Ramshackle Bouquets & Lemon Cake

You're tuned into the flower channel, didn't you know?

Today it is my wonderful Amy's birthday.
I made her a ramshackle bouquet from my garden (possibly, no, certainly with a few small bonus bugs included.)

I also made her my favorite lemon poppyseed cake.

It's nice little loaf, very much a little cake-baby when it's all bundled in waxed paper. 

I use Mark Bittman's recipe from How to Cook Everything (I checked around online for it, but I wasn't able to sleuth it out.) I make a few changes, like subbing oil for half the butter, mainly because I just can't bring myself to use two sticks in something that ends up so small. I am also very heavy-handed with the poppyseeds & the lemon.

One of the best things about liking to bake is that (given the ingredients) you always have the wherewithal to bring someone something nice.

Growing flowers is that way, too, if the time is right. They're similar that way. Both humble things, cakes and flowers, and the kind of things you bring to someone to make their day a little nicer. I wish it was blooming season all year 'round just for that reason, but we then we'd lose pumpkins and snow flurries and it really wouldn't be right.

Very lucky for us, then, you can bake someone a lemon cake any time of year.