birthday !

so it's michael's birthday again!  well, it was michael's birthday as the day has passed now.  but we had quite the celebration, a clam bake feast with his family.  michael's grandma and i took on the dessert for the meal and she made a lovely coconut cake, complete with 7 minute frosting!  michael had requested a cake with raspberries, nuts & chocolate.  this was kind of an odd request, but i had remembered seeing a cake on smitten kitchen that covered all of the based. so the  almond raspberry layer cake came alive!  i have made cupcakes in the past using almond paste as an ingredient and michael went crazy for them so i knew this would be the perfect cake.  as far as filling i actually added in a vanilla bean buttercream and then topped that with raspberry jam for one layer, and then did the same vanilla buttercream for the next layer but this time i topped that with strawberry jam.  i have to admit, there were two open jars of each kind of jam in the fridge and it was just easier to finish them both up rather than opening new jars!  michael strongly dislikes wasting food, so i thought he would appreciate that little gesture.  also, we made both jams together so that added a bit of love into the cake :)

 

voila!  the finished product.  i actually took this picture in the car on the way over.  i tend to forget to take finished product pictures and i figured i better do it while it was on my mind.  

we had dinner at michael's sister sarah's house and she had this lovely little fall table set up.  

THE CLAMS!!!  i don't like clams at all, but i pretended that i was just like everyone else and made my little table setting with them.  michael happily ate my leftovers.

and one more shot of the happy birthday boy with his cake !! 

blueberries

so i recently went blueberry picking at black river organics!  i had never been before and i can't wait to go again next year.  michael and i woke up bright and early to beat the crowds as it's nearing the end of the season and it was just us and old couple for the first hour.  once it got to be around 1030 though, the place was filled!   we walked away with a little over 10lbs and then scooted off to the lakewood art's festival where we were sharing a booth.  get your cupcakes & messenger bags!  hey, it works.

after the long day finished we sorted our blueberries & made some jam!  admittedly neither of us really like blueberry jam, but we made some nonetheless.  we kept the majority of the berries frozen for later snacking.  for our jam recipe, we really try not to use any sort of thickening agents and just cooked it for a long time with a little bit of sugar.  the jam ended up being a bit thicker than we wanted, we were hoping for more of a syrup for pancakes, but i'm happy with the result.  i ended up using the jam as a garnish on these lovely blueberry cupcakes i sent off to the sweet spot the following friday :)