Food & Stuff: Cheers to 2013

Happy New Year!!!

To welcome 2013, I created a collage representing many of my shenanigans from 2012...

2012 was a great year for me! I went to Europe for the first time, I presented at the 2012 National American Anthropological Association, learned and taught how to do Ethnography, and started my senior year at Humboldt State... And so much more!

Well to kick off the new year, I attempted to bake a lemon lavender bundt cake... let's just say it wasn't my best effort...

So this cake is a pudding cake, and I think my fault was in the pudding part. I've never made a pudding cake before and I didn't let it set like it was supposed to...

Nonetheless, here's the recipe:

Click to Enlarge!

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a bundt pan.

So before everything, I added more lavender to the sugar in the food processor to make a lavender sugar. Then bring the butter to room temperature and beat in the mixer until fluffy, after which adding the sugar. Once it is all blended add the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and add it to the wet. Make the pudding accordingly (with 2 cups of the milk) and let set for 5 minutes. (This is where mine got screwed up I think, but give it a go, and hopefully it world for you!) Add the pudding and milk to the batter, and mix until smooth (be careful though, mine splattered ALL over me.) Once it's all smooth and delicious, pour into the pan and bake for 50 minutes (checking at around 45-ish).

I made my favorite icing for the cake with lemon juice, zest, crushed lavender buds, and powdered sugar... Super delicious!! (Great on cookies, too!)

Well although the cake wasn't the way I hoped, it tasted pretty good with a bit of vanilla ice cream! I probably would have been fine with a cup of the icing alone (**insert giggling here**).

OH OH OH! And while i was baking my cake, I was listening to my new Les Miserables soundtrack!! I'm in love! I saw the movie last week, and am smitten with the songs, characters, and story! It was really a fantastic movie and I suggest everyone go out and see it! My favorite parts/characters were the young revolutionaries, they were full of so much passion and fire! (And they all were easy on the eyes as well...)

Les Misérables, c'était magnifique.

Besides the cake, I went with my mom and sister to the beach for the sunset, which happened to be really gorgeous! Huntington Beach in the winter is pretty fantastic!

My sister and I at the beach <3