.  My Love has already stated that we will be visiting farmers markets, which of course made me quite excited.  That sounds just perfect! Again, it's as if he knows me.....

I am still going to pack some essentials, just in case the local markets aren't as supplied as the ones here.  The first essential that came to mind was my instant GF oatmeal by Glutenfreeda.  It is perfect for traveling and is my go to for a filling and healthy breakfast.  I also love that it has a little flax in it...just in case traveling is causing a little back up.  Yes, I did just mention that.  Unfortunately it's not sold every where yet.  I have to pick it up at a smaller local GF bakery in Encinitas called Healthy Creations.  I encourage you to try it if it is sold in your local health food store and take it as a morning treat on your travels too!

Wish me luck this wedding week! I will give you a little summary of our Kauai adventures when I return. Enjoy your last week of September!

{October Love-Wedding Cake}

We are in the final count down! With less than a month to go, my Love and I are working on the fun details now.  Our little home is also coming together as bits and pieces are added.  I have been in a major nesting mood.  I'm just so eager to make our space a relaxing place that my Love can't wait to come home to every day.  

As the details emerge, one in particular has my attention and focus.  Unlike many brides, I cannot order a  standard wedding cake.  My guests, at least most of them, could eat it, but not me.  Fortunately, I have some things going for me.  First, I love simple small cakes 6-8" to be exact, second, I LOVE baking my own desserts and lastly, my Love LOVES to eat my desserts! How perfect is that! 

Soooo the great experiment and hunt has begun.  I have scoured my many...many...cookbooks and magazines, as well as my many past creations, in order to create a trial list of 6 cake varieties.  These include vanilla, chocolate, carrot and maple cakes with all sorts of coconut, buttercream, rich chocolate and vanilla frosting options. I'm in heaven!  The only slight negative is the amount of tasty batters and cakes I will continually have around me....  I will try to keep you all posted as I try and experiment with these fun recipes.  My plan is to bake mostly one or two layers just to try.  For the actual cake I would like to create a 3-layer 6 inch cake.  I love 6 inch cakes; they are the perfect little size!

Email me if you want recipes and I will direct you to the cook books I used so that you can give it a try too! Come bake with me!

My round 1 went very well.  It was picture worthy, as you can see.  I baked a rich chocolate cake with a sweet vanilla, butter cream frosting.  My Love enjoyed the flavor, found the texture a bit springy, but as we all know that is much better than dense (which was the result of round 2) and overall found it quite delicious.  I must admit the frosting paired well and I spread some blackberry preserve in the center, which really sealed the perfection. 

Rating: 7 out of the perfect 10

{The Everyday - Two Essential Spreads}

Whether for slathering on toast, apple slices, celery or carrots, these two spreads are full of omegas and protein.  I like to start my day out with food that will fill me up and provide energy for the day and raw Almonds and Sunflower Seeds are an easy go to for me.  

Almond Butter and Sunflower Butter are my two favorite spreads out of all the nut/seed options out there.  Raw Almond Butter, in my opinion, is the best whole and nutritional nut spread you take eat and Sunflower Butter just plain tastes delicious and is very similar to Peanut Butter.  I have a subtle allergy to peanuts, so this is my treat instead.  These spreads can be quite pricey at most health food stores, so if you are going to buy pre-made spreads I have to recommend buying from Trader Joe's.  They offer a much less expensive raw (that's the key), not roasted, Almond Butter with the options of crunchy or smooth and salted or unsalted.  As for the Sunflower Butter it's a similar story when it comes to price, so TJ's is still the way to go.  My only pause with the Sunflower Butter is the sugar content.  It, like Peanut Butter, has more sugar than I would like to advocate for others or just put in my own body on a regular basis, so I recently looked into creating my own. 

 If you are interested and own a food processor or VitaMix I would definitely recommend making your own butters.  It's actually quite simple.  Pour 1/2 to 1 cup of seeds/nuts in with a tablespoon of your preferential oil (I like to use Coconut or Grapeseed) and any other additions flavors for taste.  If you want a smoother more spreadable butter, just keep adding oil until it reaches the consistency you desire. 

In the batch I recently made I added 1 to 2 tbsp of Agave a dash of Cinnamon and a 1/2 tsp of delicious Vanilla.  After processing my spread I scooped it into a glass jar I recycled from another spread and put it in my fridge.  It's lasted me 2 weeks so far and seems like it will keep for a few more.  

An easy inexpensive and nutritious treat if you ask me! Give it a try and share what flavor you used to spice up and flavor your butter.  I'd love to hear about your experiments.

Enjoy!