Friday Photo

Last night we had a family party for Cubbie. What a fun age this two year old boy is at! He was quite delighted with his firetruck cake. His fascination with big trucks is in full swing, the weekly visit of the trash truck is so very exciting. I do believe the trash truck is second only to his Papaw and his truck. At our house we have three birthday traditions; the birthday person gets to choose the theme of their cake, then help decorate it and everyone tells what special thing they love about the celebrated one. Simple, fun and sweet. Cubbie "listened" to everyone's favorite things about him while merrily eating all the frosting off his slice of cake before turning to my piece to eat my frosting. Sorry Bud, Mama doesn't share vanilla buttercream with anyone! Birthday or no birthday!

Baby's Book

I must confess, my inspiration for craft projects for the kids leaves something to be desired. Our art usually consists of coloring books for the little ones and sketch books for the older two. They have plenty of creative license (translation: their mom can't think of any good ideas) to draw whatever strikes their fancy. Creative bursts may result in a little painting or the occasional modeling clay frenzy, but day to day we don't get too crafty. Lately we have been making some simple sewing projects for gifts and that is what you see happening here. Please note the "happy mushroom" on the left hand side of his page.

My middle son made a cloth book for Baby's first birthday a few weeks ago. He loves to draw and so we set out with some fabric squares, markers and prayers for patience. That would be me praying for patience. He illustrated each page with drawings of the two of them doing various boy things, fishing, camping, hunting, driving race cars and monster trucks. My part was to write the story on each page and sew it all together.

I must say, it was a hit. Baby carried it around with him and looked at all the pages over and over. The best part was seeing Big Brother's delight in giving the gift. When it comes to gifts and giving, I want each of my kids to know that feeling of giving something you made with your own hands. There's nothing like it!

Tea and Scones

One of our current popular breakfasts consists of hot tea and current scones. Above you can see the birthday breakfast we enjoyed earlier this month to celebrate Baby's first birthday. Each of us chose a special cup and saucer from my collection instead of our usual selection of mugs, this is Big Brother's choice. They are always so excited to sip (gulp is more like it) their hot tea from a delicate china cup. I love using them too. Nothing like fine china to elevate a regular breakfast to something memorable.

Now, you can't be afraid of scones. They sound fancy but are really just sweet biscuits cut into wedges instead of circles. This makes them easier than biscuits because you can shape and cut them on the baking sheet and save the mess of rolling out dough and cutting it. I like to add currents solely for tradition, very English. Also, I picked up two boxes of them oddly enough at a rinky-dink little grocery store in my hometown. Seriously, you would be hard pressed to find brown eggs at this store but they do carry currents. It never ceases to amaze me. Whenever I am shopping there with my mom, I nab several boxes of currents to keep in my pantry to add to scones. If you don't have currents just substitute raisins, dried cranberries or leave them out. Plain scones are divine too. Get out your apron, fill the tea kettle and polish your china. Let's make some scones!

Current Scones

1 3/4 cup flour (part whole wheat if your into that)

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup currents

3/4 cup milk

Raw sugar (optional)

Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in butter (Come on and use your hands, it's therapeutic!) until the texture is like crumbly meal. Stir in the currents. Stir in all but 1 tablespoon of milk to make a soft dough. Knead together lightly and gently to smooth out the dough. Don't go crazy, just get it mixed. Divide the dough in half and scoop each portion onto a large buttered baking sheet. Pat each ball of dough into a disk about 3/4 of an inch thick. Let the dough rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Brush each part of dough with the reserved milk and sprinkle with raw sugar. Use regular sugar if that's all you have, you just need to have that delightful crunchy sugar top on your scones. It will make you happy, I promise. Cut each circle of dough into 8 wedges with a knife. You don't have to separate the wedges, basically you are scoring them into serving pieces. Put the scones into a preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until they are golden and brown. Serve with a pot of hot tea and enjoy!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Tuesday night we were going to a potluck dinner and all I could think about was an old favorite recipe for Chocolate Chiffon Cake. I dug through my two recipe card files and finally found the smudged and splattered note cards bearing the sacred recipe. The source of this cake and the wonderful icing has long passed from my poor little memory but from whoever or wherever I obtained it, Thank You! I've been making this cake for a long time. Last time I was at my mom's we were looking through a box of old photographs and came across one of my birthdays, maybe my twentieth, and this cake was there on the table decked out with pink candles. Of course, my twentieth birthday wasn't all that long ago but let's just say, I've had a few cakes since then. About the cake, it has a beautiful even texture and taste remarkably like a homemade Hostess cupcake without the weird cream stuff inside. The icing is just a bit thicker than a glaze but thin enough to run down the sides of the cake in glorious chocolate rivers. You will have to excuse the odd color in the photo above, by the time it was cooled and iced the sun had long been gone. I was left with my kitchen lights to work with and they just aren't the same. Now to make this cake, you make some of this:

And then some of this:

Fold it together like this:

When it's mixed together pour it in a pan like this:

Put it in the oven to bake and hopefully your kitchen won't look like this:

