A Cake, Two Cakes, and a Shrug

Ok, so that title is actually a little out of order, but it's funnier that way.

For my birthday on Saturday (1/23), Richard and I drove down to Dalton GA to pick up a carpet. While we were down there we stopped at a Thrift store that was run by a mission. In the lobby they had a table of what R calls "used" baked goods. There was a sign on the wall, "Only ONE Cake Per Family." Well, we're a family, right? Sure enough, there were little birthday cakes. I got a free birthday cake on my birthday! I picked one with red roses.

Ok, now rewind [makes vinyl-record-rewinding sounds] to Monday last. It wasn't anybody in our family's birthday, but Tony had MLK day off work, so we decided to celebrate Artemas' 18th birthday a little early. I made this amazing, Amazing Fudge Tunnel Cake. Des was going to bring down a turkey to bake. Well Des and Tony ended up getting here at 7:30 PM with no turkey (it never did thaw) but with bags full of heat-n-eat hot wings, chicken tenders, french fries and stuff. So we pigged out on all that, and ate cake, which was good. We didn't get a pic of the cake, because in transferring it to a platter, Artemas dropped it. It looked like a truck ran over it. Still tasted great, though! Although I decided the recipe could use some tweaking...

Wednesday on Artemas' actual birthday we went to Dalton to order the original carpet mentioned above. The car broke down, it rained, we ended up being late to get the kids back to youth group, with $50 worth of pizzas he didn't get to share with his group. And no cake, because we weren't home since 8AM for mom to make one.

So, Thursday I made another Amazing Fudge Tunnel Cake, a la nikki, which was delicious. So here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Moist ingredients:
1+1/2 cups butter, softened
1+3/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
(or 1/2 tsp flavored extract like almond)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dump all the moist ingredients in a bowl and mix on medium-high speed for 3 minutes. Mixture will look like a fluffy pudding or mousse. While this is beating, in a separate bowl put the

Dry ingredients:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups finely ground pecans or almonds
3/4 cup cocoa powder

Dump all this about 1/3 at a time into the moist ingredients and mix thoroughly. Batter will look very thick and almost oily (that's ok!). Spoon batter into a greased & floured Bundt or Angelfood cake pan. Bake for 1 hour at 350 F. Let cool in pan at least 15 minutes, loosen cake gently around the edges with a table knife, put cake plate on top of pan and invert pan to turn cake out.

For the glaze you will need about 1/2 a jar or recipe of chocolate frosting, softened in the microwave for a minute or two or set in a bowl of warm water to thin. Pour loosely over top of cake.

A Shrug
So you know at Christmas time I was working on a wonderful, lace-back shrug in deep grape purple Australian wool. Michele in Maine sent me more of the beautiful yarn and I took the project on the road with me to FL when we went for the AMTC convention. The night before my birthday, I finished it. You can see the project with complete notes, including the lace I 'invented,' at this Ravelry link.

Even though I made the described compensation in the pattern for "large bust,"the shrug did not even meet in front by a good 12inches. I guess the girls are bigger than I thought! It fit Veronica beautifully, I could shawl-pin it in front and it looked cute on her, but she didn't like it. (Pictures were taken before ribbing was blocked.)

Then some beautiful, encouraging knitters on Twitter edified me by reminding me that a 'shrug' is back and shoulders only! I should block set the ribbing and just wear it! So I did and I like it very well!

More Later

I know that doesn't make sense grammatically, but what I mean is, I am finally getting around to blogging about Friday and Saturday, and I will write more, later. That will give me time to do today's non-existent block. Plus, you never know what a day will hold.

Friday was my BIRTHDAY!! Yippee for me!! I got up and listed 2 new yarns and 2 new sets of needles in my my7kids etsy shop, and a little pouch/clubbing bag in my HeartFeltFun shop. The bag sold in literally like 5 minutes. I have more materials so I have made another one to sell too.

Des and Tony and the kids came down about noon. My BIL also came down with my niece, so she could play with the kids. I cleaned out the Aerostar and got the junk in it down to about 8 boxes to put in the shed. The guys got the Aerostar running, so as soon as I put 4 wheels back under it, I can sell it. Tony and I made a trip to the dump, which was very satisfying.

