Berry Summer Birthdays

This is the time of year where I make a lot of parfaits. For one, it’s berry season and the farmers market has bright, beautiful berries a-plenty that bring those creepy Driscoll’s berries to shame. (Besides its labor practices, their berries pretty much taste like NOTHING.) For two, both my sister and father enjoy my parfaits as their birthday treats.

And for three, I love the undertaking of layers.  That you can make the cake and just leave it be after since you’re going to crumble it all haphazardly. That you can use a ton of berries at once–this round was chopped sugar plum (ok, not a berry), blueberry and a strawberry sauce I had frozen from earlier in the month.  That your vanilla buttercream piping doesn’t matter as it’d likely melt in this heat anyway. 

And brighter than a Driscoll strawberry, this handsome cardinal in my parents’ front shrubbery. 

Goodbye, July! You were a whirlwind.