I used to be quite a cake baker. Back in the day, I baked and decorated cakes to sell and I even made my own wedding cake. But, over the years, I slowly got out of the habit of baking and even sold all my specialty pans and decorating supplies. Now that I am retired, I have been dabbling a little in cooking and baking – not a lot, yet, but a little here and there! I saw a recipe for a Lemon Blueberry Cake on Pinterest and thought it looked so good! So, I decided to do one. I used that cake as inspiration, but I did not follow their recipe. I put my own twists to it and made it up as I went along. I’ll admit, I’m pretty rusty in the baking/decorating area and didn’t have all the tools needed to do it properly, but it came out pretty darned good, if I do say so myself – good enough for me and to share with family!
Here is the result:
Here’s how I did it:
I made up TWO lemon flavored cake mixes. While mixing, I added TWO boxes of instant lemon pudding. To compensate for the extra powder ingredients, I overflowed the oil just a little and added a splash of lemon extract. I split the mix into THREE 9 inch round cake pans. I sprinkled fresh blueberries in TWO of the pans* and baked per the instructions on the box.
I made up TWO boxes of instant lemon pudding and put it in the refrigerator to set up. I made up a batch of homemade buttercream frosting using one and a half times the ingredients and lemon extract, instead of vanilla, and added yellow food coloring.
Once the cake was baked and cooled, I started stacking the layers. I put one of the blueberry layers on the bottom, then a layer of lemon pudding, then the plain layer of cake, then another layer of pudding, and finally, the second blueberry layer. I frosted it all with the lemon buttercream frosting. To give it a little touch of decoration, I put little ruffled dots all around the rim of the top of the cake and in a circular pattern in the center of the top. Then, I put a fresh blueberry on every other dot and one in the center.
And that is it! It is VERY good – moist, lemony, and the blueberries really give it a nice touch!
Now for what I wish I had done differently:
Don’t get me wrong – it came out very nice and I’m pretty darned proud of it! But, if I do it again (and what I would recommend to anyone else), I’ll make these changes:
* Just after I put the pans in the oven and started to clean up, I realized I forgot the blueberries!!!! So, I pulled two pans back out and sprinkled the blueberries on top and just pushed them down a little. The cake rose up around the blueberries, so it was OK. But, most of the blueberries are right on the edge of the layer and not really mixed in throughout the layer. So, next time, I’ll put them in and stir them up to mix them in better.
Also, for the blueberries — I would put more in the two layers. I thought I was putting too many, but it really could have used a few more to make it that much more “blueberry-y”
I thought I was putting a lot of pudding between the layers, but there really isn’t much there, after all – just a thin layer. Next time, I’ll put a thicker layer of pudding between the layers so there is a nice amount to off set the cake.
I also should have repeated the decoration pattern along the bottom edge of the cake – it would have looked more “finished”, if I had.
So, that’s that! I had fun and it was all kinda like riding a bike — I think I just might do a little more baking from time to time!
Picture it…….you’re gonna have to get a mental picture, cause there was no way I could get a physical picture to show you…….I am laying in my queen sized bed (the one I bought when I moved because I was tired of sleeping in a full-sized bed with three 40-50 pound dogs and thought that the extra inches would be refreshing) on my side under the covers. Megan is laying in front of me on top of the covers with her head on the pillow, her back tight up against me, and my arm draped across her. Amy is laying behind me on top of the covers with her head on the pillow, and her back tight up against me. Katie is laying across the foot of the bed on top of the covers with her back tight against the souls of my feet. I can’t really tell because the blankets are so tight around me that I feel as if I’m in a cocoon, but I am assuming there is a significant amount of real estate on either side of all three dogs as they snored and twitched in perfect unison. I can only speculate that the reason they chose to pen me in like a sardine is that just before I crawled into bed in response to three sets of begging eyes and three wiggly butts, I said to them, “OK, but just for a few minutes cause I gotta get dressed and go to the store.” Within minutes, I couldn’t move and feared I would never be released from my bondage! Then, suddenly, the phone rang and all three leaped up and jumped off the bed to run around the room in anticipation of who was calling us! Thank goodness for a call from my brother……….I was rescued and am no longer in captivity! After the conversation, I made the bed so that there was no chance of them recapturing me – for now, anyway. WHEW – that was a close one!
Let’s talk about stairs today, shall we? We can talk about the idea of stairs, what they do, where they lead, and what an imaginative mind can do with them. I have stairs in my house. I didn’t particularly want stairs in my house. But, I have them, just the same. When I was looking for my last house, I looked at homes with and without stairs. I decided the homes without stairs were far more appealing to me. So, when I looked for my current home, I put “ranch style” as a primary criteria. Oh, I did look at a couple of split levels, but knew as soon as I toured them that I wouldn’t want one. Much to my surprise, the home I fell in love with was a two-story Cape Cod – of course, where there is more than one story, there must be stairs. The photos on the realty sites screamed out at me and when I went to see it, I fell head over heels in love with it! The stairs still concerned me, but I decided to just try to get over it. And I have…..gotten over it, that is.
