Oh. My. Goodness.

And I've not even tasted of it yet! But it sure is beautiful to behold, if I do say so myself. Of course, I didn't come up with the recipe, I just followed it very, very carefully!! The true test comes after dinner tomorrow, when Todd and I slice into it for dessert! Shoot, if it didn't need to refrigerate for at least two hours before serving (and Esther notes that it's better when refrigerated overnight), I'd load it up in the car and take it to Station 6, and we'd get into the darn thing right now! :) Ha! At least that way I wouldn't have to worry about eating more than one piece!!!

I was very impressed with the whipped cream/sour cream frosting. It was superb. Very light, and not overly sweet. It will probably be the perfect compliment to the marmalade and the very dense cake. Man, with five eggs, four egg yolks, a cup of butter, a cup of oil, and a cup of buttermilk -- talk about rich! It needed a light frosting!

There are some things I would do differently next time, if there were to be a next time (which there probably won't be, since I'm not taking the Kitchen Aid mixer on the RV).

For instance, I would definitely only purchase name brands. I didn't purchase name brands for the heavy whipping cream or the marmalade. I don't know that it'll make any difference, but something niggled at the back of my brain that if you want to bake the finest product, use the finest ingredients. File that.

I don't think I did a good enough job tapping the air bubbles out of the cake batter pans, before I put them into the oven. It didn't seem to pose a problem, I just think I could have done better.

I would use a little more marmalade next time. Twelve ounces didn't seem to be quite enough to nicely cover both of the inner layers and to lay a nice showing on the top.

Other than those things, I believe it was GREAT! I can certainly now understand Esther's reluctance to make the darn thing, though. Good gravy, what a time consumer!! I remember in one of the books, Esther (Bollick) fumes that no one eats cake any more, much less bakes them from scratch. I don't wonder why!!!

Still . . . it did look awfully grand and impressive, sitting there on the counter. I will try to remember to take a picture of it before we slice it tomorrow night!

I think I'll try Lew Boyd's chocolate cake next.

Bon nuit!

:)

In Search of Simplicity

"Think simple" as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.”
~ Frank Lloyd Wright



I am in search of simplicity.

Simplicity in design. Simplicity in form. Simplicity in function.

This new functional art quilt is back to the basics, with simply block piecing and straight rows of quilting. I hope that the simplicity of the design, coupled with my best craftsmanship and fabric selection, translates into a touch of eclectic elegance in which ever way it is used...



“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci


"Simplicity, carried to an an extreme, becomes elegance." ~ Jon Franklin


“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” ~ Albert Einstein

Note: One thing that is not simple is getting the colors to show true in each picture. Something I was not able to achieve here due to fluctuating lighting as I took the pictures, as well as the various places the photos are loaded on. Blogger, Etsy, and Flicker all show the colors differently. Drives me crazy! I would say, at least as far as my monitor is concerned, that the 1st and 3rd pictures shown here, are most accurate in representing the quilts true colors.