My Rhododendrons are blooming ~ big and beautiful!
My Lily of the Valley is blooming ~ small and white.
The view from my swing today while I enjoyed my morning coffee
were these flats of petunias purchased for my baskets and boxes.
As it is Thursday I am joining my friends,
I Like Thursday Bloggers @ Not Afraid of Color
to appreciate the small joys of life.
In this post yesterday,
I mentioned that we had to take Katniss to the vet for stitches and a lion cut.
Katniss is feeling much better and healing well.
Here she is perched on top of the boxes holding my new kitchen cabinets where she is eluding me as I try to put the cone back on after I took it off for her to enjoy her dinner. "Come to Mommy, Katniss!"
Mr. Scrapatch will, hopefully, find time to install the cabinets and sink soon.
Yesterday, she kept working the cone off but today she is being more tolerant
... as long as Mommy gives her ears lots of extra scratches.
Kitty and I have not gotten much sewing done,
but, hopefully, my quilty kitty helper and I will be sewing again soon.
Last Thursday
I posted that I was making Lilac Sugar and promised an update as to how this turned out. Mixed review.
The flowers turned brown and the sugar was clumpy from the moisture it absorbed from the petals. I did not find this look appetizing, so I sifted out the flowers.
Here is the sifted lilac sugar.
It tastes different from regular sugar, a bit sweeter.
Although it does not smell strongly of lilacs, the scent is pleasant.
I decided to make a Lilac Sugar Cake.
I used a recipe that I have had for over 50 years for Cottage Pudding. It is a cake, not what we in the USA call "pudding." I believe it may be traditional in the UK for dessert to be called called "pudding."
My cottage pudding cake recipe does not have extract or other flavoring. This recipe makes a buttery one-layer 9" or 10" cake.
Cottage Pudding Cake
Sift together in large bowl:
2 and 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
... and set aside.
In a large glass measuring cup:
Melt 1 and 1/2 cups butter
Add:
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 cup of milk
and mix well.
Stir together with sifted dry ingredients just until well combined.
Batter will be thick.Spread in buttered 9 inch baking tin.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. If not done, reduce heat to 325 degrees and check every 5 minutes. Test with toothpick. It is done when there are only a few crumbs sticking to the toothpick.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
This makes one 9 inch layer cake
Traditionally, it is served out of the oven with a warm vanilla sauce.
It is a nice and moist, fine crumbed cake with a slightly thicker crust than usual cakes which reminds me of scones. Indeed, I have served wedges of this warm cake as I would scones.
I have over the years added an extra half cup of flour and patted out the dough and cut circles for sweet biscuits or round scones.
Mixed Grain: substitute oatmeal or whole wheat pastry flour for part of the flour.
Take care not to overbake, or it may turn dry.
Over the years I have made many variations of this cake:
Serve warm with a Lemon Curd Sauce: Make your own or heat a jar of lemon curd mixed with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice.
Strawberry Shortcake: Serve warm with fresh berries and cream. Sometimes I split the pieces of cake and spread with butter and serve with the berries.
Strawberry Cream Cake: When cool, split into two even layers and spread whipped cream and berries between layers and dollop cream and more berries on top.
Berry Cake: Add a cup of blueberries or raspberries or cranberries (or a mixture of these berries) for a tasty treat.
Cinnamon Crumb Coffeecake: Blend 1/3 cup butter and 1 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to form moist crumbs. Sprinkle over top of batter before baking. Bake as directed. If I dribble a thin vanilla glaze over this warm from the oven, it is Mr. Scrapatch's favorite coffeecake.
Almond Cake: Add 1/2 of ground almonds and 1 teaspoon of almond extract to the batter and ice with a thin glaze made with powdered sugar, almond extract and milk. Then sprinkle the icing with sliced almonds.
Poppy Seed Cake: Soak 1/2 cup of poppy seeds in the milk for an hour before adding. Add lemon extract, if you like lemon poppy seed.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake: Melt 1/2 cup butter in baking tin and sprinkle with 1 cup brown sugar and arrange pineapple slices and cherries. Spread batter on top and bake as directed. Turn out on heavy plate while still warm. Serve warm or cold.
Boston Cream Pie: Spilt cake into two even layers and fill with vanilla custard and top with chocolate icing.
Jam Sandwich: Split cake into two even layers and spread bottom layer with 1 cup of strawberry or seedless raspberry jam. Place top layer and dust top of cake generously with 10X powdered sugar.
The possibilities are endless.
"Lilac Sugar Cake"
For this cake, I substituted the sifted lilac sugar for regular sugar.
At the last minute, I decided to add a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
for additional flavor.
Then I glazed the warm cake with a lemon icing,
made from 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1/3 cup lemon juice.
I sprinkled on a little pink and purple sugar
and set a few of my last lilac flowers in the center
for the photo.
Very tasty.
The cake did not taste lemon or lilac,
but it did have a different and distinct flavor.
The lemon glaze added a nice tangy note.
If you do not like lemon, you may want to use vanilla extract
in the cake and the glaze or just leave it plain.
I am not sure if I will make lilac sugar again next year.
If I do I may use it the second day when the flowers are still purple.
While evening started to fall and we were enjoying cake, this visitor came and landed on the rose trellis outside our open back door. This little mourning dove sits there frequently looking in at us.
May the rest of your Thursday be a happy one!