If it does, don't worry, it's nothing a little elbow grease and promise of cake to come won't fix. Here is the recipe, I hope you come to love this cake too.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup boiling water

1 3/4 cup cake flour (substitute 1 1/4 cup + 1 Tbls. unbleached flour and 5 Tbls. cornstarch)

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup oil

7 eggs, separated (see note below)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a bowl, combine cocoa and boiling water, cool 20 minutes or until room temperature. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda and salt. Stir in oil, egg yolks, vanilla and cocoa mixture. Beat until smooth. In a large bowl beat egg whites and cream of tartar until still peaks form. Gradually fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites using a motion from the bottom of the bowl up to the top instead of a circular stirring motion. This will mix the batter without deflating the egg whites. In a chiffon cake the air you beat into the white helps the cake to rise and gives it a soft texture. You don't want to stir out all the air you just beat into the whites. Pour the batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan (tube pan) and bake on the lowest oven rack at 325 degrees for 60 to 65 minutes. Invert pan to cool completely. Then remove the cake from the pan by running a knife around the outer edge of the pan then the inner ring. Turn the pan upside down and pop it out of the outer part of the pan. Then run the knife between the cake and the bottom of the pan and the cake will fall onto the platter. Ta da!

A note about separating eggs. There are all sorts of contraptions for separating eggs but my mama taught me to do it using the egg shell. Crack your egg over the bowl you want to put the egg whites in. Hold the halves of the shell in each hand with the yolk in one half. Let the white run out into the bowl. Gently tip the yolk into the other half of the egg shell. Do this back and forth until all the white is separated from the yolk. If you have trouble and the yolk starts to break, just stop and dump it into the bowl for the yolks. A little white in the yolks is fine, what you don't want is yolk in the whites. The yolk contains the fat of the egg and any fat will keep the whites from beating up stiff like you want. Try it, you'll feel like a real chef!

Chocolate Icing

1/3 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

6 Tablespoons cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 to 4 Tablespoons hot water

Melt the butter, stir in the powdered sugar, cocoa and vanilla. Stir until very smooth. Stir in enough hot water to make the icing pourable. Drizzle over the cooled cake and spread with a spoon, pushing gently to help it run down the sides of the cake. Do not make this icing too long before the cake is cooled or you may be temped to eat it before you are able to put it on the cake. This has never happened to me, I'm just saying this could happen to some one of lesser constitution. Enjoy!

The BOOK

It finally arrived!!! Waiting at the front window, I spied the big brown truck driven by a veritable angel as it screeched to a stop in front of my house. In my stocking feet I ran out the door to meet the cheerful lady who was sprinting up my driveway. She handed off the package and turned back to her truck. I was about to hug her but man, they are fast. Instead I hugged the humble cardboard box and headed back inside. After making quick work of ripping it open, there it was in all it's glory, my own copy of Pioneer Woman Cooks!! My sweet mother-in-law had purchased it for my birthday this summer and I have been on pins and needles ever since. Why does it take so long to print a little old book anyway? So it is here and after I get the kids in bed and the kitchen cleaned I can sit and revel in PW's wonderful work. If you have talked to me for longer than 5 seconds then you have heard of my devotion to PW. It's serious, I may need intervention. She may think I am stalking her. Good thing she lives out in the middle of no-where, who would watch my kids while I drove all the way over there just to shake her hand. Last night I read through to chicken fried steak and twice baked potatoes. Really, it would be in every man's best interest to buy a copy for his wife, it's full of man-food. So, PW, I want you to know that you have brightened the life of a little Arkansas mama and I thank you!

Happy Birthday Lueberry!

Little sister turned two yesterday and we celebrated with a homemade cake, balloons and ballet princess plates. She had a blast! Several years ago, when there was only one "helper" around here, I came up with the brilliant idea that the birthday kid would get to decorate the cake with me. They get to choose their own theme and we pull out all the cake decorating paraphernalia and let them at it. Well, now that there are four "helpers" it's not a piece of cake. Excuse the pun. A couple of years ago we had the unfortunate rocket cake. The proud creator assured his grandma it wouldn't actually take off, it was only a cake. He must have mistaken her shocked expression for amazement that we had made a real rocket out of cake, frosting and ice cream cones. At least the cake was edible, bless it's heart. We have made a monster truck cake, a castle cake, a beach cake and two race track cakes. Big sister is just now getting old enough to imagine her cakes so I'm excited about the girly cakes we can start making.
Little sister seemed quite pleased with her chocolate, pink and white cake. She is finally able to blow forward instead of straight up so she could blow out her candles this year.
The cake itself is the Best Birthday Cake from Smitten Kitchen and I must say, it's all it was cracked up to be. If you haven't found her site yet, get your hinny over there! Her photography and writing are beautiful, not to mention her recipes being fabulous. Years ago I gave up on butter cakes because they always tasted like sweet cornbread with frosting. This tastes like real cake and the texture was perfect. All in all, even with the kids help I am pleased with how it turned out. And by the way, the advantage of letting your kids help decorate the cakes is than when they look a bit strange or even hideous, you can smile and say, "he decorated the cake himself!"