Tag archive for birthday

In my memory, there is a cherry tree in the backyard of my grandmother’s house. It is taller than the house and shades the back bedroom, where I often sleep when I visit. On the sticky hot summer evenings when we throw the windows wide, I can hear the breeze ruffling the leaves, lulling me to sleep. Its sturdy, spreading branches make this cherry tree more inviting to climb than the peach trees further down the yard.

With a cherry tree, it seems that you could pull your way up into the tree with little effort and vanish among the thick green leaves, finding a comfortable perch and your own personal cherry picking heaven. And while I don’t often take to climbing other people’s trees out in the picking orchards these days, I do love that experience of climbing deep into the tree on a towering ladder. Suddenly, you are surrounded by drooping branches of sweet fruit, sometimes sticky from the bees and birds that call these havens their own. I favor the clumps of heavy fruit that come off in long, elegant, stemmed pairs, nature’s tasty version of a 2-for-1 deal.

Last week, I mentioned I was working on a recipe for clafoutis. You’ve heard about clafoutis, right? It is a flan-like dessert, often served slightly warm, that is usually overflowing with cherries. (OK, maybe the overflowing part is more me than anything else!) Eaten as a dessert, or maybe even a tasty breakfast treat, the custardy filling is perfectly at home with seasonal fruit. And while cherries are the traditional filling, the batter takes well to almost any fruit. And once you’ve tasted it for yourself, you will likely find reasons to adapt it to raspberries, blueberries, pears and more.

I don’t generally make clafoutis year round. I seem to play with it a few times every season right about now as the cherries start to pile up in my fridge. There is something about cherry season that does not let me pass by the darkly glinting heaps of the black-red fruit that I find at farmers markets or roadside stands. Surely I can find a use for a few more pounds? A month or so ago, I got a pretty baking dish with deeply fluted sides, that claims to be a clafoutis mold. With that one mention, I jumped right back into clafoutis production like I’d never missed a beat. And while I’ve always made this dish in a cast iron skillet or even a pie dish, this pan makes for a pretty presentation, even if it is a little tricky to serve.

The thing with this pan is that is a little smaller capacity than what seems to be typical for most clafoutis recipes. So I’ve been tweaking, trying to find the perfect portions for a smaller crowd. I’ve also been playing with other flour combinations to find a good gluten-free variation, but I’ll have to save that for another day. I think this recipe will nicely serve four for dessert. You can use a pan with about a 6-cup capacity, or a 9-inch pie plate or skillet. See, we aren’t picky here!

And don’t let the fact that it is cherry season fool you—this dessert is really for Tina, who will be celebrating a birthday in a few days. An undying fan of Okanagan cherries and a true connoisseur of the flan, I am sure this recipe will be just the thing for your special day. I’m sorry I can’t make you a piece this year.

While there is some debated as to whether cherry clafoutis should be prepared with whole or pitted cherries, I’ll leave that decision to you. I can’t often be bothered with the pitting, but I don’t really relish the thought of someone breaking a tooth under my watch. In the meantime, I’ve included a few drops of almond extract to add a little more flavor, no matter which way you go!

Cherry Clafoutis
Serves 4 as dessert, 2 as breakfast
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¼ cup (40 grams) all-purpose flour
¾ cup milk
¼ cup (55 grams) sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt
a couple of drops almond extract, optional
2 cups (350 grams) pitted cherries

Heat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, measure flour. Slowly add milk to flour, whisking constantly. Beat hard to remove lumps. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and almond extract, if using. Mix well to combine.

Butter a 9-inch pan generously. Add cherries to bottom of pan and spread evenly. Pour batter on top of cherries. Place in the middle of the oven and cook for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden and puffy. The very middle of the clafoutis will still be a little wobbly when you gently shake the pan.

Allow the clafoutis to cool for about 30 minutes. Slice and sprinkle with a little icing sugar, or serve with freshly whipped cream.

Summer is birthday season in my family. Growing up, the four of us celebrated birthdays May through August at the steady pace of one per month. Another birthday cake was always just around the corner, and we were celebrating all summer long! What’s more, when my husband joined the party years later, his birthday in September fit perfectly into the schedule.

Birthdays are extra special when you are young and just looking to add another year to your age. As kids, Tina and I were very enthusiastic about treasure hunts at our parties. I like to think everyone enjoyed them as much as we did. I am not sure where this idea came from, most likely from some book or other we were immersed in. There was a period of several years where every birthday party included a foray into the back yard to search for treasure. Our mom was a great sport, setting up clues to keep us and our friends happy. At the end of our search, we’d always find brown paper bags, labelled with our names. The bags were filled with sweet treats to keep us happy for days. Tina and I got to pitch in by picking out the candy that we would share with our friends in those goodie bags. I still remember the sour gummy candies, sprinkled with sparkly sugar. Those are still my favorites.

