Elegant Hummingbird Cake

This is not a French dessert, but one that originates in this country. It is an elegant fruit cake with a decadent cream cheese frosting. I don’t know the specific origin of this recipe, only that my parents shared it with me years ago from their Missouri area. I can easily imagine this as a featured recipe out of Southern Living magazine. See recipe below.

I think of it as a carrot cake, without any carrots. It is super moist and delightful with combined flavors of crushed pineapple, bananas, and applesauce. The cream cream frosting is a nice yummy addition, and covers the cake nicely. Everyone asks for the recipe!

Recipe Notes: I have made this cake frequently over the years, for birthdays, teas, and special occasions. I now prefer to do a three-layer 8” cake, rather than the two-layer 9” cake, but both work fine. I also freeze ripe bananas and keep them in the freezer, and allow time to let them thaw before making the cake. So chopped bananas work well, or mashed bananas thawed from the freezer. I also don’t always use chopped nuts in the cake, or for garnish on the top. It is your preference. Enjoy!

A Slice of Celebration Heaven

Hummingbird Cake

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sugar

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cinnamon

1-8oz. can crushed pineapple—juice packed, drained

½ cup canola oil

4 eggs slightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped bananas

1 cup chunky-style applesauce

2/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions:

Grease and lightly flour two 9” round cake pans. Place a circular parchment paper fitting each pan on top of greased and floured cake pans for ease of removing baked cakes. Set pans aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add drained pineapple, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Stir in bananas, applesauce, and walnuts. Divide batter between two prepared pans.

Bake in 350 degree F. oven about 35 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool cake layers on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, cool thoroughly on wire racks. Prepare the Cream Cheese Frosting and frost cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large mixing bowl, beat one 8oz. package cream cheese (softened), ½ cup butter (softened), and 1 tsp. vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add 5 cups of sifted powdered sugar, beating until smooth and spread consistency.

Ice cake in one direction, trying not to get cake crumbs in the icing. Ice top of first layer of cake, add second cake layer, finish icing cake top and sides.

Press 1-1/2 cups finely chopped pecans, toasted into the sides of the cake. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of finely chopped pecans on top of the cake. (I usually just cover the top of cake with toasted pecans, and not the sides.) Enjoy!!

Do you have a favorite cake or dessert you make for your special celebrations? For more dessert recipes and related dessert posts from my blog, please go to dessert recipes. If you make this Hummingbird Cake recipe, please leave a comment, or tag me on Instagram. I love to hear from you!

Bon Weekend…..Bonnie

February 2021, Winter White Garden, Leucojum Blooming, Looking West

I am not a Landscape Designer, but I have had success in creating garden rooms from my vision. These garden rooms take time, and thought, and hard work. Don’t forget patience. In the end, however, the garden room I create usually evolves into something much better than my original inspiration and the original vision I had in my head, and I am overjoyed. I thought you might be interested in how I do it.

This is somewhat similar to what I wrote and mused about in January 2021. Dream big. Create a vision. Make your intention, own it. Release it to the universe to manifest it. Detach yourself from the outcome. If everything is aligned, your outcome is delivered to you, incredibly better, and so much more than you could have ever imagined.

May 2019, Spring Time White Garden, Roses and Alstroemeria Blooming, Looking West

1) Have a garden location or garden room area where you want to create a special spot. It might be a blank canvas, or it might be an existing garden that needs refreshing or revising.

2) Find inspiration in garden magazines, tours, books, and even word of mouth. Save these inspirations in a file. I found the inspiration for my white garden, two photos above, in a Garden Design May/June 2010 magazine article featuring a Charleston, South Carolina garden. I have not been to Charleston yet, but hope to get there one day. This particular photo really caught the vision and idea of what I wanted to do. It was a small garden, close to the house, appeared enclosed or walled, was European influenced, used topiaries, appeared to be half garden/half patio, was elegant, and visually beautiful.

Inspiration Photo from Garden Design Magazine May/ June 2010, of Charleston, S.C. Garden

3) Be aware that your piece of inspiration will most likely not be carbon copy of what you want, but it will have the bones in it, of what drew you to it. It will be much more than you ever imagined.

