Made from Scratch Strawberries & Cream Cake

http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2014/10/09/made-scratch-strawberries-cream-cake/
https://www.pinterest.com/kayleyq/
https://www.facebook.com/thekitchenmccabe

This recipe makes 1 8" cake with 3 layers. You can also make a 6" cake with 2 thick layers cut in half for a 4 layer cake along with 12 cupcakes.
Ingredients
3 C. Flour
2 C. Sugar
1½ T. Baking Powder
¾ t. Salt
¾ C. Vegetable Oil
1½ C. Strawberry Puree
1 t. Vanilla
1 t. Lemon Juice
4 Eggs, beaten
Red or Pink Food Color, if desired
3 C. Heavy Whipping Cream
¼ C. Sugar
3-5 Strawberries, stems left on, quartered

Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease and flour 3 8" round cake pans. You may want to use 4 pans total if your cake pans are not very tall to make sure the batter does not overflow when baked.
In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add the vegetable oil, strawberry puree, vanilla, and lemon juice to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
Add the eggs and food color, if using, to the batter and whisk until smooth. Once the batter is smooth, do not continue mixing so the gluten doesn't over-develop.
Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are firm to the touch and cake is cooked through.
Let cool for 5 minutes and remove cake from pans, scraping the edges with a knife to loosen the cake, if necessary, and cool on wire racks.
Level the tops of the cooled cakes and place on layer on a dish or cake stand.
Whip the heavy cream, along with the ¼ C. sugar, to very stiff peaks. You want it so thick that it is almost to the point that it is curdled. But not quite. It will hold up to the heavy cake layers and last longer if you do this.
Add a spoonful of cream to the first layer of cake and spread out evenly to the edges.
Add the second layer of cake to the smoothed cream.
Add a spoonful of cream to the second cake layer, smoothing to the edges.
Top with the third layer of cake. If using a forth layer, top with cream , spread and smooth and top with that fourth layer.
Place the rest of the whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe large swirls of cream around the outer edge of the top of the cake.
Top each swirl with a strawberry quarter.
Chill.

Dreams are dreams, don’t just leave them hanging.

Isis Pina

Raspberry Lemonade with Fresh Mint

http://deliciouslyyum.com/raspberry-lemonade-with-fresh-mint/
https://www.facebook.com/DeliciouslyYum
https://www.pinterest.com/deliciouslyyum/

Ingredients
6 lemons
2 limes
3/4 - 1 cup granulated sugar
1 package (12 oz.) frozen raspberries
fresh mint, about 1/2 cup
5 cups water
Instructions
1. Juice lemons and limes and pour liquid into a pitcher (64 oz). Add sugar and give it a good stir. Set aside.
2. Puree raspberries in a blender until smooth an no chunks remain. If you don't mind the seeds, you can add the pureed raspberries to the juice in the pitcher (make sure the sugar is dissolved) right away. I put the pureed raspberries through a fine mesh strainer first to get rid of most of the seeds. Add to the pitcher and stir well.
3. Add mint leaves (some whole and some roughly chopped or torn into pieces) to the raspberry mixture. Add 5 cups of water or as much as needed to fill up the pitcher. Place in the fridge and let cool for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Serve in glasses filled with ice and garnish with additional raspberries, mint leaves and lemon or lime wedges. Enjoy!
Notes
Raspberry Lemonade will keep up to 5 days in the fridge.

Pink Lemonade Bars

The bars as written yield a not overly sweet lemon bar (I know it must have been nicely tart because this guywouldn’t eat them, and he considers turning down a cookie a breach of toddler contract) with a subtle raspberry kick and pale pink color. Updated: A few days later, I made these again… twice! The first time, I forgot the flour in the lemonade layer but let’s not talk about that. The next time, I used raspberries that were much older and darker than the ones in these photos. Three tablespoons of that puree made the bars absolutely purple/magenta! So, very pretty but hardly a color I’d associate with pink lemonade. So, this is just to note that clearly the amount of red tint one gets from the berries can vary greatly by the berries. If yours looks crazy saturated with pink and you’ve only added two tablespoons puree, you can always add another tablespoon lemon juice instead of the last spoonful of raspberry. On the flipside, if your berries seem pale, you can always add one less tablespoon of lemon juice and one more of the raspberries. The main thing is that you keep the amount of liquid (lemon juice + raspberry puree) at 7 tablespoons. More, and the bars might seem too soft. Less, they might seem too eggy.