Then I made myself a Cherry Chip birthday cake. Because I make delicious cakes from scratch (especially dark chocolate) I almost NEVER use a mix and also almost NEVER get Cherry Chip cake, which is just about my favorite. I used 2 mixes because I am feeding a crowd, ya know. Made 3 layers, with strawberries and real whipped cream between them. We didn't even cut the cake until about 9 Friday night, and by Saturday morning, this is what was left of it. Sad huh.

After the cake, I knitted some on my felted slipper. This is totally an experiment, but if it works, I will make the pattern available here for a little while, and then put it up as a .pdf in my etsy shop. I handspun this yarn into 2 little 60-gram balls. One has just a few more yards than the other. Since I wanted to felt the slipper, I needed to use a huge needle size, and the biggest needles I have (other than the funky DPNs I make out of tree branches, which I have up for sale) are straight needles. So I figured out how to knit the slipper flat, toe up so I could stop when I ran out of yarn, and seam it down the top of the foot. Here is what it looked like when I got done knitting it. Goofy because it is so loose and WAY out past the end of my foot at this point.

We made Peccadillo for dinner, with vegetarian black beans and brown rice. Peccadillo is a Spanish (not Mexican) kind of sweet and sour jumble of a dish, that is not spicy. Delicious. And, my recipe of it makes a 2nd freezable meal for most families, or feeds the crowd at my house. My sister came down for dinner, so there were 15 of us in house.

Also Des and I worked on our quilt blocks for the day. Mine is ugly, but it is mine. LoL. Meanwhile what were the guys doing? Well ya know, Tony has been helping my dh lay new flooring in the back porch, so we can turn it into an actual room. And there is a lot of STUFF back there, with no place to put it so we can lay flooring. And, dh has some odd bits of lumber and 2x4s lying around. So Tony decided to build us a storage shed. The men worked on it until after 11 PM. Tony hadn't been to bed for the day (he works 3rd shift) so by then he was tired and beat. So I had our 2 girls sleep on the couch and gave their room to Des and Tony and the babies.

My Josiah threw up all over his blankets, and Jeremiah had an accident too. So yesterday morning I got up, made French Toast and eggs and bacon for 12, and did 2 loads of laundry by noon. I threw my slipper in with the sheets in hot water to start it to felt. This is what I got after one wash. It shrunk a little more after being in the dryer. I think one more wash and dry might do it.

Richard was off for the day, as was Tony, and my BIL came down again. So we left them to do their "guy" thing out in the driveway and we watched both Bridget Jones movies. Des wasn't feeling too well, and she needed to do some grocery shopping. So we left all the kids here, except Hannah, who might need to be nursed. Went to the store and of course had to hit the quilt shop right up the street!

Diantha and Artemas and I had to serve in the nurseries at church for the 7PM service, so we went, leaving Des to lie on the couch in misery. When I got home, I made a HUGE baking pan full of nacho meat and bean dip for everybody for supper, and chocolate chip cookies. And, made my quilt block for the day. I think I have enough Chicken blocks for now. I am in a Black and White challenge, so I guess I will use the next month's worth of blocks for that.

The guys have the shed, which is an 8x8x8 cube, up, with the siding on, and a stretched tarp for a roof for now. Now we get to begin hauling boxes out of the porch to store in it. Do I get to put a star on the front of my house? and first, can I take a day off?

Darn Tootin' Shootin'

Today is my 2nd son Artemas' 17th birthday. 17 years ago today my water broke and I went into labor while my dh was enroute to work, where I couldn't get hold of him. So I left a message at his work, put my almost-6 and 3 year old kids in the car, and drove myself 25 miles through heavy traffic on US 19 in FL, to the hospital. Why the rush? Because with my 2nd child, I only had 40 minutes of labor. So you can see I was in a hurry. Artemas was in a hurry too. He was 3 weeks, 4 days early. He weighed in at 8# 3 oz, came into the world hungry, and hasn't stopped eating since. He has grown into a fine young man, and wants to be a chef when he finishes school. I hope he pursues it, and I think he will make a fine chef, Christian, and a good husband for some very lucky woman.

