Eating Spider Cider Cake and Skinnydipping with Alice, Annie, and Joybell

Whirlpool Quilt Block

Alice has asked the Quilters' Book Club over for some of Mother Bullock's Spider Cider Cake with an invitation to go skinny dipping in the creek afterward with her and Annie and Joybell!  (We hope Mr. Samuel Smead is not around to snoop!)

Here's Mother Bullock's recipe if you'd like to make your own cake at home:

Spider-Cider Cake

¼ pound (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ of a whole nutmeg grated (1 teaspoon ground nutmeg)
1 cup sweet cider (plus 1 tablespoon more if at high altitude)
2 cups flour (plus 2 tablespoons more if at high altitude)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Using an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar.  Add the eggs and beat until thoroughly combined.
3.  Add baking soda and nutmeg. 
4.  Add the cider and flour to the mixture, beating until just combined. 
5.  Pour into a greased 10-inch cast iron skillet or other ovenproof skillet.
6.  Bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Although this cake does have cider in it, it does not contain spiders!  In times past, this cake was made in a spider – a cast-iron frying pan, originally made with long “spider legs” that held it above the coals on the hearth.

A cream cheese frosting is a nice, modern addition:
Combine 1 stick of butter or margarine, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese, and 2 teaspoons vanilla and cream well.  Gradually add 1 pound of powdered sugar, beating well.  Spread on cooled cake.  (This makes more than enough frosting!)  If mixture is too thick to spread, add a small amount of milk. 

I am nearly positive I found this recipe awhile back on author Sandra Dallas' website but can't find it there now.  Enjoy!

Alice writes to her sister, "We have the best crop of apples ever you saw.  We dried apples.  We stirred up apple butter.  We cooked applesauce, enough for the whole Union army. . . But we still had trees and trees of apples. . ."  Please share an apple recipe with Alice and Mother Bullock (and the rest of us, too).  Email your apple recipe to starwoodquilter@gmail.com.

By sending an apple recipe, you are also entering your name in a giveaway for Jennifer Chiaverini's latest book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.  The winner will be announced on June 1.

You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post here.

May Redwork Birdie Stitches

I have missed having a small handwork project. Another quilter recommended Birdie Stitches Block of the Month by Little Miss Shabby available free online:
http://www.littlemissshabby.com/2010/12/birdie-stitches-supply-list/ When I saw it, I knew it was the perfect project for me. The designs are fun and whimsical. There are twelve small projects - one for each month - that are 8" square when finished. Instead of using several colors of embroidery thread, I chose to use just No. 8 perle cotton in red. All I need is a needle, scissors, a ball of perle cotton, and my monthly project. Everything fits in a little bag, and I can take it anywhere.

I printed the twelve monthly designs from the Little Miss Shabby website. Next, I ironed freezer paper to a 12" square of the Kona cotton in Snow. I taped a paper pattern to a window, then taped the cotton backed with freezer paper over the paper. I traced the design with a pencil.

I have done redwork on a single layer of fabric, and the knots show through from the back. I've tried backing the fabric with very lightweight iron-on interfacing, but the interfacing wrinkled. This time I used a double layer of the Kona cotton. I ironed the layers together and used an embroidery hoop. I didn't baste the two layers together, but it has not been a problem. I've been very pleased with the results so far.

I did make one change to the design. I added the name of the month to each block by finding a script font on my computer and enlarging it to 72.

Spring

I’m shouting
I’m singing
I’m swinging through trees
I’m winging sky-high
With the buzzing black bees.
I’m the sun
I’m the moon
I’m the dew on the rose.
I’m a rabbit
Whose habit
Is twitching his nose.
I’m lively
I’m lovely
I’m kicking my heels.
I’m crying “Come dance”
to the freshwater eels.
I’m racing through meadows
Without any coat
I’m a gamboling lamb
I’m a light leaping goat
I’m a bud
I’m a bloom
I’m a dove on the wing.
I’m running on rooftops
And welcoming spring!

      Karla Kuskin

Spring Is

Spring is when

        the morning sputters like
bacon
          and
           your
              sneakers
                run
                  down
                    the
                      stairs
so fast you can hardly keep up with them,
and
spring is when
        your scrambled eggs
          jump
            off
              the
                plate
and turn into a million daffodils
trembling in the sunshine.

                            Bobbi Katz

You might also enjoy reading my previous blog post here.