Southern Burnt Sugar Cake

I had planned to share a picture of one of the Burnt Sugar Cakes I made yesterday but I cannot find the little do-dad that uploads the pictures so I'll just go ahead and share the recipe. If I can get the pictures loaded later, I'll post a picture of the cake then.

Burnt Sugar Syrup
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1 C. sugar
1 C. boiling water

Burnt Sugar Cake
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3 C. all purpose flour
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. milk
1 C. butter, softened
1 3/4 C. sugar
4 eggs

Burnt Sugar Frosting
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3 3/4 C. confectioner's sugar
1/2 C. Burnt Sugar Syrup
1/4 C. butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 Tbls. evaporated milk

Make the syrup:
Heat the sugar in a cast iron skillet with high sides. (Or any other heavy pan with high sides. I use my cast iron chicken frying pan.) Heat over med-high stirring occasionally until the sugar melts into a caramel syrup. Carefully add the boiling water (it will sizzle and pop so be mindful of that.) Continue cooking until the water is fully integrated into the syrup. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour your cake pan of choice. Yesterday I used a 13x9 pan and a bundt pan for my cakes. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to mix. In a small bowl, combine your milk and vanilla. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Pour in 1/2 C. Burnt Sugar Syrup and beat well. Alternate beating in flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat each just long enough to incorporate into the batter. Baking time will depend on your pans. For the pans I used it took about 30 minutes for each one but I starting checking them at 20 minutes. If you use round cake pans for a layer cake, 30 minutes might be too long. Just keep your eye on it. After it comes out place on a wire rack or on folded kitchen towels and allow to cool completely.

Make the frosting:
Combine confectioner's sugar, the remaining 1/2 C. of Burnt Sugar Syrup, butter and vanilla. Beat on med. speed for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 Tbls. of evaporated milk and continue beating. Add a little more sugar if it is thin and a little more evaporated milk if it is too thick. Spread over your cake and enjoy!

I've learned something about myself...

I am simply not a garden person. I have tried to be. Oh, how I have tried to be. But when the rubber meets the road of spending my time out in the heat, bent over weeding, watering and such...I just don't do it. As we speak, I've got a shamefully overgrown and neglected garden in my backyard. It truly is shameful. I'll not do it again. I am going to limit myself and my planting endeavors to my front porch. That's it. That's all I get. I don't mind going there and tending in the relative shade that the porch gives. I just got finished moving all my containers that were being ignored from the back to the front porch. Well, the ones that survived anyway.

On the upside, my porch now smells heavenly with it's assortment of herbs. And it looks pretty cute too with the planters and little garden pretties I put around them.

Well I'm off for now. Homemade ice cream to attend to for tonight's social. ~~~~~

I'm claiming a "Lady Day"

For lack of a better word. It's just one of those days where the energy is low and my stomach feels....well, the way only a woman's stomach can feel sometimes if you know what I mean. So I am purposely taking it easy today. I have cross stitch swap items which need to be finished so I am going to work on those. I'm sure I can have them done before day's end. I have a really big 'Dinner on the Grounds' event that I am helping with in a couple of weeks and I need to plan my menu items and grocery lists for that. Other than that I think I'll spend some time playing the Wii with my kids.

A slow and easy does it kind of day. A "Lady Day."

Being Volunteered

A friend dropped by tonight to visit and I'm so glad she did. Because she told me something that I really, really needed to know. The conversation went something like this.

Her: "So, you're providing part of the homeade ice cream for the social Sunday night?"

Me: "I am? Really?"
Her: Looking a bit verklempt - "Yeeeaaah...that's what H____ told me. She said she had spoke to you and you signed up for the homemade ice cream list..."

Me: "I did? No, I didn't..."

Her: "Oh..."

Lol ~ perhaps H____ just dreamed the conversation? Whatever, I don't mind. I can pull out my ice cream maker (brand new last year and we have not used it yet) and make ice cream for Sunday night's social. But I am soooooo glad she mentioned it to me because I would hate to have walked in on Sunday sans homemade ice cream and everyone expecting me to have brought some!

I don't mind volunteering for things, I don't even mind "being volunteered." But if I do get voluteered it certainly helps to be told about it! I'm just glad we caught the mistake before I ended up with egg on my face. :-)

Menu Plan Monday

It's menu plan monday again over at I'm an organizing junkie. I'm playing it a bit more loosey goosey this week with my menu because it's just going to be that kind of week. My daughter has an appointment with the rheumatologist on Wednesday and other days promise to be busy so I'm just going to make it easy on myself this week.

Monday ~ chicken & rice

Tuesday ~ baked potato soup (instead of homemade I have a new mix I'm going to try)

Wednesday ~ eat out after specialist appointment

Thursday ~ nachos w/ cheese sauce & taco meat

Friday ~ hamburger veggie soup w/ grilled cheese

Saturday ~ leftovers & sandwiches

Sunday ~ my birthday ~ so hopefully we will eat out!