We got up this morning and took him to the firing range. I get to shoot free on Tuesday, and anyone sharing my lane is 1/2 price, so it was a cheap birthday present. LoL. We showed him how to load, ready, safety, and fire each of our 2 handguns. Then we stepped back out of the way, he picked up the .22 Ruger Longbarrel revolver, and proceeded to put 6 out of 6 shells right into zone 9 or closer.
The next barrel, he got 4 out of 6 in the zone. Not bad for a kid who has never had anything more than a bb gun in his hand.

I put 22 out of 24 (6 from the Lorcin .380) in the kill zone, also not bad shooting for a middle-aged Biker chick with a bunch of kids underfoot. Annie Oakley, move aside!

When we got home my BIL was over with my 5 year old niece. We had some snow yesterday and last night, and our grass was still relatively covered. Theirs was melted. So they came here for her to sled down our yard a few times. The guys watched a Guy film, so I guess the trip wasn't wasted for him either.

Today I started spinning a roving I got, called Raspberry Caramel Cheesecake. It is superwash merino top, that I got from Knitspaz on Etsy. I am using a cup-shape, top-whorl drop spindle that I got as a gift, and I am doing a terrible job. LoL. Well here is a pic of what I have so far, anyway. The colors are luscious though. I might make this available in my etsy shop for Valentine's day.

Today's block was Flying Geese. Finally! I made 24 of them. I need 22 for my project, and it's a good thing, because I had a couple rejects. Two little Flying Geese had bent wings and got rated 4-F. Here are the rest. I had in mind to lay them out with a row up, down, up, down... but somewhere I got confused. Doesn't matter entirely, because they aren't sewn together, and when they do get sewn together, they will be in 2 rows of 11 each. Lucky me.

We made homemade DELICIOUS pizzas for supper, and since Artemas didn't want a birthday cake, I made a double batch of brownies with dark chocolate chips from scratch.

Life is good.

Two Yummy Recipes

Applesauce Junk Cake

So called because it is Applesauce cake with the freedom to throw in any "junk" you have lying around that you think may be good in cake. After eating this, my son Artemas said, "More hamburger, less cigarette ash" (a joke, my dh used to have an aunt who would bake with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth and the ashes would be in EVERYTHING. LoL)

Cake 1 Cup butter (no sub) 2 Cups sugar 2 large eggs 2 Cups Applesauce (1, 15oz. can is fine) ----- about 3 cups total "junk" (see note to the right) 3 1/2 Cups flour 2 tsp. baking soda 1/4 tsp. salt 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

Junk Anything you think would be good in cake! I used coconut, crushed almonds,and shredded carrot. You could also use: walnuts or pecans raisins craisins butterscotch or white choc. chips cinnamon red hots (I would then leave out some of the spices) Frosting 3 oz. cream cheese 1 tsp vanilla, dash salt powdered sugar (1 lb. or more) milk if needed for consistency

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 or 3 round cake pans, 2 9" square pans, or one 13x9x2" pan.

Mix wet ingredients of cake, including sugar. Mix in 2 cups of flour. Add another cup of flour and the leavening (baking soda and salt). Mix in. Toss your 3 cups of junk with the last 1/2 cup of flour. This keeps the bits of stuff from sinking to the bottom while your cake bakes. Mix floured junk into the batter. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (30 minutes for 3 layers, 35 for 2 layers, probably 40 minutes for one sheet pan). Cake tests done when a knife inserted in the center comes out moist and possibly with crumbs but not gooey.

Mix frosting until it is thick enough to be spreadable and not runny. Frost cake when cooled. I just do the layers and leave the sides plain. Delicious!

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Fattening Potato Soup
This is the BEST potato soup I have ever eaten! Don't let the name scare you off (but probably don't make a steady diet of this stuff either)...

This makes about 3 quarts of soup. Recipe is easily cut in half (or freeze some for another night's dinner). This will warm you inside and out!

10 to 12 good size potatoes, washed, partially peeled, and cut into about 1/2" cubes

3 cloves garlic, crushed

a bay leaf

one large or 3 small carrots, shredded

one onion, chopped

1-2 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 pound bacon, cut small, fried, and drained of grease

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. sour cream

about 8 oz. shredded cheese (your choice)

Put chopped potatoes, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and shredded carrot into a soup or stock pot, cover with water and boil until potatoes are tender.

