eat me:. chocolate beet cake.

Last week I got together with two of my lovely friends to bake a chocolate beet cake.  It may sound a little weird, but after watching this video we were convinced we needed to try it.  And it was delicious, or at least we thought so, I did get an odd look from aunt when I told her about it.  Still, it was a yummy way to use some of the beets I had gotten at this summer's farmer's market!

One of my lovely friends is a super talented photographer, you can find her blog here, she took the loveliest photos while we were baking, and these are some of my favourites!  Make sure you take a peek at her blog, it's full of beautiful images!

chocolate beet cake.  adapted from Tiger in a jar video.

2 C. flour.
2 tsp. baking soda.
1 1/2 C. brown sugar.
1 C. butter.
1/2 C. cocoa powder. or 4 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate.
1 tsp. vanilla.
2 C. beets.  roasted, peeled and mashed.
3 eggs.
1/2 C. milk.

beat sugar and butter on high speed unitl fluffy, five minutes or so.  add eggs and vanilla. sift together flour, baking soda nd cocoa powder.  alternating between milk and dry ingredients, mix everything together.  you may need to add a bit more milk, you want the batter to be thick but still liquidy and pourable.  stir in beets.  pour into two prepared nine inch baking pans and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

cream cheese frosting.  because we decided cake is not complete without frosting. a family recipe.

1/4 C. cream cheese.
1/4 C. butter.
3 C. icing sugar.
1/2 C. flour.
2 tsp. vanilla.
milk.

cream butter and cream cheese in a mixer until fluffy.  add flour and icing sugar and mix. add vanilla. add milk slowly until desired consistency is reached, thick, but spreadable.  frost your lovely cake with an offset spatula.

I hope you all have the most wonderful week! xo, T.

d.i.y. glitter jars.

I hope your are all having a lovely beginning to our last week of July!  This weekend was wonderful, super warm, a little thunderstorm and best of all, a day spent with my lovely cousin Sarah!  It's been a while since we've had a hang out day together, so, after lunch at the Pancake House we spent the afternoon doing crafts.  These glitter jars we're super simple and fun to make.  And also rather messy, we were both super sparkly by the end...but we do tend to make enormous messes whenever we make things..so you may not end up quite as glittery!  The idea was taken from this post on A Beautiful Mess.

These jars are a super fun and easy craft, especially to do with kids! I think they turned out super sweet.  Sarah chose to fill hers with nailpolish and I filled mine with pens and markers!

Things you need:
_mason jars.
_white glue.
_paint brushes.
_glitter.  we used martha stewart.  we are martha stewart girls.

1_paint your design in glue onto the inside of your jar using a paintbrush.  if you plan on doing multiple colours like we did apply the glue for each colour individually so that the colours don't mix.
2_pour a little bit of glitter into the jar and swirl around until the glue is coated.  tap excess out onto a piece of paper.  use a dry, clean paintbrush to remove excess glitter on the rest of the jar.
3_let dry a little bit and then repeat the process for each colour or pattern! sarah chose stripes and dots and I chose messy polka dots. I think they turned out super cute!

I hope you have the sweetest week! xo, T.