The LA Garden Show

This past weekend was so beautiful here in Southern California.  It was the perfect weekend for the LA Garden Show at the LA Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

We all had such a great time looking at all the designer's gardens...there were some great ideas I told Jeffrey (hubs) to make me...eh em...for Mother's Day!!

Yes, this is what I want babe!!!

Looks like fire...ugh!

The brightest I have ever seen...

  

This one was a mini garden scene in a coffee can!  Go Barbie!

Inside the orchid house...breathtaking!!

Lest I forget to mention, that wandering the grounds, literally everywhere were these magnificent creatures...

The noises they made were hysterical!  But, it was no wonder why these animals were here...their beauty fit right in with the amazing landscaping.

Some other feathered friends decided they wanted to hang out with us (cause we are so cool!  or maybe it was because of the kettlecorn...hmmm)

It felt like we were in a fantasy...on an island...oh, wait, isn't that the house FROM Fantasy Island!!

Welcome!!

The sights were beautiful...especially these guys..

The hubs took this one of me by the waterfall....how romantic ; )

Everyone thanked everyone else on this beautiful day for a wonderful time.  I will cherish it always.  The  grandest of all finales?

Getting to hand feed Mr. P!  How cool is that??

Raw Ice Cream Cake Challenge entry

Well, I finally finished my raw ice cream cake for Sweetly Raw's Raw Ice Cream Cake Challenge!! I had a little set back with my leaky pipe, but I overcame.  Now, before I get into the details, I wanted to explain where I came up with the flavor idea.  It started with Heather's Moonie Pie Challenge (which I didn't enter) but I still made.  I started thinking about a different "cake" I wanted to use instead of the chocolate cake.  It is an almond based crust I perfected that tastes just like graham crackers.  I thought that the moonie pie might taste more like a s'more that way...and VOILA!  I decided I was going to make a s'more flavored nice cream cake.  Mmmm, mmmm.

This is what I am calling my "Gimme S'more" nice cream cake.

I began by making my "graham cracker" crust made up of dates, almonds, honey and coconut oil.  I only have a 12" spring form pan so I realized that my cake would be vertically challenged.  I decided that it was meant to be!  A s'more isn't 10" tall, it is shorter cuz you are squishing the crackers to melt the marshmellow and chocolate together...anyways, I digress.

I pressed half the crust into the bottom of my pan and kept the other half for later.  I then made the chocolate nice cream (with extra cacao butter and agave) and put half of it over the crust and put in the freezer to harden.  Next I made a white chocolate nice cream and put about 1/3 of it in the fridge to chill. I took the other two cups and added almond butter and more agave for my third nice cream flavor.

After everything chilled to a pancake batter-like consistency, I poured the almond butter nice cream over the frozen chocolate layer...and added little bits of fudge that I made from cacao butter, agave and cacao powder/nibs.  Then I swirled in the white chocolate layer for this pretty design...

I put this in the freezer to harden up and when it was ready, I added the other half of my chocolate layer. I took the remaining "graham cracker" crust and crumbled it over the top!

After this set up in the freezer, I drizzled chocolate sauce over the top....

You can see the layers from this view...just like a s'more!!  Graham cracker, chocolate, yummy marshmellowy, peanut buttery, fudgy layer, more chocolate and another graham cracker!!!

Deeeeeelish!!!

Finally, I added some whipped coconut cream to the top...

I didn't end up using any of the buckwheat crispy's I made...didn't seem to go.  But now I have plenty to make all kinds of goodness with.

Here is a slice...

I know I may seem biased, and I know this isn't the most beautiful nice cream cake to hit the scene...but it was absolutely DEEEEELICIOUS!!  Everyone in the family agrees!!  It actually tastes like a s'more!

What a blast to make!  The hubs insists this is his favorite nice cream cake to date, so that made my day.

Preparing for the Raw Ice Cream Cake Challenge

I have been busy preparing for an upcoming Raw Ice Cream Cake challenge.  Last night, I measured out the required nut, buckwheat and cacao butter quantities.  I soaked my cashews, almonds and buckwheat groats overnight.  I placed my coconut oil and coconut cream and cacao butter in my dehydrator on a low temp to bring them to a liquid state.  I was prepared for anything....except a busted pipe in my bathroom!

The water HAS to be turned off in order for the hubs to work his magic!!  Unfortunately, the lack of readily available water poses a HUGE problem!  Who knew how much I relied on my beautiful H2O!

I await patiently, out of the hubs way (he hates problems like these and can get quite cranky) and am trying to occupy myself with some other activity.  Oh...I wanna scream for ice cream!!!  Maybe later...