One of Peggy's recipes that no one can say no to, is her glazed carrot cake. This cake is very moist due to its unique and delicious glaze, but also because of Peggy's secret ingredient: crushed pineapple! Maybe we should rename this Peggy's glazed pineapple carrot cake? Regardless of what we call it, we will always call it delicious. 

Cake Ingredients: 
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots (4-5 medium carrots) 
3 1/2 oz flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Glaze Ingredients: 
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla

Frosting Ingredients: 
4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar 

Grease and flour two round cake pans. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix together your  cake incredients. Divide into two and pour into your cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Then prepare your glaze by mixing together all your ingredients (minus the vanilla) in a saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes. Then add your vanilla to the glaze and pour it over each of the cake rounds. Let cakes cool. Mix together your frosting ingredients in an electric mixer until smooth. Add extra powdered sugar if you prefer your frosting thicker. Frost the top of one cake round, stack the other on top of it, frost that as well. Serve and enjoy! 

Today I wanted to feature a few fun Halloween Ideas using lavender! These bloggers are so creative and I'm happy to introduce you to them. 

I just barely found a new blog called The Kitchen McCabe. You can find it HERE. I love these lavender candied apples she is making. I think they would be the perfect spooky treat for a halloween party. 

Growing up, one of our neighbors always gave out doughnuts on halloween instead of candy. Their house was always one of the most popular places to stop. I think these Lemon Blueberry Doughnuts with a lavender glaze would be a fun treat to give out to the little costumed creatures that stop by your house. Find the recipe from The Seasoned Mom HERE.

And finally Hopeful Homemaker is really using her creative juices when she came up with this Pumpkin Lavender Cake. How cute is this? Recipe found HERE.

Anyway, hopefully all you witches out there are using our lavender herbacious qualities in all of your concoctions and brews. Have a wonderful weekend!

I have only ever tried one recipe for lettuce wraps. It is so delicious that I've never even been tempted to branch out and try a new one. I'm guessing if you make this for dinner tonight, you'll never want to try another recipe for lettuce wraps either. It has the perfect caramelized crunch and is surprisingly fresh and satisfying. 

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, diced
2 heads of bib lettuce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 onions, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons soy suace
1/2 cup cashews, chopped
6 basil leaves, julienned
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup asian crunchy noodles
hot sauce (optional)

Ingredients for sauce:
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:
Heat your oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add your chicken and cook until golden on all sides (about 5-6 minutes). Remove your chicken from the oil, and set aside. To your oiled pan add your onions and soy sauce. When your onions are brown and tender, add your garlic and cook for an additional minute. In a seperate bowl mix together all of your sauce ingredients and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved. Add the sauce and chicken back to your onions in the pan. Saute everything together until fragrant and warm. Fill your lettuce leaves with the chicken mixture and top with asian crunchy noodles, hot sauce, and fresh basil.

Super simple, super delicious. Just the kind of recipe we love around here. Hope you enjoy it!

We had lots of lovely friends and visitors come up to the farm this year. One of those was a lovely gentleman by the name of Robert Welkie. He was generous enough to share these photos he took of our farm with us. Aren't they beautiful? Autumn is such a lovely time on the farm, but these photos make me wish it was lavender season again!

As you can see from these and many photos from our farm, our lavender honey bees sure are hard workers! If you want to purchase some of our lavender honey, you can do so here. 

www.lavenderapple.com 

Have a wonderful day!