Back For S'mores

We were out of town for a few days recently, and when we came home, found that most of the leaves had dropped.

Our front beds are choked with leaves:

Our driveway is nearly completely hidden:

The roof, cleaned off just two weeks ago, is covered again:

The trees around the pond are pretty bare.

We have two Japanese maple trees.  The one in the backyard makes a nice bright contrast to the evergreen magnolia tree. 

I love these leaves!

The berries on the bushes around here have matured completely.  I've discovered that they maintain their plump, round shape and red color for weeks when kept in water.

When picking camellias today, I noticed some spots on a few of the leaves.

I believe this is algal leaf spot, which can do damage if present in large amounts.  Only a few branches are affected here, so I'll leave them alone.  To be honest, I love their feathery edges.

I've seen a few ladybugs around...

...but I think it will be a few more months before I start seeing insects again!

Holiday knitting has shifted into overdrive.  It's December, and I have one unfinished project and one in the queue.  I'm going to have to work really fast to move things along, but I'm glad I was able to squeeze in a quick baby jacket for a friend who just had a baby.  It's a simple design, knitted flat (on two big needles).  It buttons down the side for easy removal.

I love the little silver buttons (a major score at the local thrift shop for .50):

I stamped out a quick tag, bagged it up, and it was ready to go!

Of course, being the holiday season I'm in the midst of a baking frenzy.  Last week I made a rather unusual cake: a s'mores layer cake.  I don't have permission to post the recipe, but it's from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and I believe the recipe can be found online if you Google it.  It's a basic layer cake, but part of the flour is replaced by graham cracker crumbs.  In between layers, I spread a thick chocolate ganache:

The ganache was thick enough to stay put and not run down the sides, which would make this cake even messier than it already was!

The cookbook recommends a 7-minute frosting, but I had a different idea.  Sweetapolita lists a fabulous marshmallow filling/frosting on her website:  Marshmallow filling/frosting

It is heavenly.

Unless I really concentrate and take my time with a cake (and sometimes even when I do), the cake comes out lopsided, as was the case here.  That's all right...it was still delicious.

(night photo):

I liked the cake, but it was definitely different.  The addition of graham cracker crumbs gave the cake a rather heavy and chewy texture.  The graham taste came through nicely, and it meshed well with the chocolate/marshmallow combination (unlike the pumpkin/caramel/chocolate layer cake I made for Thanksgiving - yuck!).  It was awfully sweet, though, and this is from someone with a major sweet tooth.  I suspect that could be the reason that 7-minute frosting was used in the original recipe.  Still, I think I'll make this again. 

Back to work...have a great week!

Duck, ducks, goose

For some reason, Todd and I always get lost when we try to find the prime hiking trails around here.  It's a challenge to find a forest that isn't full of potentially trigger-happy hunters.  More often than not, we end up back at the SC Botanical Gardens.

Most of the leaves have dropped...

But the many varieties of Japanese Maples are still going strong. Some are a deep red...

Some are a rich golden color...

And some are a mix of both.

We visited the big pond there, but it was mostly empty.  We saw a duck...

Three other ducks...

...and a goose.

Borga made some new friends.

I can't believe she was wearing shorts...it was 38 degrees!  Todd and I were both well-bundled.

Some plants were definitely experiencing the post-freeze droop.

Some plants had completely died and left a dried shell behind: 

A big beautyberry bush was still going strong!

I look forward to seeing what the landscape looks like after the chilly and rainy week we're supposed to have!

I've been baking a lot, but my baking has taken on a bit of a frenzied tone.  I have a big list of things to bake:  today, an apple pie and a 4-layer pumpkin cake with chocolate, dulce de leche, and pecans.  Next week, my own birthday cake and a gift basket for a friend.  The next week, at minimum, several batches of cookies for two gift baskets, and then there's the upcoming Christmas baking.  Therefore, I'm only feeling slightly guilty about posting a really cool cake idea today, without a photo of the finished product.  I had contemplated making another one just for the photo, but it's just not going to happen.  You'll have to use your imagination!

I saw a post on Pinterest about using edible dough (?), a mystery product found in craft stores, to craft tiny letters to hide inside cakes.  That just didn't sound appetizing to me, so I was glad when I found the Project Denneler blog, where I discovered that you could use regular cake to make your letters, as long as they were frozen before being re-baked. 

First, I decided that my cake should say "YAY" inside.  I made it for a friend's son, who had just started his first job.

I found small-ish cookie cutters:

I baked a standard pound cake, but tinted it pink.

After it cooled, I cut it into thin slices.  I used my cookie cutters to cut out many Ys and As.

You see where this is going!

After I'd cut out as much cake as I could...

...I stacked the letters randomly on sheets of wax paper and put them in the freezer overnight.

The next day, I whipped up a chocolate pound cake.  I poured a little bit of batter into a standard loaf tin and carefully placed my frozen letters.

My original YAY was in the center, and then I worked outward toward the tin ends.

I had enough letters to fill most of the tin, all but the very ends.

 After it was full, I covered the letters with the rest of the batter, using a knife to make sure I had even coverage on the sides.

I was worried that some pink might show through on the sides and ruin the surprise, but the resulting loaf was completely innocent-looking.

I used Smitten Kitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake recipe, and it stayed deliciously moist for days...which was good, because this cake had to travel with me from South Carolina to Indiana, and not always with the benefit of refrigeration.

I didn't have my camera with me, but I can tell you all about this.

1)  I was worried that the "twice-baked" letters would be tough, but apparently by the time they thaw out in the oven, the cake is done, so they're still delightfully tender.

2)  I was worried that the letters might separate a bit, leaving some slices YAY-less, but that wasn't the case.  They actually seem to have expanded, so every slice (other than the very ends) had a cheerful pink YAY right in the center.

Think of the possibilities.  BOO for Halloween?  Using shapes instead of words to hide inside cakes for various occasions?  Using smaller cookie cutters to make longer words...names, CONGRATS, or whatever else you can think of?  I know that I'll make this again...just not this week!

Hope you give it a try...have a great week!