Fry bacon pieces and set aside. Use a little bit of the bacon fat to saute the onions and celery until they are translucent and tender. Add bacon, onions, and celery to the soup pot.

I take some of the potatoes out and mash them and put them back in. If soup is still thin, make a roux with 2 T bacon fat and some flour and stir into the soup to thicken. Salt and pepper soup to taste.

Just before serving, stir in the sour cream. Serve topped with shredded cheese. Good with a slab of toasted Sourdough bread too.

Some Time Off

Well I didn't get EVERYTHING done in time for Christmas. I think I have to start knitting in January, with the size brood I have, to do that. I didn't get Veronica's second sock done but it is half done! The boys didn't get their knuck mitts yet but it isn't that cold so they aren't suffering. My Etsy shops are both suffering, but there is time to rebuild the stock. I am not worried.

Tuesday I took most of the day off and went to the Armory to shoot. We were there about 3 hours and I did a good job. My final target had one clip from the Lorcin .380, of which I got all 6 shots in the 9 ring or closer (the kill zone). The .22 Ruger longbarrel, I got 4 shots in the kill zone and 2 in ring 8. Not bad shooting for someone who has only used a weapon one other time in the last 20 years. And it seemed to work out a lot of holiday stress that I hadn't even realized I had. My dh and I bought each other reservations in the Carry and Conceal class on Valentine's day... a dual-purpose gift!

Tuesday morning before shooting I made Tony an Applesauce Junk Cake for his birthday. Tony and Des came Tues. evening to do presents with us, and I made Fattening Potato Soup. Allen brought one of his friends over and there went an entire gallon of soup! Yum! When I get home I will post the recipes.

Yesterday we did some last-minute errands (mailing, etc.). It was 60 degrees out, windy and kind of damp but not raining.
So I finally got a chance to take the 73 Suzuki out. Got all leathered up and went for a ride... first time on that bike in over 20 years. It has a couple little bugs to work out but nothing major, actually great for having been in my dad's basement for 20 years. In case you didn't see the blog post last month when we brought her home, here she is. Gotta admit she is a thing of beauty!

Last night I had some presents to work on so I walked Artemas through making a carrot cake, a white cake, and Baklava. His hands, my brain. They are delicious too! Then this morning we baked a ham, made sweet soft rolls from scratch and came to my sisters to have Christmas dinner and presents with her family and my parents. God help me, I will make it through.

I still have the cough I have had for a month, and today I am tired and cranky. But we have had a nice Christmas so far, and for that I am thankful. And being tired will make me all the more grateful to go to bed tonight, in my comfortable bed with the bullet in it, in my warm house. I know there are many who have neither of those priveleges, so I truly am thankful.

More tonight maybe...

CHOCOLATE DECADENCE

Credit
This recipe is from the ultimate dessert cookbook, Cocolat, by the owner of the restaurant of the same name, Alice Medrich. It is out of print. I looked for a copy for nearly 10 years, and the one I finally got cost over $80. If you are serious about baking gourmet-style desserts, it is worth the search. And the money.

This cake will cost (depending on where you live) about $12 to make, plus the raspberry or orange sauce. It is WORTH EVERY PENNY. If the people you serve it to don't swoon in ecstasy, RUN AWAY from those people! Next time serve them the instant pudding topped with oreo crumbs and cool whip, that they deserve.

Ingredients
for cake:

1 POUND of dark (semisweet or bittersweet) chocolate, chopped up small

5 oz (1 stick plus 2T) unsalted BUTTER (NO substitute)

5 large eggs, separated

1 Tablespoon flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

pinch of Cream of Tartar, or 1 teaspoon vinegar
a word about the chocolate: Use the best chocolate you can afford. Ghirardelli or even [gasp!] Nestle chocolate chips or chunks are okay... generic imitation chocolate-flavored chips are not. Your dessert will only be as good as what you put in it.

for topping:

3 to 4 cups whipping cream (NO substitute)

3 Tablespoons sugar
for sauce :

one small jar of Seedless Raspberry Jam or Orange Marmalade

1 ounce (+/-) water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F

Trace your baking pan onto waxed paper or baking parchment. Cut the shape out. Grease baking pan (or spray with baking spray), line with cutout paper, grease or spray the paper too. Set aside.

