ORANGE ROSEMARY CAKE FROM VICTORIA CLASSICS

 Yesterday I baked a cake that I

had seen pictured in the "Victoria Classics"

Holiday Bliss December 2020

This cake features fresh Rosemary on

top of the cake but I had none so I just

sprinkled dried orange peel on top:

I really liked this cake but my husband

did not but I also remember he doesn't

like my Lemon Pound Cake.  Who can

understand these things?

Recipe ingredients:

  2 1/4 Cups sugar, 2 Tbs chopped fresh Rosemary, (I had none)  1 1/2 cups butter soft,

5 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla (I used 1 Tb Orange extract instead), 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I preferred cake flour), 1 Tb baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/4 cups of buttermilk, 1 cup of sour cream.

This cake bakes in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or 22 minutes convection oven.

So here is what is interesting:  In these

photos I am only showing you a 2 layer

cake but I actually have a third layer I am taking over to our son's house.  It would have been super tall if I had used it.  I used 8" cake pans.

The topping is an Orange-Cream

 Cheese Frosting:

1 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature,

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) room temperature mixed with 1 Tb grated orange peel and 4 cups of confectioners sugar.  I also added 1 Tb orange extract and sprinkled more dried orange peel on top.

In depth instructions for baking the cake can be found on page 70 of the Holiday issue.

They also embellished the top with drained

Mandarin Oranges which was pretty.

At the beginning of each year I get out

my collection of old vintage clocks and

enjoy seeing them for a while.  Now,

it's time to put them away till next year.

YANKEE PEDDLER'S TEA ROOM VISIT

After staying at home for a very long time,

yesterday we decided to drive down

near Lake of the Ozarks to an area

called Osage Beach to visit the Yankee 

Peddler's Tea Room.  We have been here

4-5 times before and it is a luncheon type

tea room with good food.

The location of the tea room is in a charming

area known as the Landing on Main Street.

As we drove in, these folks were coming

out the door:

As we entered:

The menu is more of a luncheon type

menu and they have an incredible salad

which is very popular.  If you can't go yourself

you can cheat and see the ingredients here as

it is called the "Go Nuts" Salad:

This tea room also has an antique mall

and gift shop just across the street which

we enjoyed.  We found a cute purse there

for our Granddaughter.

On the way home (about 1 hour + from 

where we live) we pass over a small part

 of the vast and widespread 

Lake of

 the Ozarks.

  It was a very overcast day.

Just outside the area on Highway

54 going north there is something new 

that we checked out:  an antique mall!

 And of course along the way home

going north we pass by the State

 Capitol in Jefferson

City, Missouri:

A TALE OF TWO CAKES

Yesterday I made a Carrot Walnut Cake
with a  Cream Cheese Icing.  I only had
 a cup of shredded carrots and the recipe 
called for 3 cups - but it still worked.

I shared this recipe here on the blog back in 2009 and it is a nice cake for springtime.

Here are the directions: 

 Combine 6 eggs, 1 cup vegetable oil, 2 cups sugar and mix well.  Add 2 cups of sifted flour, 2 Tsp baking soda and 2 Tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 cup milk and beat until smooth.  Stir in 3 cups of grated carrots or 1 cup in my case since that was all I had and 1 cup of chopped walnuts.

I used 3 8" cake pans and baked at

350 degrees for 25 minutes.  If you use

2 cake pans it will be deeper so add

10 more minutes.

For the icing mix together 1 8 ounce cream cheese (room temperature) with 4 Tb butter (room temperature) mixed with 1 3/4 cups sugar, 1 Tsp vanilla and 1 Tsp lemon juice

Sprinkle 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts on top

Now that was easy wasn't it!  And now 

for another cake I baked a week or so

ago that has been long consumed:

A LEMON POUND CAKE

I bake pretty often so what I do is go ahead

and cut up the cake and put just enough

for my husband and I in small cartons.

Of course I also share with my across

the street 90 year old neighbors and

neighbors with kids next door.

Here are the ingredients for

this cake made in a Bundt pan.

