Blitherings – Page 156 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Summer Baking

Plums

Summer fruit, summer dessert. Berries, nectarines, plums, grapes. Shortcake, pie, upside down cake, jam and jelly.

Fruit cannot be compromised by ingredients in any way, but flavors must be enhanced.

The focal point is fruit. Spices, juices, textures, subtle flavors all add to the experience. Ultimately, simplicity seems to be the best.

The problem is, most desserts are laden with fats, such as butter, and too much sugar. Where to compromise? What to make?

Upside down cake! Simple and easy, and with the right ingredients, neither too sweet, nor loaded with the “wrong” fats. Solution, then? An olive oil cake.

Summer Fruit Upside Down Cake

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 9 inch circular cake pan. Fresh seasonal fruit – your choice! I used red plums, some ripe, some toward the green side – great sweet and sour combination. You could also do berries, strawberry-rhubarb combo, peaches, nectarines. In winter, go for apples and pears. Maybe add some chopped nuts or raisins in winter.

2-3 c. fresh fruit
2 T. white sugar
1 tsp. orange extract (I used Penzey’s)

Mix all of the above together, set aside. Stir occasionally, while creating the cake batter, if you think about it.

1.5 c. white or whole wheat flour
1/3 c. corn meal (yellow or white)
2 T baking powder
1/2 t salt

Mix together in a bowl. Set aside.

2/3 c. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange extract
3 large eggs
3/4 c. light brown sugar

Whisk all liquid, eggs, and sugar together till thoroughly blended.

Add 1/3 flour to oil-egg mixture, mixing thoroughly, but do not over mix. Continue adding 1/3 flour to mixture until all flour mixed in.

Spread fruit over bottom of pan. Spread cake batter over fruit. Bake in oven 20 minutes, check, turn pan if necessary. Bake another 20 – 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.

Remove baked cake from oven. Run knife around edge of cake in pan. Jiggle pan to loosen fruit at bottom. Place large plate over top of pan and invert. Knock on bottom of cake pan to loosen cake – I used a wooden spoon. Remove the pan and scoop anything sticking to the pan back onto the cake – don’t be shy, make sure to taste it, too!

Cool. Serve with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or yogurt.

Upside Down Cake

Looking Elsewhere

The visual elements of life never cease to intrigue me. Returning to painting – albeit more sporadically than I care for – reminds me of this. And this pulls into photography. Because I just purchased the Nikon FT-1 attachment for my Nikon 1 camera. I am now able to attach all my F-mount lenses to this small camera. I have a lovely older lens, an Elicar 55mm macro, which is capable of a 1:1 ratio. Given the crop factor of the Nikon 1, this multiplies my 55mm into about a 150mm equivalent.

Yesterday, having noodled around most of the day, I set up a vase of flowers and misted them with water. Then I started taking pictures. Even with LED lights, it was not easy to do because the light was fading, and I was outdoors. I needed my tripod. Nonetheless, I did get some good pictures. The bright colors were really satisfying – the pinks came out just beautifully, as can see in the picture above.

Using the same lens and camera, a few days earlier, after the sprinklers stopped, I took some pictures of my roses. Large water droplets covered the roses, and this white one, in particular, was really pretty. (FYI, it’s a Pope John Paul II, which is a mix of some white rose and Double Delight – and it has a lovely fragrance.)

I like the abstractions of macro photography. Getting into that secret, hidden world normal eyesight does not detect, is fascinating. Minute details become incredibly beautiful. And, it produces a new way of seeing, creating the desire to look more deeply. An intimate view of the world so easily overlooked.

Life Magazine – A Retrospective

I grew up with Life magazine – from it I saw the world as it was, not as it was supposed to be. I learned history, about current events, about war, love, drugs, hate. This magazine epitomized America for 36 years. This video from BBC 4 is too short – but says so much.

Tulip – Day 2

Hmmm. Not so sure that this is going anywhere good. I added veins to the leaves, and then shadows within the tulip itself. The fact is, there are not really any shadows in the picture I am using, so these are totally non-existent. I made them up.

I kind of like the veins. The shadows, though, are weak. I need to do something here – as far as I am concerned, I messed it up big time!

On the other hand, two positives. First, no mud. Second, I am painting.

Tulip Painting – Day 1

Tulip 1

This past month has not been what I would have liked it to be. Instead of using my free time as I want to, I have had to use it for things that have to be done. The entire month of June seems to be that way. Sigh.

Today, though, I had time. Lots of it. Starting at 3 this afternoon, and going to 6, I got time to paint. (Yesterday, I did some baking.) The choice was to rummage through some of my paper in the paper portfolio, and see what I have. I have oodles of hot press 140# Arches, so I pulled out a sheet that was already cut, and went to work. Handling wet-into-wet and controlling color is today’s main goal. As I have also been watching some watercolor videos, I thought I would try to work with some of the information I observed, to see if I could remember it, as well as to see how well I could do.

Tulip 2

Subject matter is a pink tulip that has hints of yellow. The beginning task was to set down the first layer of washes, using WN Permanent Rose. Different layers of this color were used in increasing intensity to darken the areas. This took a lot of time. I applied clean water, and then worked in the paint as necessary, rotating the paper at times to have the color bleed, and at other times using a dry brush to pull out excess color. Other times, a damp brush was used to blur edges. I let the painting dry between sections.

After the pink was fairly well established, I pulled out some DS New Gamboge. Using clean water, I laid in a little wash in the areas of each of the petals. New Gamboge was blurred into the pinks, and edges softened using a large, dryish brush. Finally, around all of it, a combination of Phthalo blue and Hooker’s Green. Notice, I shaved off some of the tulip in the lower right corner, and probably will do more petal shaving with the next layer of color.

Tulip 4

So, that’s it for the day. Tomorrow more is planned to give the tulip more depth and dimension, and to do something with the background.

I’m rather pleased with it so far, but who knows what will happen tomorrow!