Is there anything more delicate and beautiful than handpicked flowers straight from the forest? My mother and I wanted to make a flower crown and decorate the table with lots of wildflowers to celebrate my hubby’s birthday at the countryside. As the old saying suggests; a walk down the country road is good for body, heart and soul. With the sunrays warming our sunkissed faces, we picked flowers and berries, smelled the gentle summer air, listening to chirping of birds and the leaves rattling on the birches and got lost in this magical setting. Some people call this the middle of know where, but I call it the centre of my world. ♥

DIY Flower Crown

What you will need: Assorted seasonal greenery/wild flowers or florist flowers, florist wire (a thicker one for the base and a thinner one for securing the sprigs), scissors.

Step 1: Begin by cutting each your flower stems about 10cm long to make a pile of sprigs that will be woven into your flower crown. Depending on how delicate you wish to make the crown, arrange anywhere from 2-4 stems together nicely and wrap florist wire around the stems so it becomes a little bouquet. Make sure to leave a loose piece of wire from the bouquet ends as this will be used to wrap around the headbase.

Step 2: Begin by making a base for your crown. Measure the florist wire around your head and secure the circle by twisting the ends around each other.

Step 3: Begin to attach the little sprig bouquet to the headbase by wrapping the loose wire around the base. Use more wire if needed to secure and then place another little bouquet on top of this so the wire gets covered by the flowers. Repeat the process until the headband is full of flowers.

Note: I wanted to make a really delicate flower all white crown, so I used a bunch of cow parsley (koiranputki in Finnish) that grows everywhere at our countryside. These flowers however are not long-lasting, so the crown does not hold its course for a lengthy period. Baby’s breath, garden roses, olive branches, lavender, eucalyptus and such are very durable in comparison to many others.

country-style Espresso Semi-naked cake

To celebrate my hubby’s birthday, I decided to bake an espresso cake that was filled with lots of wild berries and cream cheese. I wanted to make a rustic semi-naked cake something to reflect the feeling of the countryside that is not too sweet and with a small and narrow shape to it.

Find the recipe for how to make the cake from my previous tutorial, but use the ingredients from below. Also for this recipe, I used a smaller cake tin that is 12cm is diameter. Cake recipe: here

Ingredients for cake base (x3)  (12cm⌀ cake tin)

• 3 eggs
• 1dl sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 dl + 1 1/2 tbs flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder

* oil for lining the cake tine / milk when assembling the cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2-3 cups powder sugar
• tablespoon lemon juice

In a large bowl, beat softened butter and cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed 2 to 3 minutes until creamy. Stir in vanilla, lemon zest and powdered sugar. Stir in vanilla, lemon juice and powdered sugar. If the consistency is too loose, add more sugar.

When layering the cake, I used cream cheese frosting for all layers along with lots of wild strawberries. Garnish the top with wild strawberries and blueberries.