THESE DAYS

1. Coffee and walnut cake from Jude Blereau's amazing book Wholefood Baking. I was lucky enough to meet Jude last Saturday when she did a baking demonstration at the Organic & Sustainable Market. She made a delicious apple tart, and these scrumptious oat and barley scones, and then we feasted on them fresh from the oven with cream. The coffee and walnut cake did not last long in our house, but I remembered to take a quick snap before I devoured the last piece!
2. Freshly hung Donna Wilson plate (that I was gifted almost two years ago! Better late than never...)
3. Tulips from the husband
4. Gum leaves collected on our weekly Saturday morning outing
5. Everly loves to make us cups of tea. I am forever tidying up random cups all about the house, it's very cute!
6. 'Driving the car' while we waited for the rain to stop
7.  Delicious wood-fired oven pizzas at a friend's 30th
8. Freshly baked bread on a Sunday morning
9. A beautiful card from a dear friend congratulating me on two years since my birthing day
10. My little succulent friend
11. Picking up stones to make stone soup

THESE DAYS

/ Pink blooms all over the house

/ We don't watch much TV in this house (and only ever PlaySchool) so Everly was enjoying her special treat - standing mere centimetres from the screen, as you do! (Notice the hand in the pocket?)

/ One beeswax candle for the birthday boy, and one amazing cake. (Everly is currently obsessed with cake! We have made a few in the past couple of weeks, and we've been reading this lovely children's story a lot lately. The other morning she found some coins on Mark's bedside table, so we told her about money and we inspected the numbers and pictures on each coin. We told her we could put them in her money box so she could buy something one day. I asked her, 'What would you like to buy with your money?' and she quickly exclaimed, 'Cake!'. Oh, this girl is most definitely my daughter!)

/ She loves pockets

/ Mark's empty coffee cup. Mark loves coffee. Me, my addiction comes and goes in waves. I'm currently only having one a week when we go to the bakery on Saturdays.

/ Toes!

/ Her first ever boiled egg. She didn't like dipping the soldiers in the soft egg, but loved it when I spread the cooled egg on her toast.

/ My favourite egg cup (by Donna Wilson)

/ I will never stop loving her curls!

/ Hiding vegetables in banana bread (thank you Claire for recommending this lovely recipe)

/ Fresh from the oven

/ Still obsessed with her stainless steel water bottle (from here) 

Joining Emily from The Beetle Shack in a weekly collection of snaps. 

BLACKBERRY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Blackberry upside-down cake

This cake reminds me fondly of my childhood, of the heavy-yet-still-deliciously-moist German cakes my Oma would make. Sunday morning I found myself in the kitchen - I needed to make a cake for Mark's belated birthday celebration with his parents and I had half a container of blackberries from the farmers' market needing to be used. A quick Google search pulled up this delicious recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A few minor adjustments were made - unrefined raw sugar (you can use rapadura sugar if you prefer - I had just run out!), spelt flour to make it easy on the stomach, and almond milk to replace the buttermilk. We can tolerate small amounts of butter in this house, and I wanted the soft crumb that butter yields for this special occasion, but I'm sure you could easily substitute with coconut oil. This cake was absolutely delicious and was gobbled up entirely in less than 24 hours! I'm sure it would be just as lovely with blueberries, raspberries, plums, peaches, apples or pears - actually any fruit in season! (And I do intend trying out every single option!) This cake will now be the go-to cake in our house - yes, it's that good! 

375 g blackberries
200 g unrefined organic raw or caster sugar
150 ml almond/rice/soy milk
1 tablespoon of lemon juice, vinegar or natural yoghurt
200 g white spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
120 g unsalted organic butter, softened
2 large free-range organic eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one lemon

Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Butter a 22cm round cake tin, line the bottom with baking paper, then butter the paper. Dust with flour and shake out any excess. Scatter the blackberries into the tin in an even layer, sprinkle over two tablespoons of the sugar and shake to coat evenly.

Combine the milk and lemon juice/vinegar/yoghurt and set aside to sour. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, or in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and adding a bit of flour if it looks like curdling, then beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the flour and milk alternately, folding in until just combined.

Spoon the batter carefully over the berries, smooth with a spatula and bake for about 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for five minutes, then invert on to a plate. Dust with icing sugar, if you like, to serve.