4) Put in your structural boundaries, or build your perimeter. First, we built a new fence near our property line, where none had existed. I planted a podicarpus privacy hedge on the north, and a privet hedge on the south close to our home. Our existing garden shed was the south boundary, and the back of my garage, the east boundary.

5) Create more garden details. Instead of brick, I used a stone pea gravel to create a large square which would anchor half of the garden. The other half of the garden, I created a square boxwood parterre with a bay laurel topiary tree, and iceberg roses, and connected them with mulched walking paths.

6) Add your adornments. Collect these over time. I had an existing vintage “garden baby” fountain, which found a home, front and center in the pea gravel square. It is also a cooling water feature in this little garden, and a great spot to watch little birds relaxing and bathing. Later I acquired two faux pillars, light as a feather, but very real in appearance. Next came more vintage pots, in white, and so white was the theme for the garden.

7) Assemble your plant materials, plan for different plants to bloom each season. Plan your plant palette. I planted several white iceberg roses, some bush, some topiary. Alstroemeria “Casablanca’ are tall, have movement, and anchor each pillar. Leucojum, perennial bulbs planted in the old garden, return each year unscathed through the pea gravel announcing spring is around the corner.

8) Let your garden design itself. Over time, I find the garden starts to take over, and create its own design. Picture an abandoned house or church, where the landscape slowly creeps in, and starts to reclaim the structure, and design itself. My privet hedge created a natural archway with a side limb reaching out to the pillar. Creeping fig, which was so hard to start in the beginning, now has almost totally covered each pillar.

Before Photo, Looking East, Circa 2001

Immediately above is the only photo I have of the garden somewhat early on, and I think it is around 2001. It is not even what the garden looked like when we first moved in. The camelia bush was existing, but there was no lawn, only weeds. The big change came in 2010, when we completed our home remodel, and this space became a small but inviting area for an intimate garden.

After Photo, Looking East, February 2021

Immediately above, is how my white garden looks today. Happy and healthy, and looking forward to spring!

Leucojum Blooming

Click on Spring Blooming Gravetye Giant for my past post on the perennial bulb beauty. Please share where you get your garden inspirations and/or how you have created your favorite garden. Do tell!

Bon Weekend….Bonnie

Say Love With This Centerpiece

Usually around Valentine’s Day we see long-stemmed roses for celebration, but this simple centerpiece is just as striking and dramatic. I used an ivory rose, but with your own tablescaping you can make this centerpiece with any color of your choice—a soft lavender, perhaps a dusty pink, or the classic red rose.

Don’t forget to save out a rose for your loved ones to wear in a shirt pocket, lapel, or secured behind an ear.

Simple To Put Together

How To Assemble: Find fresh roses the color of your choice. Remove the outside petals of your roses. Have your waterproof vessel shape and choice on hand. Be sure to protect your buffet or table adequately from moisture. I confess I did this arrangement years ago, before it became clear not to use toxic floral foam. Instead of floral foam, great alternatives are molded chicken wire to your vessel shape, lattice style floral tape across your desired vessel, or even using a floral frog (vintage or new) secured on the bottom of your vessel with waterproof floral frog clay. All of these supplies generally can be found at craft stores, floral supply stores, or online. Cut your roses short on an angle to the desired height. Fill in foliage laterally from the garden with perhaps, juniper, boxwood, or rosemary clippings. Keep filling in foliage until you are satisfied. In time, your roses will open up further, meeting each other.

Add in the Foliage Until Little of Your Vessel Shows

I have more great Valentine’s Day tablescaping tips for you with these two short fantastic Instagram videos. Both of these videos remind you not to forget the candles, the music, chocolate, champagne and have fun!

Sarah Anderson, Founder of Chateau Sonoma, a fantastic Frenchie shop now located on the Sonoma Plaza in Sonoma. www.chateausonoma.com. Where in the world did Sarah find her champagne glasses.

Robyns_French Nest, Robyn Huff out of Florida, www.robynsfrenchnest.com, you will love her French passion for vintage. Robyn created her tablescape for about $10.00, some petite DIY, and a few vintage things she had. Amazing!