So, before we get into some of the more fun stuff…….why is it that I was so determined to not have stairs in my house? Well, first and foremost, I have a bad knee and stairs tend to aggravate it. So far, that hasn’t been a problem at all. They have a comfortable rise and it doesn’t tend to bother my knee – even when it is irritated already, I just need to take it slower when that is the case. Oh, believe me, I’m not running up and down them by any means, but they aren’t a problem for me.
Secondly, I have a sometimes overwhelming fear of falling. To help me with that concern, I took out the bulky carpet that was on the stairs when I bought the house and replaced it with a nice, low profile, tight runner - more functional, safe, and looks so much better, too! I also ensure I have a hand free to hold the railing and let the dogs go down ahead of me so they don’t accidentally trip me up.
Problem numbers one and two – gone!
The third concern was just fear of an upstairs…….I know, what is wrong with this girl? Well, I only lived in two houses with upstairs living areas before this one (actually, the first few homes I lived in as a baby and small child had upstairs living areas, but I was too young to remember any of them, so they aren’t involved in this story). Both of the homes I’m talking about had upstairs that gave me the creeps. I have no idea why, but I really hated being up there alone and felt creepy even if others were with me. Yeah, one was when I was a child, so you could chalk that up to childish fears and imaginations – there was an attic door that led to a dark, scary attic and railroad tracks that were close by and caused dreams of hobos hopping off the trains and climbing into my bedroom windows (yeah, the weird dreams I have started early in life). But, the other was when I was a married adult, so that is totally unexplainable, except that it was a somewhat unfinished area that we used primarily for storage until my older step-son came to live with us for a while and wanted his room up there, so I really didn’t have a lot of need to go up there.
But, I am not only fully comfortable in the upstairs here, I actually enjoy it! I have a huge dormer in my bedroom (both front bedrooms have them) that I have a lovely sitting area in and really enjoy sitting there looking out the window or reading. It is one of my most favorite spots in the house to sit and relax. I even joke to myself about something that would normally give me the creeps, but doesn’t — when I sit in the dormer looking out the window over the neighborhood, I think of the creepy mother in “Psycho” – hahaha!!! The other image that comes to mind is the old woman in the book “Mill River Recluse”, who enjoyed looking out the bedroom window in her marble mansion on the hill onto the community below – a much more pleasant analogy, for sure.
So, problem number three didn’t need to be overcome – it was non-existent! When I say this house is the PERFECT house for me, I mean that from top to bottom! So, stairs? No problem!
So, we know what my idea of stairs is – or was, until I found these very pleasant stairs. We know what stairs do – they provide a method of movement from one story to another. We know where they lead to in my house – the upstairs living area that consists of my master bedroom with a fabulous sitting area, a guest room, a laundry room, and the full bathroom. Now, let’s talk about what fun imaginative minds can have with stairs.
My brother used to love to slide down the bannister when we lived at my grandparent’s house (the one with the scary upstairs). It was a clear shot from the top to the bottom and there was a circular post at the end to stop him from falling off onto the floor. Lord help him if my Grandfather were to catch him, but he would do it whenever he thought there was a chance of getting away with it! hahaha A bannister is a wonderful thing for the imaginative mind of a child. They can be a super hero rushing off to save a damsel in distress or a fireman sliding down the pole to be whisked off to a fire or a daring circus artist performing a death-defying act – the scenarios are endless! Not that I would try it, but I know the bannister here isn’t all that conducive to sliding down it! The bannister only goes half way up the stairs (and then there is a wall and just a railing the rest of the way to the top) and it ends abruptly (nothing to stop you from falling onto the floor), plus, the spindles are rather small, so might not withstand too much weight on them. So, no bannister sliding fun in this house!
For my four-legged babies – the girls, the stairs are a playground! Katie and Amy wrestle on their way up and down the stairs – at first I worried they would get tangled up and tumble down the stairs and get hurt, but they keep their balance and continue their playful fun. Megan was apprehensive about the stairs, at first. The night we arrived in our new home, she was the first to go upstairs to check out the rest of the house – she’s my nosy one! But, after she ran all over every room up there, I heard her whimpering. I looked up the stairs and she was standing at the top with most of her body around the corner in the bedroom looking down from a safe distance. Her head was hanging down and she was whining! I called to her, but she wouldn’t come down. I went up to see if she’d come down with me, but no dice – she was clearly petrified to go down the stairs. In the mean time, Katie and Amy had gone up and down at least a dozen times. I tried to get her to go with me while I scooched down the stairs beside her – as long as my hand was on her back and I was right beside her, she was fine. We got to the bottom and she ran off to explore more of her new home. She followed the other girls back up and was, again, scared to death to come back down. So, I sat at the top and had her sit beside me and watch the other two go up and down. Finally, she followed them down and has been fine ever since – she just had to be taught how to go down!
