A sunflower story, April snow
& A lemon poppy seed layer cake recipe.
I have a deep love for sunflowers.
The warmth and joy they beam.
They are the ones my husband gifts me every year on my birthday, and it makes them all the more special to me as I know they radiate his love…forever and infinitely.
It’s still winter as I write those lines. It snowed the day before yesterday 10cm, the temperatures went down to minus 8 degrees, but today the sun rose and melted away most of the snow. A couple of cranes landed in the field south of our house, I went on the terrace to capture that moment, and I felt it. The power of the Sun, my next thought were the sunflowers.
Back to the beginning of my story, three years ago we plowed our meadow in late April, and I remember thinking that sunflowers would be the first flowers I would love to sow on our land. I am not a gardener and for the first time in my life I have a garden of my own. I bought books and read a lot online, alongside the readings I started to plan for a small kitchen garden, listing favourite herbs, and vegetables,…
But first the sunflowers.
I opened the paper bags containing the seeds, poured them onto a linen in a flat basket, and put them in the ground a couple of weeks after the land was plowed.
With our endless Spring jobs around our home, I had forgotten to mark where my seeds were sowed, and with no land mark I really couldn´t locate where they were. (I know what a silly mistake). Strangely enough that year we had dry weather for weeks without any drops of rain. With no rain I thought that sadly my sunflowers seeds were lost.
Until July arrived…
In the summertime I love to wake around four o’clock, sometimes even three, with or before the sunset. There is often a mist floating low above the land, it´s cooler, silent, I love to walk and let my mind wonder, as per usual I have my analogue camera strapped around my neck, my Fuji to record the clouds, fog and evermore, my phone in the back pocket of my jeans.
Late may, that year, we had planted around 700 trees. Birches and Pines. Naturally I was on tree growth watch. scanning every single one of them. See photo below, that was how tiny they were when we planted them. I will most likely give you an update of how thew have grown since. I shall also find a photo of the birches.
Also the meadow … as it was plowed a few weeks prior, it shockingly went from barren land to abundant shrubs and all sorts of plants I do not know the name of… One morning as I walked, observed and recorded … I couldn´t believe it! I hadn’t noticed at first because they looked as if they were an unnamed shrub or… but as I got closer and realised that in fact they were my incredibly beautiful young sunflowers I had sowed weeks ago!! Within a few weeks they had pushed through the ground and appeared. Looking absolutely stunning! Apparently the warm weather and rich in nutrients soil was enough for them to grow. Here below, the young sunflowers.
From that moment I was also on a sunflowers watch.
Throughout July and August they grew strong and tall to only bloom at the beginning of the Fall. Watching them opening and blooming as the trees had already started to turn orange, brown, red and yellow, felt strangely right and wholesome.
Lemon & poppy seed layer cake
Ingredients :
— Lemon cake
• 200 gr of Piimä (It is similar to Kefir)
• 250 gr of powdered sugar
• 180 gr of softened butter + 40 gr of rapeseed oil — (you can also do 220 gr or 240gr of only butter it is as you prefer, I have succeeded to have delicious result with less butter).
• 3 eggs
• 160 gr of flour (wheat) + 140 gr of almond flour
• 2 c. spoon of baking soda
• 2 organic lemons
• poppy seeds
— Lemon curd
• 30 gr of softened butter
• 40 gr powdrered sugar
• 2 organic lemons
• 2 eggs
— Mascarpone icing
• 500 gr of mascarpone
• half a lemon squeezed
• 70 gr of maple sirup + 40 gr of powdered sugar
• a drizzle of vanilla extract & (if you have vanilla powder as well) + extra poppy seeds
Steps :
— Lemon cake
1 • In the bowl of a food processor, whisk the powdered sugar, softened butter, and rapeseed oil. Incorporate the eggs one by one (beaten with a fork prior). Then alternately add the dry ingredients and the piimä/ or kefir.
2 • Pour then, the lemon juice and zest. Incorporate well with a spatula. Lastly add the poppy seeds.
3 • Pour the dough into 3 buttered and floured folds (I use the 15 cm ones), and bake for 30 minutes at 180° C.
— Lemon curd
1 • Fill the bottom of your sink with very cold water and place a pot in the sink, you will transfer the lemon curd in it as soon as you remove it from the stove, it will stop the cooking.
2 • In a pan, whisk together the soft butter and powdered sugar. Then, add the juice of two lemons. Separately, whisk lightly the eggs with a fork and add them to the pan.
2 • Heat over low heat, and do not stop stirring. The consistency should be looking like heavy cream. Remove from the stove, transfer quickly into the pot you placed earlier in your sink.
My tips is the triple those measurements as we love lemon curd in our family :)
— Icing
1 • In the bowl of a food processor, add the mascarpone together with the half of a lemon + lemon zest (I usually zest two lemon for adding lemon deliciousness), the maple sirup, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, powder vanilla + extra poppy seeds :) & whisk until obtaining a firm consistency. Store in your fridge.
Assemble your layer cake :
I never fuss over the assembly of the cake. I assemble as follow, remove the first cake of the mold (and so forth…), place it on a serving plate or cake stand. Add a generous amount of lemon curd, add the second cake, then lemon curd then the third, once more lemon curd. Then the icing. I use a flat metal tool to spread the icing somewhat evenly :) It´s ready !
Taste super delicious the morning after for breakfast with a book to accompany you, here is Hugo Simberg, the wounded angel, and the shadow of tulips.
