Lilly & Louise Loves Literacy...and Invitations

This year Lilly & Louise was asked if we'd be interested in donating the design for the invitation to the Junior League of Santa Barbara's Annual Literacy Gala. Since we love all things invitation-and-good-cause-related, we gladly accepted. The event is 1920s era/Great Gatsby themed, so we tried to keep it fun and "in character" while staying within a budget. Here are a few shots of the final piece.



To purchase tickets to this event, click here.

Read more...

It's Spring Here.

Fragrant, sweet honeysuckle, jasmine and orange blossom fill the crisp air and when I step outside I'm enveloped by the scent. Ah, Spring, I love you. Please stay as long as you want.

Having lived in Santa Barbara for only two years, I'm still learning what blooms when, and where...and what exactly that sweet smell is in the air. I should remind you that I grew up in the Texas Hill Country, where if the deer didn't eat what was blooming, then the cows that escaped the fence did. So, these colors and smells and blooms (oh, my!) are fairly new to me. Here's a bit of the Spring that I'm experiencing. These simple, natural, graceful things make me take a break from the busyness and take in the beauty of the changing seasons.

Read more...

Because Baking is Creative: Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese-Lemon Zest Icing

For the last seven years I've baked a carrot cake on March 18th for my husband, Nathan's birthday. (Even one year while living in Italy, where I went to four stores to find baking soda and used a calculator to convert each US recipe measurement into grams!) Every year I find a different recipe. This year I started my carrot-cake-recipe search early in March and I think I've found the one that I will return to every year (look for some of those trial recipes later, in the form of carrot cake cookie sandwiches). Yes. It's that good. And even better, the cream cheese icing has lemon zest in it! A heavenly complement to the carrots!

This cake is dense and moist, but not too heavy. The pureed pineapple (as opposed to canned pineapple that I usually use) is a wonderful addition. It's not super sweet. It's just right. Nathan loved it! (And continues to enjoy it for breakfast, lunch and dinner--there's still half a cake in the fridge, staring me in the face every time I open it. Ack!)

Note: I divided the icing recipe in half, and because I iced only the top and middle of the cake, I had a bit left over. I think 1/3 of the icing would be plenty.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese-Lemon Zest Icing
from Epicurious

For the cake:
1/3 cup dried shredded organic unsweetened coconut
About 1 pound organic farm-fresh carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch Lengths (3 cups)
1 cup chopped organic pineapple
1 1/2 cups organic all-purpose flour
1/2 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons organic ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated organic nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar
3/4 cup organic canola oil
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
3 organic eggs
Cream Cheese-Lemon Zest Frosting

Optional additions (add one or a combination of all three)
3/4 cup chopped toasted organic walnuts
1/2 cup organic golden raisins, plumped in warm water for 20 minutes and drained
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh organic ginger

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper (to ensure that the cake will not stick), or place liners in 2 muffin pans for 24 cupcakes. Set aside.

Place the dried coconut in a cup of warm water to soften and set it aside for 15 minutes.

Place the carrots in a food processor and pulse on and off for 1 minute. Then add the pineapple and pulse until the carrots are cut into very small pieces and the pineapple is pureed, 1 to 2 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the brown sugar and use a whisk to break up any lumps.

Drain the coconut and place it in a medium bowl. Add the oil, vanilla extract, eggs, and carrot-pineapple mixture, and whisk to combine.

Add the wet ingredients into the dry, mixing with a rubber spatula to incorporate but not overmix. When the batter is almost mixed, stir in the additions, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for 55 minutes, or until the tops are a very golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. (It may look as if the cake is too well done, but it takes a while to bake because it's so dense.) For cupcakes, the baking time is 35 to 40 minutes.

Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Then invert them onto a wire rack and let them cool completely.

Fill and frost the cake with the Cream Cheese-Lemon Zest Frosting
Three 8-ounce packages organic cream cheese, softened
2 sticks (1 cup) organic unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon grated organic lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice
1 tablespoon organic vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups organic powdered sugar

Preparation
In a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until combined and airy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.

Sift the powdered sugar onto a piece of parchment or wax paper. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the sifted powdered sugar into the frosting (use both hands to bend the paper so the sugar pours slowly into the bowl).

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. If the frosting seems too soft to spread, allow it to chill for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Read more...

Before + After: Charming Rocker

Ah...Spring is upon us! Nature's color palette is transforming and showing its fresh bright values. Perhaps the changing seasons was the inspiration for this recent weekend project of mine...



A friend of mine was giving away a few pieces of furniture that came with the purchase of her house and I found this gem (among a few other fun things). Beneath the fading red paint I could see the charming details of this rocking chair. So I gave it a little update with a few coats of a cool turquoise paint to complement the wooden seat.

Read more...