Valentine’s Day has been on my mind all month! Remember February is Love! It is just one of these years when you want to hold your loved ones close and embrace the love, and present moment that surrounds you. I will be making my Dark Chocolate Terrine with Orange Sauce.

Wishing you a Bon Weekend, and a very memorable Valentine’s Day filled with love……Blessings, Bonnie

Red Ranunculus

February is the month of love, and let this love carry you throughout this year. Surround yourself with those you love, and what you love. Even if you can’t see loved ones in person, you can still reach out to them. Friends and family will feel the love from your heart. Simple gestures go a long way, whether it is beautiful flowers, something chocolate, a sweet note, a sincere compliment, love quotes, a little humor, or even a kiss! Love makes the world go round.

Mom’s Brownies

This is one of my Mom’s recipes that I love, and have made for years. This recipe creates a soft, chewy, rich brownie which disappears fast! It calls for a scant 1/2 cup of sifted flour. Be sure and use quality bittersweet chocolate and vanilla extract. Be careful not to overbake the brownies. Thanks Mom!

Brownie Ingredients:

1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat you oven at 325 F. degrees. Grease an 8” x 8” x 2” pan. Sift flour with baking powder and salt in a small bowl. With an electric mixer beat butter with sugar until very light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until very light. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla at low speed, blend in flour mixture, just until combined. Turn into pan, spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely. Frost brownies.

Frosting Ingredients:

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate melted

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend together. Can add a dash of cream to make frosting smoother.

The Little Lion Cafe, Ocean Beach

Champagne, or maybe cappuccino?

A Table Set for Valentine’s Celebration

A few years ago I hosted some events around Valentine’s Day. I tried to create a special menu with the theme, “Love is Endlessly Delicious.” Many things I remember with fondness, but what I now associate Valentine’s Day with is Ina Garten’s Dark Chocolate Terrine with Orange Sauce the recipe I made for dessert. Wow, it is a show stopper!

This recipe is from Ina Garten Make it Ahead (2014) cookbook, which is one of my favorite cookbooks. The terrine can be prepared and made ahead, along with the orange sauce. Not a chocolate mousse, not a cake, it is like a decadent chocolate pâté. Garten channels two similar recipes, one from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry and the second, from the famous Taillevent restaurant in Paris, plus adding her Barefoot Contessa spin on it. Marvelous! It is a perfect dessert to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

Making the Dark Chocolate Terrine

Recipe Notes: Use the best chocolate you can find. Garten recommends Lindt bittersweet chocolate. I used Guittard bittersweet chocolate found at Sprouts, Cardiff Seaside Market, and other specialty grocery stores in our immediate area. Valrhona bittersweet chocolate is another great choice.

The dark chocolate terrine needs to chill for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight. Don’t forget the Orange Sauce made with a touch of Grand Marnier liqueur and cognac, which is a perfect complement to the flavor and presentation of the dark chocolate terrine. Lastly, sprinkle with some flaky sea salt. A hot, dry knife helps to make your slices easier. Run your knife over hot water, dry, and slice, repeat if necessary. Recipe makes 10 servings, perfect for sharing with loved ones.

Please share if you make something special for your loved ones on Valentine’s Day!

At Home with Isabelle Briens French Pastry Café Sunday Croissants

In the French language, “toute de suite” means right away or immediately. I couldn’t help but put my own spin on this phrase when I wanted to write about some of the new “Places to Know” Encinitas sweet spots. Please note: please call these businesses first for exact hours, with the pandemic, most are open for take out, or might be temporarily closed.

Isabelle Briens French Pastry Café, located in the Ralph’s Shopping Center on El Camino Real in Encinitas, has a loyal following, and has been pleasing customers for years with her flaky croissants, crepes, Bûche de Noël (Christmas Log), and much more. Dear friends recently told us Isabelle now has two “Route des Croissants” delivery routes on Sunday throughout Encinitas. See website for routes. My husband John, and I are able to make a Sunday morning walk in our neighborhood, stop on the route for croissants, and walk home to create a nice Sunday morning ritual.

