My husband has a birthday in the middle of July.
I offer buying a birthday cake from a professional baker, but he says he wants me to make one, which makes me happy.
He is lucky to have his birthday this time of the year because there are a lot of beautiful produce available, especially in my mother-in-law’s backyard.
I enjoy showcasing them on his cake.
I’m so grateful that my mother-in-law always invites me to pick her red currants.
We pick them together, but she is so much faster than I am and lets me take some of what she picked.
They are so pretty.
Look like jewelry!
They are easy to remove from the stem when frozen.
This time I removed the seeds because my husband and I both like our jam smooth, without seeds.
Currants have a lot of seeds.
The ruby color is amazing, and it tastes absolutely delicious, perfectly sweet and tart.
It turned out to be a bit less thick than I expected, but it’s okay.
I also got something else from her garden I wanted to use for his cake.
Freshly harvested rhubarb!
By the way, their leaves are huge!!
Rhubarb ribbons are what I wanted to try making for the first time.
Peel the rhubarb into thin strips.
Cook them at a low temperature.
Sprinkle sugar.
I’ve seen completely dried version, but these stay soft after cooked.
If interested, check out Carleigh’s post ↓ .
https://www.instagram.com/p/CuP4mkLp5_B/
There are a lot of vegan cake recipe out there, but this has been my (and my husband’s) favorite so far.
https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-lemon-cake/
It does not require any special ingredients, and it’s so easy to make.
It’s a very moist cake, which we love.
Making the cake sponge is an easy part.
But I struggle to come up with an idea of what to serve the cake with.
I’m not a huge traditional frosting fan as it tends to be a bit too sweet for me, so I’ve been experimenting with other options lately.
This time I decided to make something similar to diplomat cream, but a vegan version.
I made my pastry (custard) cream first and then mixed it with coconut cream.
It turned out great!
Smooth, creamy, and delicious!
I made it vanilla flavored and carefully controlled the sweetness.
I used the recipe on this page to make vegan custard/pastry cream.
https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/recipes-ive-tried-and-liked/
I kept the decoration simple as usual.
I like my cake to look rustic.
The frozen red currants looked so pretty on the cake.
Just in case if you were wondering what happened to the sugared rhubarb ribbons.
I made roses with them!
Yes, you can eat them, and they are tasty!
And no, I didn’t forget about the currant jam either.
I drizzled the jam on the serving plate.
It was mainly for the look, but it turned out that the tartness of the jam went so well with the vanilla cream.
He loved the cake!
We are planning to have my mother-in-law over today to celebrate his birthday together.
I hope she likes the cake!
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