Because Baking is Creative: Homemade Applesauce

For my birthday this year a dear friend gave me a slow cooker, and ever since I untied the bow of the wrapping I've been scouring the internet and cookbook shelf for slow cooker recipes. I think it's genius that you can throw a few ingredients in a pot and come back 6 hours later to a meal! (I've even found a few dessert recipes I plan to try!)

This weekend I made applesauce with my new slow cooker. It was AMAZING. I picked up 10 organic apples from the baker's bin (a.k.a visually distressed) at the apple stand at our farmer's market for less than $2. Then I peeled, cored and sliced the apples, tossed them into the slow cooker, added 1/2 cup of water and set on low for 5 hours...stirred a few times, then, voila! incredible applesauce. No sugar or cinnamon, just apples. It lasted less than 24 hours in our house. I plan to make it again tomorrow.




Have any slow cooker recipes to share? E mail me here.

Read more...

And the winners are...

...Cathy and Aimee! Congrats to you two, perhaps this is a reason to celebrate?! Thanks everyone for your sweet comments. I found them very motivating...I have a few recipes to share with you in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! Also check back for more giveaways, I have a few of those up my sleeve, too.

How did I randomly choose winners? I numbered the comments and used www.random.org to choose two numbers randomly.

Read more...

How Our Garden Grows: Prep and Planting

In my last gardening post I mentioned something to the effect that we are becoming "gardeners" by trial and error. After learning a few things last year, we decided to build slightly raised beds this year. So, this weekend Nathan and I built frames, prepared and turned the soil and transferred the seedlings that were ready (only the zucchini). Peachy helped as you can see in the photo. Now, the watching and waiting continues...



We'll keep you posted on how our garden grows. How does your garden grow?

Read more...

When Life Gives You Lemons... Make Lemon-Black Pepper Cornmeal Cookies

Lemon and black pepper may sound a little strange, but after tasting the first batch out of the oven, I was sold! The pepper is subtle and leaves a pleasant warmth in your mouth...I bet if you didn't tell anybody, they'd wonder what the "secret" ingredient was. Happy baking! (And by the way, don't miss this week's giveaway!)

Lemon-Black Pepper Cornmeal Cookies
from Luscious Lemon Desserts

1.25 cups all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup finely grated lemon zest
2 large egg yolks

1. Whisk together first four ingredients in medium bowl.

2. Beat the butter, sugar, and zest in a medium bowl with electric mixer, beginning on low speed and increasing to med-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the yolks and beat to combine well. Reduce to low speed, add flour mixture, beat on low speed just until blended; dough will be crumbly.

3. Press dough together with your hands and divide in half. Place each half on a sheet of wax paper and form each piece into a 10-by-1.25" log. Smooth each log with dampened fingers. Chill logs, wrapped in wax paper, for at least 3 hours, or until firm.

4. Preheat oven to 400. Butter 2 large nonstick baking sheets.

5. Cut each log into 1/4" thick rounds and arrange rounds 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, for 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool.

Read more...

Reasons to Celebrate: 100th Blog Post and Giveaway!

We've made it to our first birthday and now our 100th post! At the Lilly & Louise studio, this is a reason to celebrate! To mark this milestone we are saying thank you to all our lovely readers with our first Giveaway!

We want to hear from you! Tell us what your favorite Lilly & Louise posts or projects are, or if you have any suggestions or recipes to share. Please mention this in your comments at the end of this post; from your comments we'll randomly select two winners on Friday, March 12. The lucky winners will win a set of 5 handmade Teapot note cards, see below for photos.



Did you know you can subscribe to Lilly & Louise blog goodness via e mail? Just enter your e mail address in the box in the right column that says "SUBSCRIBE VIA E MAIL," follow the instructions, and you won't miss a single post!

Read more...

How Our Garden Grows: Seedlings

I'm a proud new mom to baby seedlings. Seriously. PROUD! Last year was our first attempt at growing a back yard garden and our first try at planting seeds was unsuccessful...but we learned from our mistakes. Last weekend we planted seeds to sprout indoors with plans to transfer to them to the garden when they are ready. There is a perfect bay-type window in the bedroom that gets sunlight all day, so that's where we placed them. I think I checked them at least ten times a day, each time anxiously looking and hoping for the first sight of green. On Wednesday morning we saw our first seedling and I jumped for joy! We'll nurse them inside until a bit later in March when they'll venture into the real world--out in the back yard!



This year's garden will {hopefully} include: Carrots, spinach, red-leaf lettuce, Brandywine tomatoes, various cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and patty-pan squash.



I'll keep you posted on how our garden grows.

Read more...

Modern Paisley Wedding Invitations

This couple came to me wanting something classic, yet modern and fun. With cornflour blue and chocolate as their color palette, we came up with something just that! By pairing a sans serif typeface with a fun calligraphic script, and adding a modern take on a paisley print, we achieved "modern and fun." And by complimenting the organic paisley shapes with crisp white lines and a classic invitation layout we obtained "classic." Added all together you get classic, modern and fun--a preview to the event to come!

Read more...