Strawberry Charlotte

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Strawberry Charlotte

Strawberry Charlotte

During the last week, I have been spending most of my time in the kitchen, mixing ingredients by hand and giving my oven a workout. Halfway through my two weeks off from work and school, it is a welcome break to spend time away from the everyday grind, a chance to relax and get my thoughts back in order. Though I like to imagine that I will be productive with my newly found time, the last week has proven otherwise, as reality TV shows and sleeping in have sucked away more time than I would like to admit.

Maybe it is okay to let myself be lazy every once in awhile.

Strawberry Charlotte

With more time in the kitchen, I have been playing around with elaborate, multi-step desserts, including cakes. While I love a good layered cake, I could not decide on a flavor, arguing back and forth with myself between fruit and chocolate based cakes and fillings. While fruit is lovely, it had been so long since I cut my fork through a thick chocolate cake that the thought grew tempting.

Nevertheless, after a walk outdoors with the weather still settling into early spring, a chocolate cake suddenly seemed too heavy for this delicate time of year. With buds just forming on the bare tree limbs, a sweet, light fruit cake seemed to fit the bill. After a walk through the local market, with pounds of red, ruby strawberries on sale, the deal was sealed.

Strawberry Charlotte Strawberry Charlotte

Charlotte cakes originated in France in the early nineteenth century. They traditionally involve fruit purees, sponge cake, and custards or whipped cream frosting. This particular Strawberry Charlotte is not quite as the original cake, but the spirit is just the same. Instead of layers of sponge cake, I used my favorite light vanilla cake recipe and used a strawberry mousse to fill it. Lined with ladyfingers, either homemade or store bought, the cake becomes quite the sight.

While I did not have one on hand, a white or red ribbon tied around the middle would add a gorgeous finishing touch.

Strawberry Charlotte

This Strawberry Charlotte is a spring cake that is perfect for all of life's celebrations. Layers of light vanilla cake are filled with an airy strawberry mousse and fresh strawberries and topped off with a coating of whipped cream icing. The strawberry mousse is made from pureed strawberries, which gives the cake a bright fruit flavor. The cake is lined with ladyfingers and graced with whole, fresh strawberries making this a simple, but impressive cake to decorate.

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Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Spring is in the air, graduate school has wrapped up for the spring semester, and the wind carries the feeling of renewal. The next two weeks will be filled with more rest and leisure than I have had in the last four months combined—a welcome break to stretch my limbs and a chance to play around in the kitchen. Even though I have a summer of classes before me (and a graduation date looming on the horizon), the job hunt has already begun.

Reality can never quite escape me completely.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Each job application represents a new road, an unknown path, a concrete possibility in a world filled with dreams. Each application is a window into a potential future, a peak at what my life might become. Even though the process can be arduous, each time I hit the submit button, I take a deep breath as a bright future flashes before me. The moment is brief, but exhilarating. I take a second breath to calm myself down and remind myself not to get my hopes too high. While full of hope and opportunity, job applications can also bring about feelings of rejection and sorrow.

The trick is to keep your head held high, your feet facing forward, and to replace lost dreams with new possibilities. To add new roads to the map of life.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My job search has led me down interesting paths, as I send off applications to other states and cities I have never been. It feels a bit like fishing; I have cast my line and now I must hope the fish are biting. As I anxiously awaited replies (or a lack thereof) this weekend, I made a batch of cookies to calm my nerves. Baking has a way of bringing peace into my life, as I mix ingredients by hand and move slowly around the kitchen to make the moment last longer.

While these Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies will not make time pass faster, they bring about a sweetness that makes the wait much more bearable.

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Honey Chocolate Chunk Cookies have a coveted soft-baked texture that lasts for days. A classic chocolate chunk cookie batter has a few added tablespoons of honey, which lend a soft flavor and chewy nature to the cookies. The addition of whole wheat flour gives the cookies a nutty undertone. Fresh from the oven, warm with melted chocolate, these cookies are a sweet fantasy.

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Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

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Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

Some people have a green thumb. To put it quite frankly, I am not one of them. While many gardeners can sow, weed, and prune a plant into flourishing perfection, I struggle to complete some of the more basic tasks, such as burying the seeds at the correct depth or finding the motivation to weed (perhaps a bit of laziness is also to blame). Even so, my plants have a tendency to wither despite regular watering. They gather the nasty little bugs whenever I want to keep a flower indoors, and my vegetable plants grow the smallest of produce at the end of the season.

I am become Death, the destroyer of plants.

Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

Each spring the feeling of rebirth floats through the air, infecting me with a strong desire to kneel in the dirt and plant a garden. The eagerness to hold a handful of seeds makes me briefly forget my black thumb and the poor path my plants will soon travel down. When I lived at home with my parents, I would convince my mother to fill her garden with half a dozen varieties of vegetables. I convinced her that I would do the tending. I convinced her I would help them grow. Rarely, I am ashamed to admit, did I follow through on my deceitful promises. The plants would endure a hot sun, vagrant weeds, and abit of neglect. At the end of the season, we'd collect our micro-vegetables, telling ourselves that we would plant flowers next year instead.

Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

As the temperature finally rose this weekend, I felt the familiar urge to dig around in the dirt and grow new life. The trees have not yet budded with leaves, but for the first time this year it felt like spring has arrived. Even though I know my planting ventures are destined to end poorly (just ask my basil plant from last summer), I cannot shake the optimism that this year might be different—that this year I could grow something beautiful.

Even if I will not be able to grow a flourishing plant, I can bake something beautiful. And really, that might be the most delicious in the end.

Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream

This Lime Curd Tart with Coconut Whipped Cream is an ode to spring, with bright green colors and bold new flavors. A lightly sweetened whole wheat tart crust is filled with a tart lime curd and swirled with spoonfuls of coconut whipped cream. Serve with a sprinkling of lime zest and another dollop of whipped cream to celebrate the arrival of sunshine and warmer weather.

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