Separate egg whites into large grease-free bowl. In order for whites to whip properly, the bowl must have NO trace of oils in it, not even fingerprints!

Place yolks into a small cup.

In a large, microwave-safe measuring cup or bowl, melt chocolate with butter. 2 minutes should do it. Stir until the chocolate mixture is smooth. Alternatively if you don't own a microwave, you can melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl set over barely simmering water in a pan on the stove. Be sure not to get a *single* drop of water in the chocolate if you do it this way! It will ruin the chocolate!

Add the flour and egg yolks (yolks ONLY!) to the chocolate. Stir until blended in, and set aside. (Note, I am using 6 eggs because they are medium size)

Add a pinch of Cream of Tartar or a teaspoon of vinegar to your egg whites. Beat whites with a mixer (or whisk by hand if you are brave!) until soft peaks form. As the whites are beating, sprinkle in the Tablespoon of sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form and whites look smooth and glossy... and not a second more!
Caption: Yes, I am a "po" woman with a "cadillac" mixer. A person who uses tools on a daily basis should own high-quality tools. I cook a lot for a lot of people!

fold about 1/4 of the beaten eggs into the chocolate mixture to lighten it.

Add chocolate mixture back to egg whites and fold in gently and continually until mixed.

Pour into prepared pan.

Bake exactly 15 minutes. Cake will rise almost like a souffle and will seem unset in the middle. This is correct!

Cool cake in pan. Cake will sink in the center and seem cracked around the edges. This is also correct!

When cake is cool, run a knife around the edge. Invert cake onto your flattened hand, peel paper off the bottom, and place cake on a large serving plate or platter.

Topping the cake
I see your wheels turning! You are thinking, "I could just SKIP this step and go straight to Cool Whip!" DO NOT even THINK about desecrating the sanctity of this cake with Cool Whip! I will hunt you down like the dog that you are, and cover you with that fake sweet fatness and tie you naked and "whipped" to an ant mound! I swear!

When whipping cream, have the cream as cold as possible. It also helps to chill the bowl and whisk or beaters!

Pour whipping cream into the bowl and whisk or beat on low ro medium speed until soft peaks form. (If you use a higher speed, you can turn the cream into butter! No REALLY! What do you think butter is?)

Gradually sprinkle in 3 Tablespoons of sugar, as you are beating the cream.

STOP beating AS SOON as stiff peaks form. The whipped cream will stiffen further as you spread it on the cake. If you overbeat cream, it will curdle and get watery. Blek!

Spread about 3/4 of the whipped cream on the cake and over sides.

Put the rest of the cream into a pastry bag with large star tip and pipe on top of the cake. Or plop the rest of the cream around on the cake with a spoon and use the back of the spoon to make peaks.

Raspberry or Orange Syrup

Scoop contents of the jar of jelly into a large, microwave-safe measuring cup. Add 1 oz. of water and nuke a minute or two. Stir briskly to thin the sauce. Serve drizzled over the slices of cake.

I cut this cake into 24 slices (1/4, then each 1/4th into 6 very thin slices). When you have a piece, you will see why. It is incredibly rich. Oh and you can inform your low-carb friends that this cake has only ONE tablespoon of sugar and ONE tablespoon of flour in it.

A Turn in the Weather

ok, so we're back. We got back late Wed. evening, and haven't had a spare minute to write until now! I didn't even get caught up on my emails until this morning.

Had to be up Thurs. at the crack of dawn to help the girls with their 4-H baking units. Diantha's age group had to make biscuits, Veronica's had to make muffins. Other ages had to make yeast bread, cupcakes, and cookies. The meeting was in the next town over at 8:30 AM. Diantha won 1st place with her made-from-scratch biscuits, using butter instead of shortening. Veronica won 1st place with her Oatmeal White Chocolate muffins, also made from scratch. In the Spring, they go on to a competition in the county. If they win there, they go on to the state.

