Gongshow does Baking

Ok, so while I was in Vancouver planting Mable my friend Lynne a.k.a. the Twisted Chef check out her blog here (I hope this works) offered to water my garden if it was incredibly hot or if it didn't rain, which was awesome!! She did an amazing job as I came back after my 5 day hiatus and the garden was thriving. I have TOMATOES!! Small cherry tomatoes of the honey cherry variety have begun to sprout!! I took a picture, but I have somehow managed to upload them onto my computer, but then not be able to find them to insert them here so I will edit and add tomorrow. As a side note I would like to add that taking pictures of a garden and making it look as fantastic as it does in real life - so don't feel too let down;) In addition, everything is thriving. The tomato seedlings must be happy in their new home as they have thrived and today I had to break out my beloved gardening twine to begin tying some of them to the stakes that I had already inserted!! Also, I believe that you'll be impressed and what the beans have done over the past couple of days and the potatoes in the tires was an amazing idea - thank you rotter tilling Leif, as now my tires of filled with soil mounds that have sprouted beautiful leafy goodness, in other words the tops of potatoes. The beets have also emerged and the carrots - although somewhat less successfully. I really wish that I could get a book "Vegetables in Picture" so that I knew what these different vegetables were, for example carrot top or weed . . . Yup it's really that bad. Anyway, the swiss char is another mystery. I am also happy to report that the peas seemed to have taken a liking to the fencing that I created and therefore, it appears that so far the fencing is taught enough.

Some of the flowers which I had deadheaded, such as the peonies and geraniums and wondered whether I did the deadheading correctly because no new flowers were growing came back with a vengeance - a great relief because the flower garden looks beautiful and I know that deadheading is something that I can do with flair!! In a nut shell Lynne was the best waterer (yes, I am aware that this is not a noun) a girl could ask for!!!

To pay Lynne homage I began spreading the word while I was in Vancouver - business and pleasure, but really quite short on the business side of things. In the process of promoting her to Sarah of Mable the Maple fame I saw a recipie for super moist chocolate peanut buttercream fudge cake - yes, that's right you heard it here first and the pictures looked amazing!!! Sarah has a small sweet tooth and one of the primary purposes for my trip out West was to celebrate with her and I thought that I would make her a cake . . . great idea right?? No, this would be incorrect. I would like as a disclaimer to state that I have never in my life made a cake from scratch - not once. I went out to the store and picked up the missing ingredients and came home to bake Sarah's birthday cake. As a side note we did have an outdoor show to go and see at 5:30 and it was now 2 pm ish. I should have known that when I forgot the baking powder in (did I mention that I was blonde?) that it was going to be an uphill battle. It was supposed to be a triple layer cake, the top layer broke in half because I was too impatient and I didn't let the pans cool enough because taking the cake out - silly me:) Then I was working with two layers, the peanut butter cream for in between the layers worked out amazingly well and it was delicious, so that was a success and then there was the fudge that was to be poured on top. My fudge was way, way off - much too runny is the diagnosis I give it. Needless to say the cake looked a bit sad, I was slightly disappointed because it "Didn't look like the picture," however, Sarah was very happy and we ate the cake with candles and all with smiles on our faces - it tasted pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself. Lynne yet again, I must give you credit where credit is due and I'll leave the baking up to you, but you can water my garden any time;0

http://thetwistedchef.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/chocolate-raspberry-and-fudge-how-a-maz-ing-is-that/