Heartbreak Cake

Good morning, my friends. It was a mixed bag of a day. Some things went as expected, and others...not so much. It was time to fill the bird feeders. In summer, that seems to be my most important job. While I was out, I marveled at the flowers on the purple hydrangea.

When I've been outside the past couple of days, I've noted with alarm a few cherry pits lying on the ground. After seeing a crow fly off with one a few days ago, I suspect crows are the culprits. It doesn't matter, though. I took a good look at the cherries and tasted one. Tomorrow we harvest. I'd say today, except that I'm meeting up with Matthew for a walk in downtown Portland today. 

After we walk, I'll be taking some quilts for donation to the Ronald McDonald House. If you're unfamiliar with the mission of the Ronald McDonald network of houses, they provide housing for families whose children are undergoing medical treatment at local hospitals. I'm not sure how far their network reaches. Here, in Portland, there are two homes (affiliated with our two children's hospitals), but I believe there are others nationwide. I was happy to learn they'll take donation quilts, and I'm glad to be able to pass some of mine along.

Okay, so let's just talk about this cake, shall we? For one thing, I was calling it a "Dandelion cake" in yesterday's post. It's actually a "Daffodil cake." It was a way to use up the remaining egg whites I'd collected over the past several months. It all whipped up beautifully. When I took it from the oven, it appeared ready. As the recipe suggested, I touched it lightly on top and it sprang back. So, okay. I inverted it onto some coffee cups to cool. Then, I got involved with the laundry. When I returned to the kitchen about 15 minutes later, this is what I saw:

Oy...sometimes the "Martha" is with you, and sometimes it isn't. It had broken into two pieces and fallen out of the pan. In retrospect, I believe it was underbaked. Oh well. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I carefully removed it from the pan and stuck the two pieces together on a cake plate.

When I added the glaze, it wasn't beautiful, but it appeared edible.

We each had a piece for dessert, and it was actually downright tasty. Mike said it was similar to the “Sunshine cake” his grandmother made for him when he was growing up.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably only made angelfood cake from a box. (And the boxed versions are just fine…no reason not to use them.) When they’re made from scratch, my understanding is that they’re made with egg whites, sugar, cake flour, and cream of tartar. This one also used one egg yolk for every two egg whites, which made it a little more dense than a regular angelfood cake. Mike said it was that extra density that made it more like a Sunshine cake.

So, okay, despite the problems I had with it, I’d like to try this again. And nobody died in the process, so I’m calling it a rousing success all around. Next time, I’ll allow it to bake longer and watch for a darker brown top with cracks. Mine was nicely browned, but there were no cracks. It sprang back when I touched it lightly, but I’m still thinking underbaking was my problem. I’ll try it again sometime when I’m trying to get rid of more egg whites.

Okay, so I shrugged off my disappointment over the cake and went to work on the quilting. All nine pieced blocks are quilted now.

There may not be time for sewing today, but when I can get back to it, I’ll switch out my thread to this King Tut variegated thread…

And go to work on the borders and sashings. I know the motif I want to do, but I need to figure out what direction (literally) to take it. Probably, I’ll spend at least two more days on this before it’s ready for binding.

Okay, and then it was time to get back to the Stair Steps project. Sadie visited briefly. When she saw what I was working on, she claimed she had an appointment for a pawdicure and needed to rush off. Hmph. I’ll bet if I look at her calendar, I’ll find she was free to help all along. Cats. What’re ya gonna do?

Well. Despite no help whatsoever from kitties, I manage to get two more blocks done. This one has a pink diagonal line.

This one had a yellow diagonal. (It’s kind of hard to see the yellow in this photo. You’ll have to take my word for it.)

And that pretty well took me to the end of my day. Three blocks down, two to go. The next two will have a purple and a pink diagonal, respectively. When all the blocks are made, I’ll sew them to the rest of the quilt, and I’ll have myself a finished quilt top.

My day will be enjoyable but busy…busy mainly because I hate getting into traffic. There’s no reason to think traffic will be bad, but I’m getting to a place where I hate traffic so much that it seems bad if there’s even one other car on the road. And since I’ll be traveling north on Interstate 5, it’s going to be hard to avoid other cars…on the road…the same road I’m on…getting in my way…bothering me…the nerve of some people. Nevertheless, a walk with my kiddo is going to be a great way to spend the day. We’ll probably get lunch, and then I’ll drop off my donation quilts before I head for home.

Days like today can be tiring, and so I have a feeling I won’t be doing any sewing today. No doubt I’ll have some pictures to show you for tomorrow’s post. The weekend approaches, and the 250th anniversary of our country. We have no plans for the Fourth. Do you?