These days, treasure hunts aren’t a part of our birthday routines. It is extra special event when we can get together to spend time with family around birthdays. Just a few weeks back, we all celebrated my dad’s birthday. And while we didn’t make him search for his gifts, the treasure hunt tradition is not over yet. I am pretty sure my son will be eager to carry on this little ritual.  And his birthday is still coming up…

As birthday season is just getting underway, I think I might have found the cake for all occasions. The June issue of Bon Appétit had a lovely feature on strawberries, complete with a berry pavlova. (Click here for the recipe.) Since my birthday coincides with strawberry season, the choice for my dessert was already made. The first of the juicy red berries are just beginning to appear in our farmer’s market, and this yummy pavlova seems like a fitting use for them. And next time I need a party cake, I think I’ll just rotate in seasonal fruit—raspberries, peaches and blueberries all sound pretty delicious. I followed the recipe as listed and it turned out really well. Whoever came up with the genius idea of whipped cream AND mascarpone should be saluted! My only word of advice is that you might have a hard time prettily cutting and plating the dessert. Things can get a little messy. But it’s a birthday cake, after all. Serve it with champagne and no one will be the wiser!

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This past week marked the passing of the best day of the year. July 12, also know as my birthday. When I was a kid I remember birthdays as being a pretty big deal. Friends would come over, sleepovers would be had and best of all my mom would make a treasure hunt and yummy goodie bags for us to search for. The anticipation was unbearable! It seems that as the years pass, birthday celebrations have become more and more low key.

Lucky for me my family is pretty on top of all things birthday and they often just give me a call and let me know that they are coming to visit on the big day. Things came to a new low this year when I didn’t realize just how close my birthday was until it was only two days away. No party was planned, no friends invited over, nothing. Although I really have been a party planning slacker this year, I did still manage to have a perfect day anyway.

Picnics are one of my favorite parts of summer and this year on the evening of my Birthday Scott and I packed up a picnic and biked down to the beach to watch the sunset. At the time I was mentally planning my post. I imagined that I would have spectacular photos of our fantastic picnic set up and I would give you Tina’s Step by Step Guide to a Perfect Picnic. However the evening had other things in mind and shortly after arriving at the beach it became apparent that the real star of the show wasn’t the picnic at all but the evening. On that note I’ll shut up and let the photos do the talking.
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Nothing beats a summer Birthday!

It was my birthday last week and I got a little caught up in the celebrations. The older I get, the more I have to celebrate, I guess. This cake was certainly a great way to celebrate another year. That’s all I have to offer by way of explanation since I haven’t been here for a little while. But since I last posted, strawberries have come in season here! And that right there is reason enough to celebrate.

I probably don’t need to tell you that I have a strong preference for local produce for all kinds of reasons. But in this case, my main concern is flavor. Of course, strawberries are pretty much available year round. But there is nothing that can compare to the bright red jewels that grow in backyard patches or local berry farms. These berries are almost always smaller and more fragile than the giant fruit that can be found at the store. But what they lack in size, they always make up for in flavor.

This year, I planted a really tiny row of strawberries, knowing they would do nothing to satisfy our enormous need for berries in the summer. Instead, I figured the few plants would provide a happy evening activity for my son and I. Most evenings he happily pokes through the plants, looking for berries that he figures are ripe enough to eat. And when we find a ripe one, we immediately pick it and eat it, crouching out there in the garden together. There might only be a few berries a night, all of which go to him, but it’s the most enjoyment I’ve ever had from a berry or two I don’t get to eat.

I’d been waiting anxiously for the local berry farm to start selling their berries—calling every few days for an update. And on the happy day that berries were in stock, I sent my mom out early in the morning to ensure we got our flat of strawberry goodness. During those first few days we managed to enjoy a full flat of berries every day or two. And while strawberries are a treat on their own, I had plenty of chances to try a few strawberry recipes I’d been saving up for just this time of year.

One of the first recipes that I reach for is one for strawberry shortcake from Bon Appetit. It has been in my recipe folder for a few years now and when the strawberries arrive, I stock up with cake flour, which I only seem to use at this time of year. So if you are running low on your supply, head for the store right now.

For some reason, I can’t seem to be won over by individual shortcakes. Try as I might, biscuits seem to scare me just a little. But this cake is an easy one to whip up and slice into thick wedges, just waiting to be spooned up with juicy red berries and a generous dollop of cream. And the crunchy sugar crust is something not to be missed. Don’t delay!

Strawberry Shortcakes

Adapted from Bon Appetit, May 2008

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
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1 ½ cups cake flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

4 ounces cream cheese (half package)

¼ cup (half stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup whole milk

2 large eggs

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Zest of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9-inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Generously sprinkle the bottom and sides of the pan with sugar, tapping out any excess.

Whisk the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat 1 cup of sugar, cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Whisk the milk, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in another medium bowl to blend. Pour the milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and shake slightly to even out the batter. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Feel free to add a smidge more to give everything a nice coat.

Bake the cake until golden brown on top and a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Allow the cake to cool before serving. Slice and serve with strawberries or other fresh berries. If you don’t eat it in one go, it keeps nicely covered at room temperature for a day or two.