Last summer, I was drawn to a magazine article about a London Fog cake, made with Earl Grey tea by Tessa Huff.  I’ve always wanted to make beautiful cakes but have never really spent much time learning how to do so.  I’ve tried my hand at the occasional home made birthday cake or our yearly Easter lamb cake but nothing that requires me to really stretch my cake baking knowledge.

The London Fog cake article led me to purchase Tessa’s beautiful cake cookbook, Layered.  I have written about Tessa before, but what started as “let’s make this cool cake” has turned into spending quality time with my son and his friends.

When the book arrived, we quickly purchased real cake baking paraphenalia Tessa recommended~~the correct pans, parchment liners and  frosting implements.

This notion of baking cakes took on a life of its own.  My foodie son and his friends (all who are extreme athletes and very tall) started showing up in the kitchen to take on the challenge of cake baking.  Who would have thought?

The very first cake we made was the Banoffee Tiramisu Cake~~a boozy banana espresso cake.  The vanilla espresso chiffon cake is brushed with a rum-soaked espresso, then filled with mascarpone buttercream topped with salted caramel and chocolate curls.

Here are my two cake baking buddies.  My son Benjamin is 6’1″ and his friend, Max is 6’5″.  Both are entering their final semester in college and have been friends for years.

Tessa’s book is filled with so much information on everything from what to stock in your pantry to how to frost a cake. The recipes are in sections-Classic, Chocolate, Casual, Whimsical, Adventurous, and Holiday cakes.

Sweet Tea Cake was our next selection, which was inspired by the food of the South.  A lemon butter cake is layered with Sweet Tea Buttercream with a Vanilla Bean Buttercream frosting.  It was the first time we have made candied lemons as a garnish.

Piping the frosting was the most difficult part….hard to have a steady hand with a vertical motion.

The next cake was difficult to make and doesn’t really look fabulous in my photos, but it is SO delicious!  We’ve made it twice so far.  The Brooklyn Blackout Cake is a decadent chocolate cake from Ebinger’s Bakery in Brooklyn.  Named after World War II blackout drills, this was a staple in Brooklyn until the bakery closed in 1972.

It’s a devil’s food cake with chocolate custard with a dark chocolate ganache frosting.  It’s very messy to make because you then cover the entire cake with cake crumbs.

Thanksgiving 2016, we made the Caramel Apple Cake.

Christmas 2016 was the Chocolate Pomegranate Cake.

New Years 2016 was the Golden Champagne Celebration Cake.

Since Benjamin spent the summer in Washington, D.C. we didn’t make many cakes but we managed to make this Strawberry Shortcake without him.  A perfect summer dessert when the berries are at their best.

Thanksgiving, this year,  was the Butterscotch Bourbon Cake.

And our most recent, was the Christmas Cake~~Red Currant Chocolate Cake, a spectacular combination of chocolate, raspberry, red currant and creme de cassis.

As a result of this cookbook,  I have enjoyed hours of quality time with our son and his friends in the kitchen, making memories over gorgeous and sometimes challenging recipes.

It is now time for the amazing giveaway! I will be giving one new (not sticky and dog-eared) Layered cookbook to the lucky winner, in hopes they too, will create happy cake memories.

How to enter- please do at least one of the following:

1.  Leave a comment below and tell me about your favorite cake(s).
2.  Follow me on Instagram (lifeatbellaterra), like me and tag a friend.

The contest will end at midnight on December 31st, 2017.  The winner’s name will be randomly selected from all the entries.

Have a very happy and safe New Year’s holiday!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It was so nice having all the children home and the house filled with their friends.  Today, as I take all the Thanksgiving items and store them away until next year, here are some random musings about the holiday.

We had the biggest turkey ever~~a whopping 28 lbs, delivered by Jimmy from Personal Gourmet, a local company who specializes in restaurant grade meat and fish. Typically, we have done this to our turkey:

But this year, my foodie son suggested we dry brine the turkey for 24 hours.  Honestly, I have never heard of dry brining and was a bit skeptical but it was so easy.  After patting the turkey dry, we sprinkled the bird with a combination of salt and baking powder.  This apparently changes the pH of the skin. We refrigerated it uncovered for 15 hours (can do up to 3 days).

Instead of a roasting pan, we put the bird in a V-rack on a cookie sheet.  According to Serious Eats, this increases air flow for even cooking.  In order to have the dark meat cook at the same rate of the white breast meat, we placed the cookie sheet on a preheated pizza stone.  You can find all the details on how to do this by clicking here.

