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Monday, March 17, 2008

Happy Birthday...Southern Style

We celebrated Youngest's birthday over the weekend. These little white crocuses swayed in the breeze all the while.
It took a mere 4 hours to prepare her favorite cake for the celebratory supper. (It's supper in the South, Y'all.) Anyways, the cake of choice was a favorite of Gen. Robert E. Lee and named accordingly. It required a full dozen eggs, much grating of lemon & orange peels and some of the juice, too. Oh yes, it was well worth all the effort.
The batter rose pretty well with eight of those dozen eggs folded in. The two layers were then cooled & split crosswise to be filled with Lemon Jelly Filling...the rest of the eggs here.
Topped with Lemon-Orange Frosting and a sprinklin' of coconut it was ready for the big day. (Maybe, the General would have approved.) What else did we have for supper, you ask? Youngest wanted a supper of Southern Fried Chicken with homemade biscuits and gravy.
Sorry, they were gone before I thought to snap a picture. Just try to imagine them if you will.
Okay...after all, this is a knitting blog; a Ballband dishcloth. Great for cleaning up after any celebration ; knit with Cool Breeze Ombre worsted cotton.
I started a sweet potato vine to pretty-up the windowsill in my kitchen. This is two week's growth. If you'd like to start one just suspend the pointy end of a sweet potato in a jar of water with toothpicks; then step back and watch it grow. Knit & plant like there's no tomorrow, Y'all! ;)

16 comments:

  1. YUM... I really want a cake now. Flowers...??? SERIOUSLY… no fair...!!!! I’m watching it blizzard here again. I really like the spring colors in your dishcloth, they are very pretty. So will that trick work with a regular potato? The kido’s might get a kick out of it.

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  2. The really early flowers are up for real, Missy. Your kids would probably love seeing a sweet potato vine sprout in water. Regular potatoes don't produce as pretty a vine as sweet potatoes do. When this one grows a bit more I'll post another picture.

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  3. Your cake is a masterpiece!
    My sweet potato will not make roots! It has been sitting in the fruitjar of water for weeks!I have a tiny green sprout at the top, but no white roots!It may have been treated with something to keep it from sprouting.

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  4. Love that crocus. Somehow never see them blooming here. And nobody in California knows what a Robert E. Lee cake is, either, nor hushpuppies, nor... Okay, that does it. I have to figure out how to talk the hubby into a trip home this year.

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  5. Okay, You know I'm a good ole Southern girl but I have never heard of that cake. I gots to have one.
    *little hint...my b'day is the March 31 so you got plenty of time to make mine and send it to me. :P*

    Now I gotta go get me a sweet potato...we haven't done that since my kids were lil uns.

    Hugs!

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  6. Yummy cake! I could almost smell the lemony goodness.

    And I love sweet potato vines. Last one grew in an empty bowl because I forgot it, but I think I'll do it on purpose and have it wind around the baker's rack a bit.

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  7. No calories in that cake, I hear!
    I'll try rooting a vine too now that I saw how well your's is doing! Nice ballband too!

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  8. The cake looks wonderful!!! I'm sure you remembered to save me a piece.... :) Lovely flowers. We had a crocus or two growing in our yard a few years ago, but they died. :(

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  9. Hi! Wow, that cake looks absolutely amazing - I'm sure it was delicious!

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  10. Oh, that cake looks so yummy and reminds me of all the baking my mom used to do when we were little ones. The crocuses are beautiful, as is that very yellow Ballband cloth (and it looks edible, or maybe I am just hungry from looking at that luscious cake).

    Supper - is that a southern word? We've always called our main meal supper. Not sure what the difference is between dinner & supper.

    Love your sweet potato vine. Will you plant it outside when it grows bigger?

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  11. Your ballband matches your wonderful cake. It sure looks yummy. No flowers here in MA, but we do use the tern supper. Dinner is Sunday at noontime :)

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  12. Oh my! That cake looks WONDERFUL!!!

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  13. your cake looks delicious must try the sweet potato plant and here in the maritime we also call it supper,have an awesome day Tea

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  14. What is the book that you show that the Robert E. Lee cake recipe came from? From what little I can see it looks very interesting. Perhaps you could post the name for everyone to see.

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  15. Hi Fireflynight, would you believe no one else has inquired about the book? For real..but anyways. It's the Southern Heritage Cakes Cookbook by Southern Living Magazine. Hope you can find one..it's a great scratch cookbook with loads of nifty historical cakes.

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  16. Thanks. I just ordered a copy. And, if you don't already have it, you might like Southern Cakes: Sweet and Irresistible Recipes for Everyday Celebrations by Nancie McDermott. I've made the oatmeal cake and it was great. Lots of beautiful pictures and yummy cakes.

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Thank you for your comments!