Jammin' in the Kitchen

Hey Loves! F & J here!

Summer in the North West is prime time for picking berries. As you may have seen, we have done our fair share already. That doesn't mean we didn't go pick even more to make some Blackberry Jam! We do love blackberries by themselves but we ate ourselves silly and had to find another way to use the berries so they wouldn't go bad, and hopefully last longer! 

J's mom makes homemade jam every year, so we knew it wouldn't be too hard to make and if anything went wrong we could ask her! Thankfully we didn't need too! 

To make Jam or Jelly you need to buy Sure Jell, so we used the recipe that comes in the box. But of course, they have it online too, you can find it here! The site has recipes for different kinds of jams too (if blackberries don't tickle your fancy)

We  bought our mason jars at Michael's (an arts and craft store). It came as a set of 12 mason jars for $15.99 and we used a 40% off coupon, that they have almost all the time and only paid around $10. You can also find it at Fred Meyer's for $10 for 12. 

We decided to make our jam seedless, so after blending the berries, we spent a long time squishing them through a strainer. We followed the directions closely (we didn't want our berries to go to waste!). Once we finished and put the jam in the jars we had to leave it sitting out for a day. Now we are storing it in our freezer's for later. Of course we had to try it first! And we are so happy to say that it was DELICIOUS! It was a lot of work but well worth it. We will be enjoying our jam for quite awhile!

Because it worked so well, we will try it on other berries later. In the grand scheme of things it didn't take too long, and the time passes pretty fast when you're dancing to music. If any of you make it yourselves let us know! 

Love,

F & J

A Berry Nice Surprise

Hey Loves! F & J here!

We got around to counting our coin jar again. If you don't know about our coin jar yet, make sure you read our post about it by clicking here. It's over $100 up from last time which is a nice surprise, and will definitely make a dent in our travel fund. We know that it is just going to keep growing.

We still don't want to share where we are headed to yet, because it's not set in stone. But we are excited that the jar is growing nicely. We don't know if any of you have a coin jar, but if you do, or are going to start one, let us know!

Go ahead. Be Jealous.

Besides the coin jar we went berry picking this morning and got a pretty hefty amount. Once we wash them, they will be a yummy snack, and we know we worked hard for them. There was blood, sweat, and tears (literally!) while picking them, and we have cuts up our arms (stupid thorns), but it was so worth it. It definitely won't be the last time we go berry picking this summer.

Love,

F & J

Pretty & Pink

Hey Loves! F & J here!

Look at this beauty! We are not one's to brag but we have to admit we are really proud of the way this turned out. We have never attempted a multi-layered cake before and we did not even follow any directions! We just made things up as we went along, and it looks like it worked in our favor! 

It took quite a while but we think it was well worth the time.

If you want to make this yourself here's how: 

We took the easy way out, and bought white cake mix, in a box, but obviously you could use your own batter (preferably white, for color sake). 

After mixing it, we filled the pan with a quarter of the plain white batter. Stuck it in the oven moved on to layer two. Remember there is less cake than normal, so it will take less time and you should bake it at a lower temp. We did ours at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12-15 minutes a layer.

Then we added a few drops of red food coloring (you can use whatever color you want), just enough to make a pretty baby pink. Then like the first one we took the same amount out (we used a measuring tool to know how much to put for each layer).

The third and fourth layer we just added more food coloring to make the gradient effect.

After all our layers were baked, we put them on cooling racks, then in the fridge. We waited about an hour to make sure that they were COMPLETELY cool. Even a little warm, will make the frosting melt, and it will be a disaster!

We came back to our cakes and used a knife to make sure all our layers were flat, then came the fun part. We began stacking the cakes, putting a layer of frosting between each other. Then we stuck it back in the fridge, to make sure the frosting was cold. Then we properly iced the whole cake.

When we cut in, the results were really exciting. When the cakes were baked the colors looked whiter, and we thought it didn't work. We were a bit anxious cutting into it, but were pleasantly surprised.

We think that you guys should all try this, because it is not too hard, and looks pretty impressive. We will definitely be making more of these in the future! Share pictures, we love seeing what you guys create!

Love,

F & J