the postman woke me at 9 am yesterday to deliver me ms. broket‘s the gentle art of domesticity. despite the surprise at being awoken after only a few hours of sleep, i went back to my warm bed then last night grabbed some lemons from my corner store. today i pulled on some hand-knit socks and baked up the “Natural Lemon Cake” from page 248. i modded the cake with silken tofu + vanilla soy milk instead of cream, some sunflower oil instead of melted butter and i added the juice of two lemons instead of one.

while the cake was baking i pored over the gorgeous pages of her book, marveling at the colors and textures and ideas. my favorite snippet so far is from page 116: “Embedded in the gentle arts is a slyly subversive streak that encourages free thought, individuality, creative self-expression, imaginative thought processes and not a little self-determinism. All this, and a great deal of pleasure, too.”

i stuck my amaryllis out the window to chill while perusing the pages of tulips and dahlias and lilac blooms. the cake finished, and though it didn’t rise as nicely as i had liked (i have no idea what self-rising flour is in german, i should have added more baking powder), it was delicious. for a modern and fresh take on the domestic arts from knitting to baking and back again, be sure to pick up this enchanting tome.

[my in-progress print o’ the wave couldn’t help but model with pages 154 and 155]