My cup of berries yielded 1/3 cup strained puree, which is more than you’ll need, but it seems safer to estimate up as last time I called for a berry puree, many people ended up with less than I’d gotten. If you have extra, I highly recommend stirring it into your morning yogurt. Or smoothie. Or vanilla ice cream.

For the base:
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup (125 grams) flour

For the lemonade layer
1 cup (about 5 ounces or 140 grams) raspberries
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; this should only require 2 lemons
1/3 cup (40 grams) all-purpose flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) and line an 8x8x2-inch baking pan with parchment, letting it extend up two sides. Butter or coat the bottom and sides with a nonstick spray and set the pan aside.

Make the base: In a food processor, pulse together the sugar, zest and salt until combined. Add the butter and pulse until it is evenly dispersed in the dough. Add the flour and pulse the machine until it’s just combined and the mixture is crumbly. Press the dough into the prepared pan and about 1/2-inch up the sides. Don’t worry about making this perfect; mine was an uneven mess and nobody can tell. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly browned at edges. Let cool on a rack while you prepare the filling (though no need for it to be completely cool when you fill it). Leave oven on.

Make the pink lemonade layer: Puree the raspberries in your food processor until they’re as liquefied as they’ll get. I don’t even bother cleaning mine between steps, but I’m also probably lazier than you. Run the puree through a fine-mesh sieve, trying to press out all the raspberry puree that you can, leaving the seeds behind. I ended up with 1/3 cup strained puree; don’t worry if you get a smidge less.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of raspberry puree. Stir in flour. Pour into cooling crust and return pan to the oven, baking the bars until they’re set (they’ll barely jiggle) and slightly golden at the edges, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into rectangles. (You can speed this up in the fridge.)

I intended to cut mine into 32 2×1-inch rectangles but actually cut them into 28 2×1-ish rectangles. I like lemony bars small but you could also cut them into 16 2×2-inch squares. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Store in fridge for up to a week.

Norma Jeane ( Marilyn Monroe)

A primeira vez que entrei num poema não fechei a porta.
O poema apanhou tudo. Nunca mais pude sair

Vasco Gato

D&G

procura-se companheira/o
para relacionamento poético sério.
apenas se exige que saiba dizer que o surrealismo
é coisa para ter morrido no século xx.

- david teles pereira -
(recorte de um anúncio de jornal)

...É assim o mar. Vou aprendendo com as ondas
a desfazer-me em espuma. Há sempre uma gaivota
que grita quando estou perto, sempre uma asa
entre o céu e o chão da casa. Mas nada me pertence,
nem as palavras com que cimento as horas.
Talvez o amor seja uma pequena diferença entre fusos
horários (...) que só existe
no fundo da pele. Mas aqui onde não sou
o que me funda é a certeza que existes.

Rosa Alice Branco

take off everything...
and put on some love songs, poems, flowers, giggles and shining stars!

if you go please let me know, i'll go with a heart on fire
                                     ♥

Gastranatomic, by Renata Salcedo (Food & Anatomy). Ilustrations were made by Andreas Vesalius, father of modern human anatomy.

Do repouso povoado do dia

Josephine Sacabo

Nesta brisa quase suave
de plantas já anoitecidas
quase te toco entre as regas,
e entristeço.
A tua ausência é tão real
como os vastos campos de girassóis
secos, envelhecidos, quase mortos.
Alugo a voz e a expressão
a par de todos os espaços
deste lugar que se inicia.
Tudo isto é simples:
tenho o coração desarrumado.
Vem.

Filipa Leal