This was, hands down, the most delicious turkey we have ever had.  The dry brining was SO easy.  I did add some herb butter between the skin and the breast meat before roasting, but other than that, we hardly basted it (maybe once).  The skin was so crispy and it sealed in most of the juices. We declared this a winner and this will be the recipe of choice when we roast a turkey in the future.

Thanksgiving Day started with blood orange mimosas.  We found the oranges at Whole Foods and it was a nice alternative to regular orange juice mimosas.

Every year, my husband makes his famous pumpkin pies.

And my son, Benjamin and I make a cake from Tessa Huff‘s incredible cake book, Layered.

Presenting (drumroll)…..the Butterscotch Bourbon Cake.

With the table set and ready to go, we enjoyed a delicious meal with family and friends.

Friday was a relaxing day (thank goodness as I was pooped) and, as we do each year, watched the Wizard of Oz, which is my favorite movie.

And took our annual family photo~~it seems to be more difficult to get everyone looking somewhat normal at the same time.  Of course, the battery was low in the camera and hopefully with some editing, we will have a Christmas photo for our card.

Hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving.  Today, all the autumn decorations come down and onto Christmas! I leave one Christmas related item out all year long and this sits on the mantle in the breakfast room.  I purchased this Christmas car waterless “snowglobe”from eBay.  Created by artist Alicia Reiner, each is hand signed and numbered.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Food seems to taste much better when served in a beautiful setting.  Even though I didn’t have an extravagant childhood, my mother always set a lovely table for the holidays, using her Franciscan Ware apple pattern.

This year, I took one of my English china plates, Windsor Ware by Johnson Bros. with me to select the plants from Whitfill Nursery and flowers from Safeway for the centerpiece.

I wanted to purchase items I could use again~~plants and herbs.  Of course, I needed a few flowers for additional color.

We are having 10 for Thanksgiving dinner so we extended the table.  I wonder why they are called leaves?

It was a worthwhile investment purchasing a table pad to protect the surface of the dining room table.  One side of the pad is felt and the other is a protective plastic.  This one was custom made by Guardian and it has 3 parts.

Next, I layered my table cloths, starting with a Battenburg lace one, and adding 3 smaller muslin sheets on top.  I purchased the vintage muslin sheets from one of my favorite bloggers, Miss Mustard Seed. The lighter ivory tone and texture of the muslin matches the background of the dinner plate.

For the centerpiece,  I lined a rectangular wooden tray with both plastic and foil, and then filled it with the plants, herbs, and pomegranates, pears and flowers.  The brass pumpkins were on sale at Safeway ~~and add a bit of sparkle.

Since, at the time of writing this post, I had not finalized my menu, I was experimenting with adding different plates/bowls in case we have a first course salad or soup. The wooden charger is from Pier 1 Imports, providing a great back drop for my china pattern.

The glass, gold trim salad plate is from Lesley Roy. I like that the design in the center of the plate is visible.

I love these pumpkin soup tureens from Williams-Sonoma, but I rarely use them.

The napkins were a recent purchase (on sale!) from Ballard Designs.  They are the perfect creamy color and the plaid trim complements the brown tones.

A fresh sprig of rosemary from the garden is tucked in the napkin ring.

Looking forward to spending the next few days baking and cooking. Funny how Thanksgiving dinner takes hours to prepare and such a short time to eat!

Dear November,

I will not forget you.  Even though the stores have moved onto Christmas I refuse to ignore your importance in the calendar year.

My blog post today will focus on this wonderful month.  To me, it’s the quiet time before the holiday rush ~~I’m a traditionalist about starting the Christmas holiday the DAY AFTER Thanksgiving. Please take time this month to enjoy the change of season and the calm this month offers.

My sister and her husband took this photo in New Hampshire~~such gorgeous colors!

I have been so swamped with opposing a local zoning issue, I have had little time to do much else. When stress levels rise, I tend to bake.  Being in the kitchen comforts me.

During our last trip to see our son in Virginia, I purchased several varieties of apples from Carter Mountain Orchard and stuffed them in my roller bag.

My first baking adventure was an apple pie.  Pinterest has featured so many innovative pie crusts that I thought I would attempt this. I used my go-to pie crust recipe which you can find here.

What I learned:  Layering the leaf cut-outs was fun, however, the top “crust” was too thick.  If I were to do this again, I would make sure my leaves were rolled very thin. However, it was still delicious and so pretty when I took it out of the oven.

