My little girl turned 1 year old on June 13th. I cannot believe a year has already passed. She is a giant nut ball, always making me laugh and coming into her own little personality.
Here is a picture of M with her Great Grandparents from my side of the family.
This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie is being hosted by Sophia of Sophia’s Sweets and Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine. They were magically chosen to provide deep insight into the French Strawberry Cake, which is located on page 273 in Baking With Julia.
I decided to make this cake for Emma’s 1st Birthday which was last week. Only the adults got to eat this cake because I have not attempted to see if Emma is allergic to strawberries yet. For her birthday Emma got to eat a yummy carrot cupcake with cream cheese icing. We celebrated her birthday twice, once on her birthday which was a Wednesday (with most of my family) and the other on Saturday because her Uncle John came to see her. The first go around with the cupcake was Emma trying to figure out what was going on and her feeding me the cupcake. The second go around she literally palmed the cupcake and tried to take a bite out of it.
Another reason I decided to make this cake for her birthday is that I wanted to practice icing a cake because I am making my brother-in-laws wedding cake in October. So I actually made Vanilla Italian Buttercream for the icing. I think I actually did a pretty good job icing the cake this time. I decorated it with one of the hydrangea flowers from our garden. The cake turned out great and everyone enjoyed it. It was the perfect strawberry shortcake in actual cake form.
This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was hosted by Maggie of Always Add More Butter and Phyl of Of Cabbages & King Cakes. They were randomly entered into a mysterious drawing where they won the opportunity to make some Oasis Naan, which is located on page 149 in Baking With Julia.
For this recipe I decided to only make half a recipe which turned out to be a good idea for two reasons, 1) there is no way we could have eaten 8 pieces of Naan and 2) I had just enough flour to make half a recipe. I also decided not to add the cumin or caraway seeds and just stick with the salt and scallions.
The Naan was very easy to make and came together very quickly. Which was a Godsend because I was actually able to make this while Emma was down for her nap. Luck was on my side and our air conditioning decided to go out so my house was actually warm enough to allow the Naan to rise quicker. I say this in jest and in truth. There was no luck but thank God the house didn’t get hotter than 78 degrees Fahrenheit.
I ended up baking this on a Pizza Stone and they turned out perfectly. Baked quick and easy and they tasted like a yummy pretzel to me.
When in Doubt...Leave it at 350 