Summer Berry Dessert!

This is my favorite summer dessert - probably ever. If you're having friends over or just want to make a nice dessert to have after dinner one night, this is your go-to! This was a recipe passed down by family and now it's never summer without making it at least once! 

Summer Berry Dessert

1 pint ripe blackberries

3-4 farm fresh peaches, sliced

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix the berries and peaches with the maple syrup in a bowl. Stir in the nutmeg, lemon zest and lemon juice. Cover and chill in refrigerator for 3 hours or overnight. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream! And a piece of pound cake or angel food cake for a bonus! 

Yum! 

4th of July 2016

America - land of the free, home of the brave! That's worth celebrating, right? 4th of July is kind of a special day for our family because it's the day Travis proposed (nervously)to me! Of course we love to celebrate holidays but that makes this holiday much more fun; especially now that we have the girls to share it with. And we look forward to the day when they can stay up late enough to watch fireworks with us as a family. Planning is hard work but their enthusiasm and the look on their faces is worth every minute that I spend preparing and creating.  

We set everything up at the 'family farm' and had lots of picnic staples for food and of course - desserts! Sugar cookies, cake pop ice cream cones and a fruit flag cake. 

I wanted to share the flag cake recipe for you so that you can, if you'd like, mix one up this summer or save for next 4th of July. I'm thinking it might be an annual treat for us! It was THAT good.

Happy Summer! Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 2 cups of flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• ½ cup of margarine or butter
• ½ cup shortening
• 1 cup of water
• ½ cup of buttermilk (or ½ cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of  vinegar)
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pinch of salt

For the Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened 
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 12 oz cool whip (or 4½ cups fresh whipped cream-sweetened with  powdered sugar)
• 2-3 Pints Fresh Raspberries and/or Strawberries
• 1 Pint Fresh Blueberries

For the Stripes

• 1 Cup (2 sticks)butter at room temperature
• 1 Cup vegetable shortening
• 6-7 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla

Instructions

For the Cake

 1.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.

 2.  In the bowl of a kitchen-aid, mix the flour and sugar

 3.  Place the margarine, shortening and water in a saucepan over        medium heat and bring it to a light boil.

 4.  In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, soda, vanilla      and salt, whisk until smooth.

 5.  Take the shortening mixture and pour it over the flour mixture      and mix until smooth. add the buttermilk mixture and mix again      until smooth. 

 6.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with cooking oil(pam). Pour the        mixture in the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Allow to completely      cool.

  7. Frost the cake with the whipped cream frosting

  8. Decorate the cake with blueberries in one corner and two rows        of raspberries and/or strawberries all the way across the cake,      skipping a stripe for the white stripe and repeating. 

  9. Pipe white stripes using the buttercream between the                berries and as little stars between blueberries.

For the Frosting

In a mixer, whip the cream cheese to soften it. Add the cool whip, lemon juice and powdered sugar.

For the Buttercream

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening until mixed. Add in 1 tablespoon of vanilla and 3 cups of powdered sugar. Add in the last tablespoon of vanilla and the rest of the powdered sugar. Mix until well blended. (if the icing is too thick you can add a tablespoon of milk)