So sorry I didn’t have a chance to wish everyone a Happy Easter yesterday but as you were hopefully enjoying a wonderful day with family and friends and not reading blogs, I’m thinking that even a day late it is still okay to say Happy Easter!
So, HaPpY EaSteR!
We had a wonderful day, celebrating the Savior and enjoying friends old and new. A beautiful Spring day. Hunting eggs. Laughing. Breaking bread. Sharing life.
We do not have a lot of family close by but we are incredibly blessed to have friends who have become family.
Old friends. Friends who’s children have grow with ours. Friends we have cried with through the tough stuff (and there has been some tough stuff) and rejoiced with at the victories, the healing and the hope. Because there has been a lot of that too. They are moving to Texas this summer and I am reminded that life is filled with change. But they are family, that will never change, and distance doesn’t matter.
Old friends we once lived next door to, shared a fence with. They are family too. I miss seeing them everyday; knowing they are right there, just over the fence. I promise, I do love them, I just didn’t get a picture of them yesterday. I’m still working on my “capturing the moment skills”.
New friends. Isn’t it the best when your kid’s best friend has awesome parents?! Not only are they good people but brave people, undeterred by the giant snake at the end of our driveway. At least it wasn’t poisonous.
Oh, how I wish I were kidding.
One tiny tangent because I must forget about the snake and tell you what is in Eileen’s glass. Trust me, you want to know! It is simple but, wow; half lemonade, half Prosecco and a whole lotta delicious! Cold, bubbly, refreshing. Sooooo delicious! I see a few more of those in her an my future this summer.
One more guest and friend to tell you about. The Colonel. My husband’s former commander whom we love to visit with. His last name is Patton – if only he hadn’t retired and had become a general. I’d love to be able to say General Patton’s coming for dinner. Well, except that he’s Air Force. And nice.
So much and so many to be thankful for.
We missed the family and friends we couldn’t be with and hope for many Easters to come where we can all be together.
Oh, right, cake. I promised you cake. I’ll tell you about the cupcakes above some other time. The cake I promised is my Grandma Elizabeth’s Orange Sour Cream Cake. It was a big hit yesterday. I had to hide away one last little piece so that I could photograph it this morning.
My plan was to photograph that last little morsel of cake with orange wedges but unaware of said plan, my husband ate my garnish. I plated one little slice of orange and stepped away for just a moment; but around here, that’s all it takes. So instead, plan B, I threw in a few of the kid’s colored Easter eggs and I think it turned out pretty good. I’m not sure which is more fun, making the food or photographing it.
Orange Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup sugar, extra fine *see note
- 1 Tbsp. orange zest
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup sour cream
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Separate the eggs and set the yolks aside to be used later. Beat the whites until you just have stiff peaks. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly (3-5 minutes). *Note: the recipe calls for super fine (also known as caster sugar). If you don’t have any, you can make your own by pulsing granular sugar in the food processor a few times.
Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, making sure to thoroughly incorporate each. To the creamed mixture, stir in the orange zest and chopped walnuts (I leave the nuts out).
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture, alternately with the sour cream; starting and ending with the flour. Beat well and then gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour the batter into a well buttered and floured bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack that has been placed on top of a sheet tray.
Orange Simple Syrup:
Bring to a boil 2/3 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup of sugar. Boil for 2-3 minutes. It will not reduce much and is not supposed to as it is a syrup to flavor and moisten the cake and not a glaze. Slowly spoon the syrup over the cake to let as much as possible absorb in.
Let it sit for at least 30 minutes and then gently move to the serving dish. Garnish with orange slices and a dusting of powdered sugar if you like.
This would be a great brunch cake. Enjoy!
And finally, just a few more Easter Highlights from the Brew Crew …
We always color eggs the night before Easter. My family did it that way growing up and I now have some of the best memories of the crazy eggs my dad would color and the fun we had together.
I want my kids to have that too.
Every year, I have taken a picture of my kid’s egg dye stained fingers. I love their hands.
Every year, the hands are bigger and not quite as stained.
They are getting so big. Older and more careful.
Pretty soon there will be no more messy little hands to photograph.
This year, only Nathans.
Actually, I’m pretty sure this boy will be makin’ a mess for a long while to come.
But wild messes or not, his still sleepy Easter morning face is what mommy will remember. Snuggles with his new friends left by the “Easter Bunny” and the calm before the “wild”…
Easter egg hunting. Big yard. Lots of eggs. TONS of fun!
And thankfully, Easter egg hunting still seems to be cool; or at least not totally lame.
A well deserved break. After all, those eggs don’t hide themselves.
I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but there is a silver bowl that sits as the centerpiece on my dining room table (in the very first picture of this post). It was a precious gift from my aunt; something she knew I really wanted but would never buy for myself. It is precious not because it is silver but because of what is engraved around it …
“Together with friends and family is always the happiest place to be.”
Welcome Company 