oh honey bakes

apple cinnamon cake (gluten-free)

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lentil, garlic, and chard soup and smoky sautéed caramel apples // a campfire meal (vegetarian and gluten-free)

My dear friend Elle came to spend an afternoon shooting and eating at our little farm south of Seattle last weekend. I managed to build a pretty successful fire in the middle of the typical Seattle-in-late fall drizzle and we were finishing up just as the rain started. We quickly packed up and headed inside to warmed up with hot bowls of soup and a bottle of wine, it was such a fun afternoon….

chocolate and beetroot cake (gluten-free)

I’m sitting in front of the fire, enjoying our cozy home for the 5th day in a row. The introverted part of me loves the idea of snow days; it doesn’t snow often in Seattle and everything really shuts down when the weather turns icy; but the introverted part of me also knows that means my extremely chatty 6 year old will be home with me until school is back on. I think being forced to slow down is good for anyone, though. We’ve been playing games, having snowball fights, and playing with our sweet baby lambs. …

nectarine and blueberry polenta cake with salted honey glaze (gluten-free)

Summer has flown by and I feel like I’m trying to squeeze in all the recipes I’ve been dreaming about over the last couple of months but haven’t quite gotten around to making. I’m (obviously) still in quite the blueberry phase, we’ve been picking pounds and pounds of them weekly and I’m using them in everything, knowing this sweet blueberry season is coming to an end. While I write this the ac is blasting and the sky is clear and and bright, but the sun is sitting just a little lower in the sky and setting earlier each day. Tiny whispers of autumn….

apricot almond upside down cake (gluten-free)

This is a Sunday afternoon kind of cake. It’s insanely delicious, comes together in no time, and you can use whatever stone fruit you have on hand. I used black apricots, also called apriums, a cross between an apricot and a plum. They have the gorgeous color of a plum with the slightly acidic tartness of an apricot and they’re perfect with the almond cake base. I love the almond paste in this, it lends an intensely almond flavor to the cake.

My perfect Sunday looks like spending a few hours in the garden followed by a slow dinner and this cake. The simplicity and ease of it feels very summer, it’s perfect for a picnic or al fresco dinner but it’s fancy enough to finish off a dinner party, too.

This recipe is adapted from the New York Times cookbook, one of my favorite go-to’s for classic recipes.

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