Weekend Recap

We had a really nice visit with Hubby's folks along with my Ant and my Mom's best friend. They were all here at different times so it was like a revolving door, but it was nice. Mom enjoyed all of the chaos for her birthday celebration. Dad actually came over for birthday lunch and breakfast the next morning. (Those of you that are familiar with Pops know that he is a bit of a hermit at times and likes to stay at the ranch.) I made Mom the spice cupcakes from Gramma's recipe and they were a hit as always.

We had a special guest in our yard for the celebration as well. This beautiful egret has decided we have a pretty good place to hang out. He spent quite a bit of time perched in the top of the tree by our gate.

I spent Saturday going through boxes in an effort to make room in the garage (for more boxes that we still have to get over here one of these days.) I was pretty tickled to find a lot of crafting goodies that I haven't seen in ages. They got packed away before Hubby moved in so it was a lot like Christmas. Hubby spent the day with Dad working on the fences and gates at the ranch.

Sunday was spent out at the ranch with Dad and cattle sorting again. Beautiful day to spend out in the fresh (country) air and sunshine.

I hope you all had a great weekend. I am working on a post about my decluttering strategies that I hope to have up later this week.

Saturday Sweetness - Nutty Spice Cake

If I've never mentioned it before, we had cupcakes at our wedding reception. 300 cupcakes to be exact. 300 cupcakes that I personally baked two days before the big event.

To top it off, we ended up having a "Frost Your Own Cupcake" dessert table due to the fact that everything fell apart the night before the wedding. My friend brought up all sorts of sprinkles and fun decorations the morning of. Between a forest fire, blown tire, cancelled rehearsal, unfinished dress, no flowers delivered, etc. etc. etc., it is a miracle that the ceremony took place at all. But it was perfect, it was us, and we're happily married! (And everyone says they had a blast..)

My point is that one third of those 300 cupcakes mentioned above were from my favorite cake recipe of my grandmother's. She made this wonderful spice cake for me all the time growing up and I couldn't imagine not having it at my wedding. The directions below are exactly as she wrote them for me over 20 years ago and are how I make mine still today.

Note: One of these days, really really soon I hope, we will unearth the camera from the moving boxes and I can provide you with real photos again. My cell phone camera just won't cut it..

Gramma's Nutty Spice Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup shortening

3 eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour baking pan, 13x9x2" or 2 round layer pans (8 or 9x1 1/2"). Measure all ingredients into large mixing bowl. Beat 30 seconds on low speed, scraping sides constantly. Beat 3 minutes on high, scraping occasionally. Pour mixture into pan(s). Bake 40-45 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out of center clean. Cool on rack. Use choice of frosting and sprinkle finely chopped walnuts on top.

While you can use any frosting you want, in my humble honest opinion - the one below is the absolute best frosting, ever. I can eat this simple buttercream frosting on graham crackers, out of the bowl, off my fingers, etc. I highly recommend it for this great cake. (You can find it and other variations from C and H Sugar Company . They also have it printed on the boxes.)

Simple Buttercream Frosting

3-3/4 cup (l lb. box) C&H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup butter or margarine (2/3 stick), softened

Combine all ingredients in bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy; scrape bowl often. If too stiff to spread easily, beat in a few drops of milk.

You can vary this recipe by adding chocolate syrup, peanut butter, orange peel, etc. Lots of ways to customize and really experiment with changing the taste to suit you.

Enjoy your Saturday!