I actually have a "recipe book challenge" of sorts that I'm planning to do here on my blog. I have such an immense collection of recipe books and I'm hoping to actually start cooking my way through (ALL the way through) the collection. There will be a few recipes that will fall into an exception category that I won't fix ~ mostly ones that I know my family or at the very least friends won't eat(because I'm willing to gift some of the fixed meals to friends if they go against my family's taste buds.) But I'm hoping to keep those at a minimum and do some major cooking from my cookbook library. It promises to be interesting.

A soft place to fall

My last post was about a friend that I'm having some issues with. Well, to even it all out a bit, this one is about a friend who is being such a blessing to me. I'm having a very hard day. I had a very upsetting talk with my daughter's doctor and just all of the issues that press in on my little girl every single day...well sometimes a momma just breaks down a bit. Today is one of those days. I'm generally not an emotional person but today I can't seem to stop the tears from falling. I mean that literally...I'll think I've got myself under control and then realize as I'm working on some chore that my eyes are once again welled up. It is hard.

I have a friend who lost her little boy to cancer when he was 10 years old. And while I (thank you Lord) do not understand what it is like to have a child die, I do know what it is like to have a child living with a chronic illness. And she understands what it is like to have a sick child. So we have found that we are able to lean on one another in a comfortable way that we really can't with others. Other people may try to sympathize...and I do appreciate that...but they don't know what it is like to live it.

So I called my friend today because right now, for this day, it is all just a bit too much for me. She knew as soon as I said hello that something was wrong. And before the conversation was over she had arranged to take both of my kids to her house for the evening (which they will love) and let me and hubby go out just the two of us for a date night. It's been *forever* since the two of us have been out alone.

Now if I can just get my eyes to quit sending the tears, we'll be in business for a nice evening.

Come on eyes...dry up please...

A very wet morning

What a morning this has been! The past couple of days we have been getting some much needed rain. It rained hard all night long. When I get out of bed my very first set of chores for the day is to go outside to feed and care for our chickens and rabbits. Since it was raining and thus muddy, I knew I would have more work to do. I dug my rain boots out of the closet and donned a poncho. Quite the fashion statement with my pajama capris, but I have learned that the chicken run is no place to try and impress. Especially when it's got muddy puddles throughout.

So I let all my girls out and they started hopping around undeterred by rain and mud. I keep large water and food feeders outside in my run and smaller ones in the coop. Our coop is such that the large ones won't fit through the door so that is why they are outside. But there was so much rain the feeder was flooded. So I take it out of the run to empty, clean and refill it. Then I shoved it as far under the coop as I could get it. I think it will stay fairly dry. Then it was time to clean out the water container. Done with no problem.

But then I went around to check the inside of the coop via the nest boxes. The coop itself was fine and dry but the area where my nest boxes were leaked! Oh my. We've only had this coop a few months so I'm still learning the good and the bad about it. I came inside to get some gloves and cleaned out all the wet bedding. Put down some DE and clean bedding over that. Then to the shed to find a new tarp. I placed this over the next box area weighed down with a couple of bricks and I think it will keep the boxes my drier. I only hope the chickens have not been turned off of the nest boxes already. I'm going to have a very hard time collecting eggs that are not deposited in the nest boxes.

By the time I was completely done with the rabbits and the chickens I had been out in the rain a solid hour. I am now blissfully showered, the coffee is on, and I am planning on splitting my day between reading for the Bible in 90 days challenge, house tidying and cross stitching. Yes, that sounds like a very good plan.

Menu Plan Monday

One thing I am doing in an effort to be more organized and "Get It Right" is menu planning. For many years I basically thumbed my nose at menu planning. It is the one section of the Flylady plan that has been making me go, "Ehhhh, I don't know about that..." (Well, ok that and the lace up shoe bit. I don't think many people under 40 are going to do that no matter what Flylady says.) But not doing these type of organizational methods have not been working out too well for me. So in an effort to get different results due to different actions, menu planning is being put into effect.

I'm posting to the Menu Plan Monday over at "I'm an organizing junkie."

Monday ~ Veggie & beef stew, beer bread, squash & potaotes, blackberry cobbler
Tuesday ~ Applewood smoked turkey breast tenderloin, mashed potatoes, le sueur peas, any leftovers from tonight's beer bread
Wednesday ~ Potluck @ church, I only have to bring chips
Thursday ~ Garlic chicken, yellow saffron rice, pickled beets, crescent rolls
Friday ~ Order out
Saturday ~ Grilled Boar's Head beef franks, chips, potato salad

New Blog, New Post

I did not have a blog to keep up with the Bible in 90 Days Challenge going on over at Mom's Toolbox, so I created this one for that purpose. It is sure, however, to encompass much more before I am done with it.

I actually signed up for the challenge late and started on day 6. So as of today, I still need to make up the first 5 days (which I plan to have done before this week's end) and read yesterday and today's reading (which will be done before bed tonight.) I will, most likely, read every Sunday's reading either on the Saturday before or the Monday afterwards because my Sundays are very busy.

I'm also keeping up with the 90 day challenge on Twitter. Please feel free to follow me there and I will do likewise. My user name is SugarandGrace.