NOW – Megan is up and down those stairs all the time! She runs around the downstairs, then up the stairs, runs all around the upstairs, then back down………I hear her race up the stairs and I hear her tearing all around the rooms upstairs and up on the bed and rolling all over the bed and off the bed and race back down! She loves the stairs and really loves being upstairs because that is where the bed is! hahaha All three get all excited when I head up the stairs – they have to race to follow me up and watch me do laundry or curl up on the bed while I get my shower or when I’m sitting in the dormer. When I say “time to go upstairs for bed”, they leap up and run to beat me to the top of the stairs, where they all stand with their wiggly butts watching me follow them up. When I get close enough for Megan to reach me, she stretches out to give me a kiss – like she’s congratulating me on making it to the top – then she quickly turns and runs to jump up on the bed! hahaha
Yes, the stairs and the upstairs living area in my new house are very special parts of the house and our routines! As for having creative fun with the stairs, though – well, that’s Katie, Megan, and Amy’s job. For me, the most creative I get is using them to place things that I want to take up or bring down so that I don’t forget them the next time I go up or down! hahaha Although, I guess you can add the images I get when sit looking out the window in my dormer to the “imaginative” category, but that is more about “upstairs” and not the stairs, themselves……..hhhmmm
The most creative and enjoyable thing I’ve ever seen on a staircase is in an old movie where Shirley Temple and Bill Bojangles Robinson dance on a staircase. It is magical and thoroughly entertaining. Take a look:
So, I’ll leave you on that note! Next time you go up a set of stairs, think about what they mean to you, where they go, what wonderful things they allow you to do, what creative fun you might have with them, and……….dance!!!!
Yeah, I know – it has been a while since I shared any thoughts. It definitely wasn’t due to lack of things to write……take today, for instance. I just had a blast in the back yard with the girls! So much so, that I just had to get on here and share it!
I need to set the stage…….since I moved back to Albion, the weather has been rather unexpected, to say the least. We had a very mild, and on several days actually WARM, November and December and NO white Christmas! (Boo on the no white Christmas, but Yay on the mild, warm days) Then, we had our first winter blast last week. A lesson I learned was to go out and clear the patio for the girls the next time it snowed. Last week, the snow was light and fluffy and they easily just ran right through it. Well, as soon as it started to melt, some, their foot tracks turned slushy and then froze hard – which made it difficult for them to walk on to get off the patio and out into the yard to do their business. So, since it snowed quite a bit yesterday afternoon and through the night, I figured I had better take my nice “snow pusher” out and clear their path on the patio and the steps down out into the yard. I bundled up with boots, heavy coat zipped up to my eye brows, and gloves, grabbed my snow pusher, and the four of us ventured out onto the patio. There was a significant amount of snow, but it was fluffy, so it didn’t take long to clear them a wide path and clean off the steps.
While I was doing my job, the girls were quite curious and excited about what I was doing. They ran around me and watched and played in the mounds I was creating. Then the real fun started! I got the idea to toss some snow balls and see what they would do. The snow really isn’t right for packing, so they weren’t nicely formed snow balls, but they still looked like a ball. I formed my first one and tossed it at Amy, who was closest to me at the time. She just stood there and it hit her in the face! I cracked up and laughed so hard at her! She came over and put her feet up on my hip, so I could brush the snow off her face. I thought, well, Megan will enjoy a snow ball, so I formed another one and tossed it at her. She leaped up and tried to catch it, but missed. She rooted around in the snow looking for it – of course, it was just powder, so it disappeared, but she was determined to find it! I laughed out loud, again. So, the game began………I formed a snow ball and tossed it at each of them in turn. Amy caught on and began to leap at them to catch them. Katie danced around loving every minute of it. Megan would try to catch it on her turn, root around for it, then take off running like the wind all around the fence line and back in time for her next turn! Katie bounced and danced all over the place – lunging at Amy and barking at the snow balls being thrown at her. It was really cold, so it didn’t last too long – maybe 10-15 minutes or so until I noticed Amy was holding her feet up in alternate steps and I decided they had been out in the cold too long. We went back in the house and they ran all over the place continuing their play time before they gave out and curled up for a nap.
I had a BLAST – I laughed so hard and really, really enjoyed the snow and the fresh air and watching the girls having fun. It was a good morning! I can’t wait to do it again tomorrow! hehehehe
