Let Them Eat Cake (and knitting....who would guess?)

A bit of the new yarn has been caked up (using the Standard Size Dirter, hee)----- and ready to go. My daughters gave me a gift certificate for Mother's Day with instructions to purchase a swift----- yay, I'm pretty excited about it! The yummy yarn below is a Stroll Tonal from KnitPicks in the blue-violet colorway and it is going to be fabulous I think! Now to find time to cast on. Yes, for another project, rather out of character for me! But I need a calmer simpler knit because the two projects I have going need a lot of concentration, sigh.

The cake of Stroll looks wonderful posing with some Iris in the kitchen!


I haven't had a ton of time to knit lately but have managed 2/3 of the cuff on the Hiroshige mittens. The white and blue design is framed by two rows of Latvian Braid, which was a pain only because in dk gauge it is fiddly. I think it would be lovelier with much nicer impact in a fatter yarn! Of course I got the mirror image of the braid going the wrong way about half way into it............... ack.

And the vintage recipe, the Mother's Day cake.......................... omg it was so good you have NO idea! It was so good I'm going to give you the recipe and you have to try it. A cake recipe like this one couldn't be easier and the results are phenomenal. Sweet, sticky........... glorious!!!

FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE

2 c. unsifted flour (I used unbleached organic)
1 1/2 c. sugar (why yes, that IS a lot of sugar, don't think about it!)
2 scant tsp. soda
Pinch of salt
2 beaten eggs
1 (15 ounce.) can fruit cocktail (I used double cherry from Sam's)
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Dump in that can of fruit cocktail with all of the juice. Beat well. Bake in greased and floured 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan at 300 degrees for 4-50 minutes. The cake will be light brown in color when you take it out of the oven. As the fragrant cake emerges from the oven, pour over the icing, assuming you haven't eaten it all! If cake batter looks thin, you can add a little more flour using your judgment....some fruit cocktail has more juice than others. I hear that the cake freezes well but frankly I've never had the opportunity to test this out.

ICING FOR FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE (similar to the frosting on a German Chocolate Cake)

1 stick butter (again, don't think about it)
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
1 c. coconut (I used a combination of plain coconut and Angel Flake)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts (I used pecans because they are my favorite)

Cook together the ingredients, the icing will thicken a bit and get a very light brown color. When the cake is out of the oven, immediately pour the icing over the top.