A BITTERSWEET CELEBRATION for "Tea In The Garden"

 We have had a lovely break in our

temperatures enjoying some weather 

in the 80's and everyone has loved it.

  That's a good reason to do a little tea time

 in the garden along with the fact that

the bittersweet is getting lovely on the

arbor. 

I did a floral with a variety of items

and colors from the garden and

added some pink market roses:

Today I baked a BUTTER PECAN CAKE

but I have to say that I don't know where

this recipe came from.  I copy a lot of

recipes and print some but I usually write

 on the copy information about which book

 or magazine issue the recipe came from.

I will need to skip dinner tonight

 since I had an early

slice of this cake!

I don't give a lot of directions for recipes

since most people know how to mix up

a cake batter so here are the basic

ingredients:

Cake body - 3 layers with 8" pans buttered and floured  350 degrees My oven is convection which took 27 minutes otherwise 30-35 minutes

1 cup chopped pecans, 3/4 cupt butter, 1 1/3 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3 eggs if small or 2 large, 2 cups sifted flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup milk - mix all together well and then stir in the 1 cup of chopped pecans

And now I need to say that I doubled all that to get this tall cake but if you want - just

use this recipe for a smaller one.

Icing:  4 Tb butter, 3 cups confect sugar, 3 Tb light cream and 1 tsp vanilla and 1/3 cup of chopped pecans.  Sprinkle the 1/3 cup of chopped pecans on top after icing the cake.

I hope you have had a nice summer. 

 We had such a need for rain that my

 flower garden had to be watered and

 even that was not making the plants

happy.  

If you want to toast your pecans you just

 chop them up and dot 3 Tb of butter over them in a shallow pan and toast them

 at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (stir occasionally during the baking process)

The first day of autumn

 is September 22!