Flowers and Parties

I love April when the sun shines. It's a glorious day today with all kinds of flowers blooming everywhere - a riot of color: pinks, yellows, whites, lavenders.I enjoyed lying in the sun for an hour this afternoon, soaking it in. I heard that it's supposed to rain 3 out of the next 4 days. Well, it's spring time and we need the rain. So I'm not complaining. I noticed the grass is greening and growing. I'll soon need to mow. I am happy at the thought of being outside again, although it is nice to get a break with the winter. Seasons are good!

On Wednesday I, with a team of 9 other women, organized a ladies' tea party at church. 110 women attended. I had to borrow a hat from Andy's cousin, since I don't own one (at least, not a tea party hat).We had little tea sandwiches and scones, as well as a few other items, and of course, TEA!

Different women volunteered to bring their china dishes and the party was really festive and beautiful.It was a lot of work putting this all together and a lot of work afterwards, as well. I spent all day yesterday laundering all the tablecloths. And I took the silverware and about 28 plates home to wash in my dishwasher.In between loads of laundry yesterday, I made a batch of cinnamon chip cookies for our small group tonight. These cookies are so scrumptious, it's very hard to limit myself to one or two. I have been unable to find cinnamon chips around here, so last week when we were in Lancaster County, we stopped at Shady Maple food market and picked up 10 packages of them.

The finished product! Very tasty!

We had another birthday in the office this week. Deb is a missionary intern with plans to go to Niger to work in a hospital there. She is trained in occupational therapy and will be leaving us in August for a year in France to learn French before going on to Niger. Her birthday was Saturday, I baked the cake Thursday evening, and we celebrated on Friday.

Here she is licking the icing off the candles:

And here's the cake: caramel frosted hummingbird cake. This is one of the best cakes I make, every bit as good as carrot cake. I got the recipe out of a Better Homes & Gardens magazine (see below).
Ingredients
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups mashed bananas (about 5 medium)
1 cup cooking oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups peeled, shredded uncooked sweet potato(about 1/2 pound)
1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
1 recipe caramel butter frosting

1. Let eggs stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed paper. Grease and flour paper and set aside.

2. In bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cloves. Stir in bananas, oil, eggs and vanilla until moist and thick. Stir evenly in prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 minutes or until pick inserted near centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off paper. Cool completely.

4. Prepare caramel butter frosting. Place one layer, flat side up, on plate. Spread top only with 1 1/4 cup frosting. Stack and frost remaining layers.

Caramel butter frosting: In large saucepan melt 1 cup butter, add 2 cups packed brown sugar. Bring to boiling over medium heat; stir constantly. Cook and stir 1 minute; cool 5 minutes. Whisk in 6 cups powdered sugar until smooth. Use at once, frosting stiffens as it cools.

Sinfully delicious!