My relationship with my mother has had its ups & downs.
When we get along, we get along super-super-well....
and then we've had times when we just haven't spoken at all, for months.
I can't explain why or even how that has happened....
because if you saw us together, you'd think we get along famously all the time.
Sometimes life & circumstances just get in the way....
We are different in many ways but, on the other hand, our similarities are striking.
Everyone is shaped by their childhoods and my mother & I have had very different ones....hers very very secure. Mine the exact opposite.
My parents had a very messy divorce, my father was difficult & that created issues for all of us, for years.
My mother is the woman who, in her early 30s without any family nearby, left her husband, walked away without a stick of furniture & not one penny in her purse with three children under the age of 8 & somehow created a new life for us.
She's a strong woman, a woman who, after the happiest of childhoods, ended up with a life that she never expected but somehow she coped.
Anyway....this was supposed to be a cake post not a relationship one!!
Last Saturday my mum came to visit our new house, for the first time since we'd moved into it.
It was a gorgeously sunny day, I made cucumber sandwiches, used my beautiful Tiffany & Co teacups, put out my favorite cakestand & made a cake.
A really really delicious cake....a vanilla bean latte layer cake.
The cake is made with buttermilk & egg whites so is light & smooth, it has a beautiful texture.
I'm usually not crazy about coffee cake but I do love a latte & this cake has a very delicate creamy coffee flavour, I'll definitely be making it again.
The recipe calls for vanilla bean paste which I forgot to buy & so didn't use - I did use really good vanilla extract but next time will use the paste as well, as recommended.
It's definitely a cake with a wow factor, it looked fab & everyone loved it....even my husband who could walk past 100 cakes & ignore them all ;)
Sunday was also sunny (and Mother's Day)....perfect for a pause for tea & cake.I'm starting a new tradition right now.
all photos via Sweetapolita
