One of my very dear friends, the lovely Chelsea, had a birthday last week. I decided a while back that she needed a surprise party–but a surprise party that was especially about her! So I set about making it happen. It was so much fun because she has so many fun interests and wonderful qualities. It was hard to pick just one. Chelsea is an artist, designer, and a wonderful gardener. She spends hours in her garden delicately tending her nasturtiums, lettuces, figs, and squash. She, like many of our generation, has had a pretty mobile life–moving from one place to the next, across the country and back, then back again, looking for a place to be for a while. But each place she settles, roosts in for a while, she immediately starts growing things. Sometimes they are in pots and if she stays for a while longer, they get a piece of her yard. Gardening grounds her. It is a way that she literally places roots in a place for herself. Therefore, the food that she eats inexplicably connects her to the very earth she lives on in that place.

Taking this love of gardening, I asked each guest to bring a botanical-reinterpretation of her. I was thinking of those old Victorian era associations and meanings they had with flowers: if you give someone a yellow rose, it means friendship, etc. One friend brought a daisy crown (perfect for Chelsea’s obsession with wearing floral crowns!), another a hand-made pin of an over sized sunflower (mirroring the ones in her garden) that she can wear, and another a painting done with scented oils. I made her a cake .

For her cake, I went with the never fail Mary Todd Lincoln recipe for a lovely white cake. This cake is amazing, light, and aromatic. I usually omit the almonds in this recipe so Andrew can eat some, but I do add extra vanilla in its place which I believe to be even better! Chelsea loves all things vanilla and really doesn’t like dark chocolate. I wanted the cake to resemble a garden of sorts (making dark chocolate perfect for icing–to resemble healthy dirt!) but I knew this would not do. So, I compromised and made a milk-chocolate french butter cream frosting. Then, I dusted the top of it with cocoa to give it a bit more of an earthy look . I even raided her garden that afternoon and clipped some lovely nasturtiums, Thai basil, and chamomile to decorate it with. Flowers on a cake always bring out the inner-fairy. When we eat flowers, it usually has nothing to do with nutrition of our bodies. Rather, it is more of a decadent act; it makes you feel special in ways that other foods can not, feeding other aspects of our selves. Flowers nourish the spirit .
On the table, I drew her favorite flower, the Paper White and wrote quotes from different poems about gardens and gardening. Some were really funny. Others, were quieter, more soft, and beautiful. I also made a ratatouille (it doesn’t get much more vegetable heavy that that!) out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, some toasted slices of baguette with olive oil, and a nice, fresh ricotta mixed with fresh thyme herbs and sea salt. We ate it all!

Mary Todd Lincoln’s White Cake
Adapted from “Lincoln’s Table” by Donna D. McCreary

Ingredients
1 cup blanched almonds
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
6 eggs, separated (best when eggs are cold)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar

Method
Using a food processor or a spice grinder, pulverize almonds until they resemble coarse flour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.

With an electric beater or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light yellow in color and fluffy.

Sift flour and baking powder three times. (I don’t make a rule of this practice, but with three cups of flour, it seemed like a good idea to incorporate some air and help make this cake as light as possible.) Fold flour mix into creamed butter and sugar, alternating with milk, until well blended. Stir in almonds and beat well.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they have stiff, firm peaks. (Use egg yolks for another use – French toast, possibly?) Beaters must be washed and dried thoroughly before whipping egg whites or they will not stiffen properly. Fold egg whites gently into batter with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla extract.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool for at least 20 minutes before inverting, then allow to completely cool before serving. Sift confectioners’ sugar on top.

Makes about 12 slices.