I was in a beautiful old garden down past Tacoma a week or so ago. The skies were amazing that day! My sky post for last week with the towering puffy clouds was taken that same afternoon. Cirrus clouds are some of my top faves, as they look like down wisps or cotton candy being spun, or, well, what do they look like to you?

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies seen around the entire planet, SOOC for more straight-out-of the-camera shots, and Scenic Sunday. Click on the top header, Sara’s Fave Photos, to return to the most current post.

Looking through the archives, I pulled up this shot of the pool right inside the main entrance of the Conservatory at the Bronx Botanical Garden, taken a year ago. I love the white orchids. New York sure does things up big.

Visit Watery Wednesday and Weekend Reflections, SOOC (straight out of the camera) and Window Views, for more interesting photos that their names suggest. And you can always navigate back to the latest post here, at Sara’s Fave Photos, clicking on the header above.

These are from Pike Place Market in Seattle, where they are just starting to be available. I love peonies. Their scent transports me. I have some in my garden, and for the first time they are covered in buds, because I finally realized that they like alkaline, not acid, soil. I can’t wait until my own bloom, but here are these until then.

Visit Ruby Tuesday and Color Carnival to see more wonderful photos with a theme (in the blogging world, that’s a meme). And after wandering through tags and categories and archives around here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to get back to the latest post.

This top photo taken at the Pike Place Market flower vendors combined a display of two of my top fave flowers: tulips and lilacs. I am so happy that I planted some lilacs in our front yard and at least I had one bloom to smell as much as I wanted. Next year I’ll have more. But until they get going, I’m always happy to see them for sale, perfuming the air for all who pass by.

The photo under that one is buds of Dutch Iris. Sometimes I love the possibilities of the bud even more than I love the flower blooming.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Macro Monday. For Blue Monday, there are some blue iris buds peeking through in the bottom photo. Hope that qualifies!

You can always return to the most current post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above. Have fun browsing around.

These tulips at Pike Place Market are all ready to present as a gift, wrapped and ready. I love how the clear wrapping softens the light on them.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday, Flowers for Today, and SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera photos. Be sure to wander around the tags and archives here first, and click on Sara’s Fave Photos above any time you’d like to return to today’s post.

I like this photo very much. I’m tagging it Best Post of the Week.

A recent visit to Pike Place Market flower vendors showed that tulips stll are showing strong. A few irises and peonies have arrived, but tulips still rule the roost. For awhile, anyway. I think they are ravishing and can’t get enough.

Visit Pink Saturday for more blissful pinkness. Color Carnival has more brilliant colors for you. And remember, you can always return to the main blog page by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos in the header.

The other day the clouds were just wild. I know it’s not safe to snap photos while driving, but sometimes it’s just imperative. I was blown away by the huge, towering forms in the deep blue sky. It looks like it was raining under them, but all was sunny and gorgeous where I was.

Visit Skywatch Friday for more interesting skies from around the planet, and Scenic Sunday for amazing sights of all kinds. Remember, you can always see today’s post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

This iris growing against my house is actually a lovely shade of lavendar when open, almost an orchid color. The stems are very tall, almost five feet (!) and they are the old fashioned kind with a sweet scent,  almost a bubblegum kind of smell. I took a number of photos of the open blossoms but liked this one best.

Does anyone know of a meme dedicated to the color purple? I thought I saw one once but now can’t find it. This would be a great post for it, if it exists.

We had lovely weather in Seattle today. I hope you got to go outdoors, wherever you are.

Check out Macro Flowers Saturday for more ravishing floral close ups. And click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the latest post here.

A shady creek on a sunny day yields some lovely ripples and reflections.

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday after you’re done here. And remember, you can always return to the most current photo here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above. Browse around!

Today I’m posting a fabulous recipe with notes. It’s long, but not that hard (I included all the details so it will come out right if you make it), so scroll down a bit to see the photos that go with it. My daughter and I made this on Saturday just for the heck of it and it was SO GOOD! To read the story about the history of this cake in my family, read the What Cake story. Visit Ruby Tuesday for more photos with red in them, and Color Carnival for more brilliant color. Take a look at Best Posts of the Week, too. Fascinating, I promise!

By the way, the strawberries on top were HUGE and make the cake look small. It’s not.