L’atelier de Paris Café on El Camino Real, Encinitas

Two courageous Belgian fellows have opened up in a pandemic year their L’atelier de Paris on El Camino Real (TJ Maxx shopping center) in Encinitas. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—and will be carrying a nice wine list. I stopped in for a croissant, but they have crepes, baguette sandwiches, an array of mouthwatering patisseries and much more. I wish them success, as it is nice to have a Parisian café close by, and maybe a chance to catch up on Belgium, as I have fond memories having lived there in high school.

L’atelier de Paris Patisserie Case

Broad Street Dough Company in Encinitas Lumberyard

A gourmet doughnut shop has opened up in the Encinitas Lumberyard on the 101 Coast Highway. With locations in New Jersey, Broad Street Dough Company has a first location in California. Kosher certified, and guaranteed to please, I have never seen doughnuts like this.

Broad Street Dough Company Doughnut Menu

In Encinitas, California, we have many more sweet spots to mention. All great, and in no particular order. This is a partial list, and I apologize in advance if I leave anyone out. Next time you want to treat yourself, your friends, and your family, you have no excuse but to go “toute de sweet.”

Champagne Bakery

St. Tropez Bistro

The French Corner

Prager Brothers Artisan Bread

VG Donuts

Please share if you have a favorite spot you like to frequent around Encinitas, or San Diego. Who knows, maybe these suggestions might be great for Valentine’s Day treats!

Sign up for my blog/newsletter and Instagram at www.bonniejomanion.com. Merci!

Bon Weekend!!

Garden Sorrel in My Potager

Sandwiched between my sage plant on the left and flourishing fava beans on the right is my bright green perennial sorrel plant in my potager. Sorrel is an herb that adds lemony flavor to salads, soups, and sauces. There are two types of sorrel: garden sorrel, Rumex acetosa, which I grow, and French sorrel, Rumex scutatus (or buckler sorrel). The two types are very different in appearance, but similar in flavor. Garden sorrel has large sword-like leaves and French sorrel has leaves almost shaped like that of an oak leaf and only reaches about 6'“ in height. If you have the room, try growing a patch in your garden. You can find sorrel in some specialty grocery stores and markets in the spring, but if you grow it in your garden in Southern California, it will thrive year-round.

Patricia Wells 1996 Cookbook with Sorrel Soup Recipe

Sorrel is such a sensational flavor, but there are two things to be aware of. When you cook, steam, or sauté sorrel leaves, it is like spinach, in that a huge amount of fresh leaves becomes a small wilted amount—so you need to use more initially than you might realize. Sorrel leaves when fresh are a bright happy green color, but can turn a sort of muddy green darker color when heated.

Patricia Wells has a great sorrel soup recipe below, where she shares a secret for retaining bright green sorrel color, from her friend, Chef Dieter Müller. Blend your pureed sorrel with room temperature butter first, and add it to the soup at the end of your cooking time. The soup retains its desirable green color. This elegant soup can be served hot or cold, and can be made with fresh watercress leaves as a nice substitute.

Amazing Sorrel Soup

Lovingly Adapted from Patricia Wells at Home in Provence

Ingredients:

3 ounces (90 grams) fresh sorrel leaves, stemmed, thoroughly washed, and dried

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 small onion, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

6 ounces (180 grams) starchy potatoes, peeled and diced

1 quart homemade Chicken or Vegetable Stock, or store bought

1 cup heavy cream

Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste.

Directions:

1) In a food processor, puree the sorrel, pulsing on and off for 30 to 45 seconds. Add the butter and puree. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and set aside in a cool area of the kitchen. Do not refrigerate, or the sorrel butter is likely to be too cold to add to the soup at the end.

2) In a large saucepan, heat the oil until it is hot but not smoking. Add the onion and sweat them over low heat until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook over low heat until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Remember not to cook over too high a heat, or they will burn instead of coloring a beautiful golden brown.

