SPENCER's SATURDAY.....

Saturday.A day to sit in moss pot. Priorities you know.

   A day to watch the fog and mist  spill out into the forest.Layering everything like a red velvet cake.

A day for Cordelia to watch, from a safe distance, of course.

                                               To have a staring contest with Spencer.

                              To say hello. Good morning. Are you happy to see me, says Spencer.

                                             The day breaks with more mist.More fog.

                                                     More greetings. More  of Spencer.

                                       A day where Cordelia rules supreme from her fence.

And Smokey  appears. Waiting for his brother.

                                                                            Hello.

                                                              Now what will we do?

                                                  There are Jays a plenty . But they screech.

                                                 And the day is short and misty.

                                            Jays to chase. Sun in which to bask. Leaves to rustle.

                                                           And Cordelia to stare at.

The sun is going down. The shadows get long.

                                                            And Smokey corners Cordelia.

                                               Cordelia peeks at Smokey from behind her fence.
                           And Spencer snoozes in the last sunny spot.  It has been a good day.

Life is..........

 "The purpose of life is to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference.That you haved lived and lived well. " (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

 "Beauty remains, in this life after all else." (Pierre Auguste Renoir  1841-1919)

 "O never star was lost; here we all aspire to heaven and there is heaven above us.....

                      
             ......if I stoop into the tremendous sea of cloud, it is but for a time............
                                                    
 ..........I press God's lamp close to my heart; its splendour soon or late will pierce the gloom. I shall emerge some day. " ( Robert Browning)

 "Under the harvest moon, when the soft silver drips shimmering over the garden nights..........

 Under the fragrant roses....love  comes and touches you with a thousand memories..............

               and asks you Beautiful unanswerable questions." ( Carl Sandburg)

 "Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a promise, fulfill it, Life is a song, sing it. Life is an adventure and precious........." (Mother Teresa)

Fruitcake Recipes Fruitcake Recipes Fruitcake Recipes......

WHITE FRUITCAKE ( 1997 from Shirley Moore, Fredericton, New Brunswick. This is  a  lovely, light , pretty cake. Updated in 2012 )Perfect every time.

COMBINE FRUIT in BOWL:                           BATTER:              
cups raisins combined with dried cranberries            1 pound butter

2 cups glazed /dried fruit ( your choice)                   2 cups white sugar

6 candied / dried pineapple rings, cut up                   10 large eggs

1/3 cups orange peel/fresh or candied               

¾ cup chopped dried apricots                                    1 tsp. almond extract

½ cup candied ginger                                                  1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups chopped almonds                                          3 cups flour

1 ½ cups pecan halves                                                 pinch of coarse salt

1 cup flour for dusting fruit                                      1 tsp baking powder

1 cup of Napoleon or Grand Marnier Brandy

½ cup orange juice to go with brandy ( omit the booze and use oj or apple juice)

 (Do not double recipe)

 1. Line  small loaf pans with greased parchment paper. You can find loaf pans in the section of the grocery store where they sell foil and cling wrap.

2. Put all ingredients for “Combine Fruit in Bowl” into  large bowl, mix together. Let sit for a day to let the flavours mellow.  Alcohol will burn out in the baking. Do not brush finished cake with booze. It will be way too strong and smell wicked. Especially if you mail it through US customs…. They seem to frown on packages smelling like grand marnier.

3.From BATTER List, cream butter with sugar, add eggs 1 at a time. Add the remaining ingredients.  When the batter is ready, pour in the fruit that has been standing. Mix with hands ( clean hands).

4.Divide batter between pans. The small loaf tins work so well as they freeze great and are the perfect size for gift giving.

5.Bake at 300 degrees for about 1  ½ hours ( give or take. ). I kind of guesstimate the time, and check after 40 minutes by testing the centre.  You do not want to over bake the little loaf pans , so check often.  The batch this year made 13 small loaf pans. Wrap when cool and freeze until ready to mail, or eat.

 

KING GEORGE VI’s BIRTHDAY CAKE (1939) Be sure to half this recipe This has cocoa powder in the mix to darken the batter.

( Government House, Victoria, B.C. Mum got this recipe from the chef, when she used to work at the Empress Hotel. This is a HUGE recipe and you can easily do it by halves, but I thought it was interesting to see that the original calls for 20 eggs….that would have been quite an expense in 1939)

2 lbs butter

1 ½ lbs  berry sugar

2 lbs flour

1 lb sultanas

1 ½ lb dark sticky raisins

½ lb glace cherries

½ lb ground almonds

1 lb mixed peel

½ lb shredded almonds

2 oz mixed spice ( cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice)

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch salt  ½ cup cocoa pwder ( not for taste, for colour)

2 lbs black treacle ( molasses)

20 eggs and ½ cup milk

Brandy for basting

 Beat butter, sugar, and treacle all together.

Add baking powder, spices to flour.

Beat eggs with about a ½ cup of milk.

Add flour and eggs, alternately, to butter-sugar mixture.

Add fruit, and mix with hands, adding a splash of Brandy as you do so.

Bake in 3 tier cake tins and 2 loaf pans ( I told you it was a large recipe!) Be sure to line the pans with greased parchment paper. Small loaf pans work great. Just adjust the baking time to less……small loaf pans may not have to cook more than 40 minutes. Mum used to grease paper bags and use that to line the pans.

Start oven at 350 degrees, then turn it down to 275 degrees for about three hours. I watch the time, depending on how big a batch I am making. Just test the cake off and on.  It’s worth it, this is a great recipe.

                        ***Keep a pan of water in the oven, while baking, to keep cake moist.

FRUITCAKE WEATHER

 Fruitcake Weather. Leaves changing. Wind blowing. Cats chasing feathered snacks that fly. Definitely fruitcake weather.  Two kinds of fruitcake this time. Dark and Light. Lots of wine to soak the fruit. And if you like a glass of wine, save some for a friend or two.

 Smushing the butter, thatyou left out overnight to soften.

                   Separating eggs, whites to beat, eggs to mash with the butter and sugar.

   Using good vanilla from Madagascar. Not the artificial stuff.

  And cocoa powder to  colour the dark fruitcake

 Beat the batter. Pour in the beaten egg whites, and mix with your hands.

 Lots of pans. Dark King George VI cake recipe from the 30's and White Almond from New Brunswick ( one of my favourite recipes).

                  Baked a couple of hours.

                              Taste tested for quality control......

                                                

                      Recipes in the next blog. A lot of little cakes to wrap and store.......