2 sticks of butter at room temperature, 3 cups of sugar, 5 eggs, 3 cups of sifted flour, 1/2 Tsp baking powder, 1 cup of milk, 3 Tb lemon extract

This is combined and baked in a preheated oven at 325 degrees.  (1 hour for convection oven or 1 hour 10 minutes for other)  On either type oven, I cover the top with foil

 the last 25 minutes

For the icing: In a saucepan stir on a low temperature stovetop:  1 cup of powdered sugar and 5 Tb lemon juice and the zest of 2 lemons to sprinkle on top of the icing.

MAKING YOUR OWN SPECIAL GARDEN SEED ENVELOPES

 This winter is definitely colder

for a longer period.  We have

lived in Missouri 5 years and this

winter we are having the longest

stretch of cold weather. 

 It is around zero today.

This week while it was especially cold,

I sat at my kitchen table and made

some seed envelopes.  You might

like to make some too this winter while

you are stuck indoors.

I love the artwork of Edith Holden which
 is in these 2 books: The Country Diary 
of an Edwardian Lady and also
 The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady.

  If you have Windows on your computer these are easy to make each requiring 1 sheet of regular paper.  I used Pic Monkey to put the border around the photo but that may have been possible in Windows also

                          - not sure.

       This picture above shows you that after I copied the photo I then pasted it in the center toward the top of the sheet of paper in Windows. You can see where I folded the paper after it was printed to form an envelope for seeds.  You can add your

own additional wording to your
photos - I used Pic Monkey for that.

You can find these books on all the

discount and used book sites.  They

came out originally in 70's and then

were popular with the

 restyled

 Victorian of the 90's.

Last summer I had so many seeds to share with a few friends, some strangers and I sent a huge box full over to share with our local garden club (I am not a member) and they

loved them.  If you have Hollyhocks - you will

have tons of seeds!  I just used small plastic sandwich bags for my sharing - very plain indeed. These seed envelope would be used for more of a gift presentation.  You

could easily include one in a birthday card. 

As you can see, 

I made quite

a few:

I hope your winter is going well and of course one must not run out of bird seed.

 That would be terrible!

More posts about Edith Holden Here

Those of you on Facebook might also enjoy

this group by Patty Cone that I participate in called

"Charming Country Gardens"

and she is on MeWe at

"Charming Country Gardens".

OUR RECENT ELECTION

People who love America and love

freedom have gone to personal expense 

and great time to present evidence 

of the recent election fraud.

They have received many threats on

their business and lives by those who

don't want to truth to come out.

Here is the video Mike prepared

that explains how the votes were 

stolen and other countries

manipulated the voting

machines changing the votes:

Mike Lindell

Click on this link to see what happened

in our recent election:

Since we no longer have free speech

it was taken down on YouTube but

here it is on Rumble:

https://rumble.com/vdp7df-share-unmasked-have-we-uncovered-the-truth-about-the-2020-election.html

MISSOURI WINTER BIRDS

 

There are a great variety

of birds in Missouri.

I loved seeing a pair of Eastern

bluebirds today but they were

timid and didn't stick around

long enough to get a good photo

of them!

In the cycle of life, most people

finally have the time when they

 retire to watch the

birds.

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE OH LALA

 I have posted this cake on this blog many times but here it is again because frankly, it is really delicious so I baked one today.

I am going to just copy the recipe

 from an old post and

paste it down below.

 

While the cake was in the oven,

 it started

to snow lightly.

I love this little Sadler Valentine teapot too.

Here is what you need for your

Chocolate Fudge Cake Oh LA La:

5 squares unsweetened chocolate, 2 1/3 cups sifted cake flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 stick of butter, 2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup plus 4 TB water-boiling

1. Melt chocolate in a small bowl over hot water -2. grease and flour 2 size 9" cake pans either square or heart shaped

3. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl

4. Beat soft butter in large bowl. Add brown sugar and eggs; beat with mixer at high speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes

5. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with sour cream until batter is smooth. 

Do not boil water too soon as it evaporates fast- stir in boiling water and batter will become thin Pour into cake pans

6. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes- check with toothpick (my convection oven took 25 minutes)

7. Let cool 10 minutes - cut around edge to loosen

Turn onto cake platter...I like to put Cherry pie filling between the layers before icing

Fudge icing: 4 squares unsweetened chocolate, 1 stick of butter, 7 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar, 3/4 cup of milk, 2 tsp vanilla 

Melt chocolate in small saucepan with butter - remove from heat

Combine other ingredients in bowl and then add chocolate mix- beat till ready to ice cake!