Life Via Instagram April

I'm back at it, after months of forgetting to share a round of my monthly Instagram pictures, I decided now is the perfect time to start up again. For me days seems long, but months go by in a flash and this is my little way of remembering these moments & sharing snippets of our day to day life. We kicked off April by celebrating my birthday (Aries Nation) with the kids and then Hasani and I did a quick getaway to the Wine County, I new tried recipes, drank yummy lattes and more! Feel free to follow me at in Instagram @mrsclh  

Row One: Reading the latest issue of Sunset magazine and loving all the information on gardening // Heading out to dinner with my boys
Row Two: Drinking a yummy latte in Santa Rosa // Picking up a yard of Garden mix for our raised garden bed // Tried a new recipe Tortilla Casserole and made it using a spring form pan
Row Three: Coloring Easter Eggs with Avery & Tabari. // Easter breakfast, fresh mixed berries and baked Texas French toast // Built at an A Frame plant stand for our patio. 

Row One: Tried another yummy recipe via The Mom 100 Cookbook // Framing pretty wrapping paper for Avery's gallery wall // Enjoying my kitchen window view and simple blooms picked up from Trader Joes
Row Two: Weighing clementines I bought to make a cake // Yet another view of pretty view of my kitchen window and orange tree  // Trying Stella Artois Cider for the first time with homemade Saffron Risotto 
Row Three: Super happy that my Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree is finally growing! // Chasing Avery in our backyard // Checking out the flowers blooming on our strawberry vines 

I hope your April was full of fun memories too! I hope to see you on Instagram!

Homemade Clementine Cake

A few months ago Tabari and I saw the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and we both loved the movie and were intrigued by the cake mentioned in the movie a few times. We recently watched the movie again as a family and this time around Tabari made me promise to make the cake. So began my search to find the recipe for the Clementine Cake from the movie. The things we do for our kids, lol. The original recipe is from Nigella Lawson found on the Food Network.

One of things I found so intriguing about this cake is it using the entire Clementine, skin in all! Also instead of using regular flour, you use crushed almonds! Yup another exclamation point is needed for the the above sentence. I took the following pictures on my cell phone, so please forgive the the graininess. 

The recipe from Smitten Kitchen suggests using  5-6 clementines, but my clementines were on the small side and I ended up using 9 clementines. 

The following recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson.

Homemade Clementine Cake

8-9 small Clementines

6 large eggs 

1 1/4 cups of Sugar

2 13 cups of Almond Flour (I bought Almond flour from Trader Joes)

1 teaspoon of baking powder. 

Place the clementines in a medium size bowl and fill with water, bring the clementines to a boil cover and cook for two hours. Once the clementines are done cooking, let them cool and then slice the clementines in pieces. Next utter the sides of the pan and line a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper and turn the oven on to 375 degrees. 

Place the clementines in a food processor or blender and mix until smooth. 

Next blend together the eggs and sugar once blended well add in the almond flour and baking powder. Pour batter into the spring form pan. Check on cake at 30 mins and bake until knife comes out clean. I baked my Clementine Cake for 40 mins. Allow cake to completely cool before removing the cake from the spring form pan. 

I made vanilla butter cream frosting for the cake, but you can easily make a glaze or serve it plain. I liked that the butter cream added a bit of sweetness to the cake. 

The cake tuned out amazing and super moist. It tastes like a light citrus cake and so flavorful. My family loved the cake, it didn't last long in my house! Avery even asked for 'more please' after he had his fist slice lol. Even though boiling the clementines was time consuming, I'll be making this cake again very soon. I think this cake is perfect for a brunch, since its so light yet very filing.