With more apples in the refrigerator, I thought it might be fun to use my Pocket Pie mold from William Sonoma, which has been sitting unused for years. I made the crust recipe on the back of the box which includes quite a bit of butter.

The hinged plastic mold cuts (with some level of difficulty) both sides of the pocket pie pastry.

You can add whatever filling you want as the recipe suggests canned pie filling.  However, since I had fresh apples, I made my own.  Initially the apple pieces were too big and needed to be cut down.

Add a few tablespoons of filling, egg wash the edges, add the matching top and crimp.

In retrospect, these pies were a bit of a pain in the neck to make.  The dough is much easier to use while it is cold.  Once it warmed up, it stuck to the mold and the pockets were hard to handle. William Sonoma doesn’t offer this mold any longer, however they have other types. After making a couple of dozen I would have gotten better, but I quit after making 8.

Please enjoy this month.  We still have Thanksgiving to look forward to where we will share our gratitude with family and friends.

I don’t know if I have confessed that I do not like to shop.  I really dread going to the store, especially if I need new clothes or shoes, or heavens forbid, a bathing suit or underwear.

But I do have one or two favorite stores because they don’t feel like a chore, but rather a pleasant experience.  I have written about Camps and Cottages in a previous post, but recently I have been following Molly English on Instagram and spotted these new candles that arrived in her shop.

She graciously mailed one to me and it is HEAVENLY!  The minute I opened the box, the entire room filled with a smell of apple cider, October, Thanksgiving and Christmas all rolled up into one intoxicating scent.

Even my daughter, Elisabeth, came into the kitchen after school and said, “What is that amazing smell? It reminds me of the fall and October and everything I love about this time of year.”

Not only is the candle an olfactory celebration, but it is truly beautiful.  This is apparently the smaller size, at approximately 6.5″ tall x 5″ diameter.  The name is Rosy Rings Spicy Apple and will burn for 200 hours. The price is $60.00 but seemed worth it with such a long burning time.

Embedded in the candle are slices of apple, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, small dark red berries (?)~~making this candle beautiful to look at as well as smell.

This is the PERFECT candle for the autumn and would make an excellent hostess gift.

Here are some pictures of Camps and Cottages in Laguna Beach, California that I captured during my beach vacation.

Unfortunately I only get to visit in person once a year, but Molly has made ordering directly from her SO easy.  She posts new items that come into the store on Instagram and on her website.

Today was the coolest day since the summer and now with my Spicy Apple candle it, I am getting excited about the fall!!!

A year ago today, I sent my first blog post of Life at Bella Terra.  It was an intimidating moment, because I thought “who would ever want to read this?”  I don’t consider myself a very good writer and I’m really trying to improve upon that.  But your words of encouragement have brought me back to the computer to post again and again.  If it wasn’t for your kindness and support, it would have been easy to just quit.  Thank you for your loyalty and feedback and comments. Truly. From the bottom of my heart.

Each time I send out an email letting you know I’ve created a new post, I am praying you find it interesting, enlightening or even motivating.  I try to share a small piece of loveliness in hopes that I can brighten your day. As I look out into the world, I believe we each need to find sources of joy and create our own beauty.  Whether it be feeling the warmth from a freshly picked tomato, or the scent of a homegrown flower, these moments of perfection can only help feed the soul.

Blogging for me, is a chance to stop and capture a sliver of time, an exquisite photo or a recipe that bursts with flavor. Plus it is forcing me to attack those cluttered corners of the house or undone projects while showing you my progress. But I can honestly say, I am still a long way from feeling confident about creatively illustrating that to you. But I will keep trying.

So here is a look back at the year and some of my favorite photos and posts.

My very first blog post was about the New York Times Bestselling author, Rhys Bowen and the fundraising English tea we had here at Bella Terra.

And other events we happily hosted here…..

Recipes shared…..

My Renovations and Restorations….

Travel and leisure…..

Decorating and Design…

The holidays….

Cleaning, Organizing, and Updating…

Sharing our home and yard….

My attempt at art….

Flower arranging..

Our pets…

And a few DIYs….

My online store….

There is still so much to learn, especially better photography, writing and getting my watermarks the same size on every photo.  So thank you again for following me and sharing my blog with others.

PLEASE send in your comments~~What area of interest would you like for me to expand? What are your favorite topics? How often should I post (trying to do a maximum of twice per week)? What can I do to be better for you?  My goals for the next year are to do a contest or giveaway and conduct a real survey into your likes and interests.

Here’s to one year and onto the next!! I couldn’t have done it without you.

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