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| Love Cake |
On Saturday, I emptied the dishwasher and put away the dried laundry.
In the afternoon, I went grocery shopping, while daughter stayed home and cleaned out her dresser drawers. She decluttered another bag of clothing to be donated.
I went to the Armenian grocery store, first. Daughter had wanted more curry puffs to take back with her, so I bought more puff pastry and ground beef for that. Then, I bought some shrimp to cook for our dinner, and some fresh produce. I also bought two cans of mackerel and two cans of corned beef to stock up. I will do a separate grocery post, but I spent a bit over $33 at the Armenian store.
After the Armenian store, I went to one other grocery store for cat food, milk, cold cuts, and bagels. My total there, came to a little over $26 for everything, including the two bags of cat food.
When I came home, daughter asked if I was up to making the love cake. So, after I had eaten something and had a cup of tea, we started on the cake. It took us a couple of hours to do the active part of making the cake - I lined the pans with parchment paper and greased them while daughter pounded the spices (cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom) with the pestle and mortar (I don't have a spice grinder) and grated the nutmeg. Then, I weighed and roasted the 1 lb. semolina and mixed it with the 1/2 lb. butter while daughter ground up the 1 1/2 lb. cashews, the 1 lb. pumpkin preserves , the 1/4 jar of ginger preserves, and added the spices and the essences (rose, almond, and vanilla), along with the honey (1 wine glass, which we figured was equivalent to 1/4 cup). While she was still doing that, I beat up the 12 eggs (my recipe calls for 18 eggs, but we decided to cut it back) and the 2 1/4 lb. sugar, together. Once all that was done, it was a matter of mixing the ground cashew mixture to the eggs and sugar mixture, which daughter did and poured into the prepared pans.
Towards the very end of it, when I was scraping out the last of the batter out of the bowl to add to the baking tray, my finger began to cramp (I had just finished washing a bunch of dishes, as well, so it was probably a combination of factors). So, I sat and rested while daughter finished getting the cake in the oven (a moderate oven, is what my recipe says - I set my oven to 300F). For how long? My recipe says, "until the top is nicely browned". One tray was done in about 45 minutes (I inserted a bamboo skewer to check), the other took another 10-15 minutes to bake. The cake should have a very moist, dense texture.
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| I started to cut the cake before I remembered to take a picture! |
Daughter told me not to make the curry puffs for her as it would have been a bit too much and I didn't make the shrimp curry I had been meaning to make, either. I am NOT being negative, here - just stating a fact! We had the leftover stew and other bits and pieces for dinner and had love cake for dessert!
Later, I finished washing the dishes, did a load of laundry, turned the sprinklers on in the back garden and packed up part of the cake for daughter to take back with her. Several of her colleagues have asked her about it, so she's taking some for them to try.
On Saturday, I was grateful for:
- Love cake!
- Being able to make the love cake with my daughter
- Being able to get the grocery shopping done
- The cramp didn't last long
- A productive day
Saturday's To Do List:
- Empty dishwasher - DONE
- Clean the fridge - SUNDAY
- Freezer inventory - SUNDAY
- Tentative menu plan - DONE
- Grocery shop - DONE
- Put away laundry - DONE
- Do another load of laundry - DONE
- Visit S if she's free - SUNDAY
- Water the garden - DID the back garden
- Take daughter to the post office to mail the gift she made for her friend (if she wants to do that) - MONDAY (I will mail it for her)
Sunday's To Do List:
- Visit neighbor S in the morning
- Take daughter to the airport by 12:30 p.m.
- Put gas to the car
- Clean the fridge
- Freezer inventory
- Water the front garden
- Cook the shrimp curry
- Cook the ground beef and freeze
I didn't declutter on Saturday, because I was too tired to do so. Will declutter three additional items on Sunday to make up for it.
Saturday's accomplishments include grocery shopping, making love cake, laundry, watering the back garden (sprinklers), and washing all the dishes used in making the cake.
How was your Saturday? Did you have a good day? What are your plans for Sunday?
The Love Cake sounds pretty intensive to make, but worth it. Do you always grind all of your spices?
ReplyDeleteI think, one reason why love cake is made only around Christmas is the fact that it takes some effort to make it. As for the spices, I mostly buy whole spices and use them whole in my curries, so, when a recipe calls for ground spices, I grind them. The stone mortar and pestle sits on my kitchen counter at all times, for easy access. :)
DeleteYum, cake! I remember your post with detailed explanations about the love cake and your mother's recipe from last year :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your daughter is leaving today, but how nice that she was able to spend so much time with you... and that you didn't get sick of one another, LOL! I love my kids and I'm always happy to see them but I don't have the wherewithal to spend a lot of time around people anymore so, while I'm sad when they leave, I'm also secretly relieved. But they're also introverts so they feel the exact same way. My Daughter went back to her college apartment earlier this week exactly because she was sick of being around people and she knew her roommates weren't coming back until this weekend. I haven't checked in with her in a couple of days but I think she enjoyed that time all by herself!
My plans for today are to clean my fridge, maybe go hiking with Greg, maybe declutter a little more. It remains to be seen whether any of this will actually get done. It's already 10 am here and I'm still in my PJs and I don't feel like doing any of those things, including the hiking. We'll see what happens! For now, I'm going to cook my breakfast. I hope you have a great day, Bless!
Yes, I posted the recipe last year, didn't I?
DeleteDaughter and I consider ourselves to be introverts, too, but, I guess we don't count being with each other as being with people. Especially when we know that our time together is limited. We'll have enough alone time when she goes back to her apartment, although, even then, we spend at least a couple of hours online with each other. We are used to being in the same room, doing our own thing.
Today being Sunday, it might be a good day to take a break from the cleaning and just relax. :) Hope you had a good day, no matter what you ended up doing (or not doing).
My first thought on reading the title of your post was 'I love cake ANY day'! Then I realised that Love cake is a specific kind of cake. I'm sure I'd like it as I like cashews very much. I also need to do a freezer inventory. I keep removing things but it still seems to be full. Better than an empty freezer though!
ReplyDeleteHa, ha, Eloise, yes, the title could be taken that way, too! But, yes, Love Cake is a Sri Lankan specialty cake. It is one of those recipes that vary from family to family and are passed down from mother to daughter.
DeleteI agree, a full freezer is definitely better than an empty one!
How lovely you were able to make the love cake with your daughter so she could take some back with her to share. The memory of doing that with her is priceless. I am sorry your hand cramped up(does it hurt?) but you did so much today with the shopping and baking and doing up the dishes. Now that you have the ingredients to make more of the curry puffs, you can tackle those later in the week and put them in the freezer for daughter's next visit. When is she coming back next?
ReplyDeleteSusan, yes, making the love cake together is something we will both remember and perhaps, she will share with her child some day, just as I share memories of making it with my mother with daughter (and the fact that I made a triple batch of it for her first birthday, when we had over 100 people to lunch!)
DeleteThe cramping doesn't hurt, as such, but I get nervous because that is what happened just before I fainted in the bathroom, in December 2016. I know that every time I cramp up doesn't mean that I might faint, but still, I take it as a sign that I have done too much. I cramped up when I was preparing the meal for the rosary prayer gathering, too, and I continued to cook and clean and both hands AND my feet cramped before I sat down to rest!
We don't know yet, when daughter will visit next. It'll be when my surgery is scheduled, but I don't have a date, yet.
That's such a sweet thing for you and your daughter to do together Bless. It sounds delicious too. I hope she has a safe journey home. X
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jules. Yes, she got home, safely. :)
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