Came home, unloaded the bike, and my mom, dad, BIL, and niece Dana came over. Dad and I took off to take lunch to eldest DS and get the title transferred on the bike. It is old, and smaller than our 450, but not by much. The top of the tank needs painting. But it started on the first kick (real bikers kick, LoL) and sounded mighty fine to my bike-deprived ears. Shoulda gone for a ride in the balmy 50 degree weather!

In the afternoon, I took the 4 youngest kids plus my niece to the Children's Museum in Oak Ridge. Met my oldest dd and her two kids there, plus a friend of ours and her two kids the same age as my daughter's. Twelve of us in all. What a good time. It was Josiah's 8th birthday, so he was thrilled to get to go have so much fun for his birthday.

Took Dana home and took in food for everyone at sis's house... stayed around to visit a little while, but I was exhausted. So far this week I have averaged 5 hours sleep a night, plus the round-trip to Ohio.

Today dawned too dang cold to ride. Call me a piker, but I like to see at least a "4" in the 10s column of that weather number before I ride, no matter HOW well those fringed chaps block the cold.

I caught up emails, ran to the PO, went to bake Josiah's cake to have everyone over this evening and didn't have a speck of flour. He wanted a "Hot Wheels" party, and I was going to make him a big, 3-dimensional racecar with dark-chocolate wheels for a cake. Off to buy some flour. The store had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, complete with a road and billboards on it, on the day-old rack. I really don't like store-bought cake, but when 16 people are going to dig into this thing, they aren't going to let it get a minute older! Divine Providence, that's what it was. Though my BIL did comment on my not serving a scratchmade cake ("What is the world coming to?!")

We baked a bunch of pizzas; Josiah got some nice presents. A Car Holder that hangs on the back of the bedroom door, some new Hot Wheels, a Hot Wheels "laptop" to do some of his school on, some new jeans. A Disc Shooter, to ensure that the floors of my house continually have little foam discs on them until Christmas.

My dh is feeling lousy, but I gave him a hard time about it today. When I am sick, do I get to just go lie down and die like I feel like doing? Especially when I am going to have a houseful of company? So he sat on the couch with the kids and made them get rid of all the laundry in the living room. That is some help at least.

Tomorrow I will put up some new yarns, I hope bright and early. Tonight I am going to go lay on the bed, knit, and read to hubby. Goodnight!

Birthdays, Who Needs 'Em

Yesterday was dh's birthday. He is now 66, with an 18-month-old baby girl still running around the house. It doesn't phase him.

I took him to work... the plan was that I would come back to get him and we (just he and I, for a change) would go to the new Chinese buffet right up the street for a nice quiet celebratory dinner.

I felt better yesterday. And, when I got back from taking him to work and came in the house, it didn't stink. A welcome change, I'll tell you. But as is my usual habit, the minute I start feeling any better at all, I immediately do too much. So, I

unraveled, skeined and dyed part of a sweater

reskeined 3 other skeins of yarn to mix the colors

took pics of all the yarn and listed 2 of them on Etsy

made a triple chocolate cake from scratch

folded the last 3 loads of laundry

cleaned the living room

Meanwhile my eldest daughter called, and said, "Tony and Jeremiah stayed up until 1 AM making dad cookies for his birthday, so when the kids get up from their nap, we are going to come over so we are there when dad gets home to give them to him." And my sister called, and said, "We remembered that Richard likes blueberries, so Russ and I made him a cobbler and thought we might come by later to give it to him." Ok...

So when I picked him up from work, I said... Change of Plans... and in his typical form he said OK... so I said, the Chinese place is probably terrible anyway.

When we went to bed, he said it was a nice birthday. Really fun for everyone to be together (in our tiny little house) and talk and goof off and laugh. He was right. Sister reminded me that Thurs. my parents are supposed to be here and we are all going to a local BBQ place for dinner. So I guess that can be our little delayed birthday dinner out.

Oh by the way, yesterday I also got accepted to the Etsy Knitters Street Team. And, by selling one of the new yarns I put up (within about 5 hours), I achieved 100 sales in my shop.

So, a good day.