3) Add the stock and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fully cooked. Stir in the heavy cream. Using an immersion mixer, puree the soup directly in the stock pot. A food processor can also be used. Return the soup to the stockpot if using a food processor. The potatoes will give thickness and body to the soup without detracting from the sorrel. Taste for seasoning. Just before serving, whisk the sorrel butter into the hot soup, taking care to mix thoroughly and quickly. Makes 4-6 servings.

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Ina Garten’s Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

January is a time of hope and renewal. The year is young, filled with possibility. Make intentions, not resolutions, as resolutions require will power and often dissipate before you know it. Intentions are mighty seeds you sow out into the universe and let manifest, often returning back to you in a much grander way than you could ever imagine. Allow time for making your intentions, write them down, and look at them regularly.

Fireside conversations, reading, pouring over seed catalogs, and contemplating are perfect now. Brew a pot of tea, or make hot chocolate, and create a simple treat for yourself or share with a cherished companion.

A great time to think outside of your box and comfort zone. Wear something different from your closet or jewelry box, you don’t normally wear. Try and do one thing creative every day. Go “dry” on something for a month.

The garden is dormant and put to bed. It is a great time of year to see the structure of your garden, what you like, and what you might change. Plan that change. The winter sun is warming, and it is peaceful.

In the kitchen, citrus is in season, sweet, and colorful. Citrus is an acid. It adds brightness, and acid is one of the key foundations of cooking. Use citrus in salads, cakes, breads, marinades, tarts, as a juice, or snack. Good for you, and rich in Vitamin C. The citrus family generally includes citron, grapefruit, kumquat, lemon, lime, orange, pomelo, tangerine, and a few others. If you are able to grow citrus in your garden, it is a treat.

I recently made Ina Garten’s Lemon Poppy Seed Cake from her Make it Ahead Cookbook. This recipe is moist, flavorful, and calls for Meyer Lemons which are sweeter than traditional Eureka lemons. Natural lemon flavor is repeated in the body of the cake, as a syrup spooned over the finished cooled cake, and finally in the lemon glaze. My Recipe Notes & Loving Adaptations: Plan ahead, this recipe calls for soaking the poppy seeds in buttermilk for at least two hours first. My suggestion for the lemon syrup is to make tiny toothpick holes around the top of the cake, so the syrup will be able to soak in more. The tiny holes will be covered by the final lemon glaze. With a bundt cake pan, using the Pam for Baking with Flour, is a lifesaver and ensures your cake comes out easily from the pan with no heartaches.

Another great recipe using citrus is Sunset’s Spinach and Persimmon Salad. Remembering this salad was prompted by a dear friend recently giving me a jar of her homemade Orange Marmalade. The dressing is so simple, so fresh, using 1/4 cup rice vinegar, a couple tablespoons of orange marmalade, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, salt, and pepper to taste. Whisk together, and toss over fresh baby spinach greens, with sliced fresh persimmons and glazed pecans. It is delicious. My Recipe Notes & Loving Adaptations: This recipe is very adaptable to many substitutions. I didn’t have fresh persimmons, but I had dried persimmons from a farmers market in my pantry, and they were wonderful in the salad. You can use sweet segmented tangerines, ruby red grapefruit segments, or chopped pears in place of the persimmons. Another idea is to use other mixed winter greens, leave in or take out the pecans, and add fresh goat cheese.

This past fall, I mentioned I was more of recipe seeker, than a recipe developer. There is a story behind this Spinach and Persimmon Salad. I found it originally in the November 2008, Sunset magazine and saved it, when Sunset published their “Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes” broken down by categories. Sunset’s reader services department, their past and present food staff, and a special group of subscribers made up this highly elite foodie group, who were then called the Sunset Cooking Club. Believe it or not, these 20 friends met for a potluck meal made from the recipe pages of each current Sunset magazine every month for more than 25 years. That is more than 3,600 Sunset pooled recipes to whittle down for their 2008 “Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes.” This Spinach and Persimmon Salad recipe was classified as “Most Refreshing Bite” and originally dates back to a 2003 Sunset issue. This salad is seasonal through the winter, well after the holidays with lively citrus being in season. Once again, “simple is elegant!”

Winter Salad with Fresh Pear and Goat Cheese

What favorite activities do you like to do in January? What starts your year for you?