Birthday Cake!

It was my boo's birthday so I made him a chocolate cake. I actually had 3 attempts, and the last was a charm. I tried a couple of recipes, one from Ina Garten, one from my Southern Living cookbook, and I even resorted to a box cake (which was sub-par to say the least). Finally, I found this recipe on Apartment Therapy http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-dark-chocolate-cake-014696, and my oh my was I pleased! It was so easy, especially compared to the recipes I tried previously. I used buttermilk in place of the milk, and hot coffee in place of the boiling water. I halved the recipe, using 4.5" cake pans instead of the typical (2) 9" pans. I love my 4.5" cake pans, they make the perfect size double layer cake for a family of 3, about 5-6 generous servings. I used heavy whipping cream, semi-sweet chocolate morsels, and powdered sugar for the frosting, it was like a ganache but thicker and paired extremely well with this moist cake!

Body Lotion Recipe

I hit pay dirt yesterday! My shipment from Mountain Rose Herbs finally came in and I was able to try out this lotion recipe I adapted from a recipe I found online here, www.the-soap-dish.com/basic-lotion-formula.htm. I made some changes to the formula, mainly using different oils, but more or less using their formula as a guideline.

I made this lotion for my husband, who MUST use lotion after every bath on his extremely rough, dry skin. Unlike me, pure oils and butters on damp skin do nothing for him. Previous homemade lotion recipes that I came up with were either too waxy, leaving a residue, or too oily, leaving skin dry and greasy. He has been using Gold Bond Ultimate lotion, which works great for him, but has toxic parabens and low quality ingredients. This final recipe, is comparable to the Gold Bond and has received his seal of approval.

About the lotion:

1. It is THICK. After cooling and setting up, it has the consistency of mayonaisse. It probably wouldn't work great in a pump or squeeze bottle. I've stored mine in a glass jar.

2. It penetrates quickly. My initial reaction was that it penetrated too quickly and wouldn't be emollient enough. In my experience, lotions that work take a long time to rub in...

3. It is magical. Despite penetrating quickly and feeling "watery" when rubbing it in, immediately after rubbing it in, the skin feels soft, smooth, and moisturized. It has great emolliency without feeling greasy.

Here is the recipe and directions:

Oil Phase

1 oz shea butter

.3 oz coconut oil

.7 oz cocoa butter

1 oz castor oil

.8 oz emulsifying wax

.8 oz stearic acid

Water Phase

15 oz water

.2 oz citric acid

.6 oz glycerin

additional ingredients: .2 oz optiphen and .4 oz fragrance

Directions: Boil water and allow to cool slightly while mixing and melting oil phase. Weigh out oil phase ingredients and melt in a large glass mixing bowl. Add glycerin and citric acid to water and mix with stick blender for a few seconds. Pour water phase into oil phase and mix well with stick blender 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool 10 minutes, then add optiphen and fragrance and mix with stick blender 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes, mix with stick blender and allow to cool completely before pouring into glass jar.

Just a note about fragrance, it is optional, but I really like it. I used chocolate serendipity from Southern Soapers, and really like the chocolate cake scent. It reminds me of Palmer's Cocoa butter smell, which is one of my favorites.

A note about optiphen, this is a preservative, and also optional. However if you choose not to use it, then you must store your lotion in the refrigerator and plan to use it within a month.

Flaxseed Gel

I bought a pound of flaxseed a while ago, intending to use it in my diet. I did use it a little, ground up as a binder in vegan recipes, or stirred into my oatmeal, but I usually forget about it. I've seen mention of flaxseed gel for hair on various hair blogs and after watching a youtube video tutorial yesterday, I decided to finally make my own. It was very easy, just boil 1/4 cup with 2 cups of water, then strain and let cool. So I applied this gel generously to my hair and got some popping curls! I am so excited to have another all natural home-made product to add to my beauty arsenal, AWESOMENESS!

Garden Update!

My banana trees died and even though I spent about $30 on them with shipping I just don't feel like sending them back. Many of my herbs didn't even germinate. Chamomile seeds germinated into cotyledons that died from lack of water I suppose. Radishes, beets, and carrots are coming up niceley, along with a row of spinach. Me and grandma made four rows and planted purple hull peas, some cucumber plants, tomatoe plants, and mustard greens. Anyway, just wanted to go ahead and log that into my journal...

Training britches!

Well I made my first pair and I nixed the wool part because I don't need them to be waterproof, anyway here is a pic of the first pair I made, they are plenty cute and plenty functional, they just take a while to dry because I put 8 layers in the wet zone, Also the workmanship is a little shabby, I need to practice and find a better method of attaching the waist and legbands...