You can always return to the most recent post here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake (Sylvia Messer’s recipe), serves approx. 16

325 degrees preheated, (check at 40 min. if using 9″ pans, 45-50 min. for 8″ pans)

Use (2) 8″ or 9″ round spring-form cake pans, UNGREASED

7 large eggs, separated (room temp.)
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. sugar (can be half turbinado or raw, mixed with half regular white), divided
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. cake flour (substitute w.w. pastry flour OK)
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
2 oz. butter
6 oz. milk

3 cups heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
dash vanilla

4+ pints strawberries

Separate eggs. Essential that NO yolk specks end up in whites. Put yolks into small mixer bowl, whites into large mixer bowl. Recommend using small dish per egg separated before dumping whites in large bowl to check for egg yolk contamination!

Beat whites until frothy. Add cream of tartar, mix until almost stiff, then slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar. Mix until stiff peaks but do not overbeat. Set aside.

Sift flour onto waxed paper and measure 2 cups without packing flour in any way. Use large spoon to scoop carefully into measuring cup. Resift. Resift again adding baking pdr. and salt. Check measurement. If using whole wheat pastry flour, use scant 2 cups flour. Set aside.

In small pan, heat milk and butter, DO NOT BOIL, until butter melts. Keep warm.

Beat yolks for 2 minutes. Add remaining sugar and vanilla slowly; beat one more minute.

Add flour mix and hot milk mix alternately, very slowly, into egg yolk mix while beating slowly.

Fold yolk mix SUPER GENTLY into stiff whites. Be patient but do not collapse whites.

Pour equally into two ungreased spring-form pans. Stagger pans in oven so they are not directly over each other. Bake until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. 325 degrees preheated oven, (check at 40 min. if using 9″ pans, 45-50 min. for 8″ pans)

While cake is baking and cooling, wash big mixer bowl and beaters. Place in refrigerator to chill for best whipped cream.

Cool cakes upside down on racks ONE HOUR only. Then use table knife to cut cake away from sides of spring-form pan. Remove sides. Use long knife to cut from bottom of pans. Carefully place one cake layer, top side down, on cake plate. (Note: if freezing cakes, freeze while still on bottoms of pans.)

Whipped cream: Beat cold cream in cold bowl with cold beaters at high speed. As cream starts to thicken, add 3 T powdered sugar (or to taste) and dash vanilla. Continue beating until cream begins to firm. Reduce speed and carefully mix cream until very firm, but not gloppy or too firm (i.e., butter)!

Prepare strawberries: Wash, hull, trim and dry strawberries, separating into 2 groups of large, perfect berries and the others. Save imperfect and/or small berries for center layer of whipped cream.

Assembling cake: Put layer of whipped cream on top of bottom layer, about 1/2 inch. Spread evenly with rubber spatula or frosting knife. Place imperfect or small berries evenly. Cut berries no thicker than half an inch or so for this layer. Press gently into whipped cream. Add more whipped cream to even layer out; spread evenly with spatula. Leave cake sides alone for now.

Carefully place second layer on top of first, top side up. Spread top with whipped cream. Now use remaining whipped cream for sides. Make it pretty with spatula or frosting knife.

Place largest, most beautiful strawberry in the center of the top of the cake. Add remaining strawberries evenly around. Sing Happy Birthday! (optional)

Take a picture; it is so pretty! (required)

Refrigerate after serving. When serving, cut straight down with very sharp knife, using sawing motion.

My mom used to grow a big hedge of these croton plants in Southern Florida. I’ve tried to grow them as houseplants, without too much success. But this healthy specimen in the Volunteer Park Conservatory was just waiting to show off for the camera. Almost looks like a flower, doesn’t it?

Visit Macro Monday, Color Carnival and Mellow Yellow Monday after browsing around here. Click on a new tag or category! And you can always find the latest post by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

The district garden club quarterly meeting with flower show is one of my fave events. People bring what grows well for them, and everyone oohs and ahs. Here’s a sprig of pink dogwood (mine earlier really was more coral) and what could be more graceful?

Visit Pink Saturday for all kinds of pinkness, SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots, and Flowers for Today for heavenly blooms. Macro Flowers Saturday has more great closeups. After browsing around here, of course.

I like this photo the best of this weeks’s posts. The detail on the petals just does it for me.