Dear Finny,
Hey doll! Step away from that amazing garden of yours for a moment and those pies, gnocchi and all other fabulous things you’ve been creating and guess what? I finished up my In Stitches August project. I know! Can you believe it? Early bird gets the worm/assignment off her back. And the reason that seems a bit snippy is because mother of all things holy — I don’t like making bias binding. Or those corners. I can’t tell you how difficult these things were for me to figure out on my own. And I’ve made a couple quilts and done binding before! But I have a feeling I cut the fabric the wrong direction — in fact making it not bias binding — and the corners just weren’t having it yesterday.
So, my project is far from perfect but it is completed and I love the summery fabrics. To complete the assigned theme of using the potholder to showcase some fun summer activity, I fell back to one of my favorite activities any time of the year: baking! With potholders! Who knew?
Did you have Strawberry Shortcake dolls when you were growing up? I think part of the reason I loved them was that they smelled so good. And they were the perfect size to fit on My Little Ponies, versus those long legged freak Barbies that would topple over after the first “giddyup.” Anyway, Strawberry Shortcake and her sweet-smelling friends were some of my favorite dolls. She inspired my fabric selection and my choice of baking shortbread.
For the first batch, I used this recipe. For the second batch, I spiced things up by adding a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Those two flavors work well with shortbread and wowza, did these come out nicely. I wrapped them up with a few Martha Stewart baking goodies and delivered them yesterday to a handful of happy recipients — wearing my potholder the whole time, naturally.
There you have it! Now, off to pack. And swim. Hope you are having a wonderful week!
Love,
Donk
P.S. If you are interested in the Sweet Sedona Bundt Cake recipe from earlier this week it is super simple!
Ingredients:
One standard yellow cake mix
Two boxes of butterscotch pudding mix (I like the sugar free)
Two eggs
1 stick of softened unsalted butter (feel free to cut that in half and substitute apple sauce for an even better/healthier dessert)
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Grease your bundt pan (I like to use the wrapper from the butter and a dash of Pam.
In a large bowl combine all your ingredients, minus the chocolate chips. Stir until it is creamy and you’ve added a fair amount of air to the batter. Transfer to bundt pan and shake the pan so the cake distributes evenly.
Cook for 20-30 minutes, checking every 10 minutes or so to see if it is cooking evenly. (You can tell I need a new oven.)
Let it cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Transfer to a pretty plate. Dust with additional cinnamon and cardamom to taste and add your chocolate chips. Best served warm with a steaming cup of coffee. If you can eat this on a patio in Sedona, where the colors of the cake will match the incredible beauty of the red rocks, even better!
Enjoy!