Intoxication- Walking Under the Influence (of Jasmine)

I haven't enjoyed moving to Mountain View, but when I'm walking here and there, I can at least enjoy the abundance of flowers here. For a few moments, the fragrance takes me away from where I am. Long stretches of jasmine, large and fragrant roses, and the blossoming trees stop me in my tracks, and all is right and beautiful. I move on sadly, looking forward to the next moment when the scent of flowers fills the air.

I spent several years trying to figure out what to do with my life. I knew I wanted to start my own business at some point, but it took awhile to figure it out. When I started studying perfumery, I knew that I wanted to work with these captivating materials. I feel intoxicated after spending a day in a room full of essential oils, absolutes, and other aromatics. Sometimes it will make me giddy, excited, and just happier. Other times it's so intense and I need to step out for fresh air.

When I started Ivre de Fleurs, I knew I wanted to focus on natural fragrance. Knowing that not everyone likes or wears perfumes, I decided to include bath and body products, like lip balms, hair oils, etc. These would let me share the fragrances with a wider group of people, and allow me to work with different mediums as well.

As time went by and I developed the brand, my mind was pulled this way and that. The products I made and the direction of my brand have led me to a point where I look at what I have, and I'm not excited by it. I've barely blogged the past few months, and without Instagram, I would have barely done anything with social media. I'm not a real fan of social media - I'm more of a keep to myself kind of person - but I keep hearing how important it is for business.

I've spent the time experimenting and studying the past few months, and also figuring out where I want my brand to head. Along the way I pondered so many possibilities, each tempting, but they would take away from what I really want to do. And that is create beautiful and strange fragrances. I'm going to refocus my creative energies on scent creation. I'm going to make lip balms, hair oils, and a few other products, but for now at least, I won't be making soap.

Ivre de Fleurs translates to "drunk with flowers," but so far I've aimed for a more restrained, quiet brand. I hope to breathe life into it with the passion I feel for the materials, and the wild beauty I strive to capture.

"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."

-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Gluten Free Vegan Vanilla Cake

Not much of a food photographer. Or a cake decorator.

I grew up around cake. My mother had her own business making cakes- birthday, wedding, and pretty much every other occasion you can think of. She stopped selling them when we moved from one state to another, but of course we still had cakes. She even made my brother's wedding cake. I saved her the trouble of making mine- she had to fly across the country for my wedding, so I didn't want to ask her to make a cake on top of that. Plus the caterers at my brother's wedding thought it would be fun to put a heavy box on top of the box containing the largest layer of cake, so she had to fix the cake while the reception was starting. And then she had to serve the cake later- my mother is such a good person.

When I moved to California, I would make cakes for for birthdays- coworkers, friends, husband. These were always vegan, and I got pretty good at making them, though I never made really pretty cakes. More like smears of frosting, and the occasional little piped on designs. I made gluten free vegan cupcakes for one friend's birthdays after she cut gluten out of her diet. So when she asked if I would make a GF/vegan cake for her wedding, it didn't seem like much of an issue.

Except that she moved a few years ago and I hadn't baked anything gluten free since. And GF/vegan cakes are harder to make than cupcakes. I also didn't know when I started that sweet rice flour isn't a suitable replacement for white or brown rice flour. It's basically like adding starch instead of flour, and the first recipe I attempted already quite a bit of starch. I used Ener-G egg replacer, which is basically more starch. When I "poured" the "batter" went into the pan, it was really glopping down dough, and trying to get it to spread to the far reaches of the pan. When it came out of the oven it looked like a giant biscuit. It deflated, leaving a jelly-ish cake that was inedible. Thankfully you can compost all food in San Francisco, so that's where it went.

Not realizing my issue was most likely an overly starchy cake, I moved on to round two. Unfortunately, round two coincided with the beginning of a heat wave in the bay area. Baking and hot weather do not go well together, and least when you don't have air conditioning.

I used a different recipe for round two, since I wasn't really fond of the first recipe- the blogger wasn't clear on teaspoons vs. tablespoons, and so I figured it wasn't worth figuring those out for a second time. I used a GF/vegan cupcake recipe, modified a bit to use the flours I had on hand (which might have been fine, if my rice flour was white or brown instead of sweet), turning it into a 9-inch round, and adding xanthan gum. Throwing xanthan gum into your recipes just because you haven't probably isn't the best idea. I know it's supposed to help with GF baking, and I knew this recipe produced crumbly cupcakes, so I figured I'd just see what would happen. What happened was Fail Cake #2- it deflated soon after it came out of the oven, leaving behind another gummy messy. Into the compost bin it went.

I decided it was time for some research. First thing I figured out was that I should save my left over sweet rice flour to make mochi, and go out and buy some brown rice flour. I found a recipe for vanilla cake from a blog that seemed good at explaining all sorts of things pertaining to gluten free baking, which made me feel more comfortable using it. Giving Fail Cake #1 another try with brown rice flour might have resulted in a decent cake as well, but I was still afraid it might result in Fail Cake #3.

And I finally have a gluten free vegan cake that is worth eating. I've listed the ingredients I used below. See the original blog for directions how to bake (steps 10-17). I'll probably try it with the pomegranate and strawberries at some point, but I didn't make the frosting and filling from this recipe- I just used leftover vegan buttercream from last week for the first cake.

Like people, it's what's on the inside that counts for a cake.

Based on Gluten-Free Strawberry Pomegranate Cake by Gluten Free Gigi.

2 1/2 cups Gluten Free Flour Blend (I mixed up a bunch of this before starting the recipe)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup Earth Balance, softened (one stick)
1/2 cup soy yogurt, plain or vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons flax meal
1 1/2 tablespoons chia seed (use white if you don't want little dark spots, though I didn't mind them)
9 tablespoons water
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk (use other milk substitute if you like)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Notes:
Start by mixing the flax, chia seed, and water in a small bowl so they can become all goopy. The chia seeds add a little texture, but they don't change the flavor.
I didn't actually measure the yogurt- just plopped the six ounces of yogurt from the container into the bowl and that worked well enough.
The layers were a bit thin, but at least they weren't gummy! One was quite a bit thinner than the other, because my depth perception is kind of sucky. I used 9-inch pans.
The edges of the cake came out tougher than the rest of it- this might be due to my pans or my oven. My oven loves to bake things quickly.
Check out the rest of the blog- there's a lot of interesting information on various ingredients used in baking.
I pretend this is healthy, since it has chia, flax, and brown rice flour. Plus, it's cholesterol free!