JAMSquared

My friend Kristy’s birthday was October 8th. Since she works at AMD with my husband, I baked up a cake for him to take to the office.  Kristy likes angel food cake, but I didn’t  have quite enough eggs, so I baked a chiffon cake, which requires about a third less eggs. According to Kristy and James, the cake was a  gastronomic success, regardless of my cake leveling skills. If I make it again, I would use a bit more orange juice in the glaze.

Orange Chiffon Cake

Source: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour or 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
  
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup cold water
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
  
• 7 large egg yolks (with all-purpose flour) or 5 large egg yolks (with cake flour)
  
• 1 cup large egg whites (about 8 )
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Orange Glaze

Directions:

Move oven rack to lowest position. Preheat oven to 325°F.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Beat in water, oil, orange peel and egg yolks with electic mixer on low speed until smooth.

With clean beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gradually pour egg yolk mixture over beaten egg whites, folding in with rubber spatula just until blended. Pour into ungreased angel food cake pan (tube pan), 10×4 inches.

Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Immediately turn pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let hang about 2 hours or until cake is completely cool. Loosen side of cake with knife or long metal spatula; remove from pan.

Spread Orange Glaze over top of cake, allowing some to drizzle down side.

Yield: 12 servings

Orange Glaze

Source: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup butter or stick margarine
• 2 cups powdered sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel
• 2 to 4 tablespoons orange juice
  

Directions:

Melt butter in 1 1/2-quart saucepan over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and orange peel. Stir in orange juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and consistency of thick syrup. Glazes one 12-cup bundt cake, 10-inch angle food or chiffon cake or top of an 8- or 9-inch layer cake.

***

I made her the following card using a Stamp Something sketch challenge. I’m really happy with how it turned out, maybe my best card yet. A great technique I used in making this card is the easy peasy bow embellishment. I then decided to decorate a paper mache box I had picked up at Hobby Lobby to match the card and house Kristy’s gift, a Stampin’ Up stamp set she had pointed out to me.

Stamps: SU Knobbly Gnomes
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Real Red, Whisper White; striped and textured paper from my scrapbooking stash
Ink: Stazon black
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Real Red eyelets, Real Red grosgrain ribbon; various colored pencils; dimensionals

Can you believe that my husband had never been camping prior to 2 months ago? We camped at Garner State Park with our friends Aric and Kristy and their dog Dalton, and our friend Ranger the last weekend in October. On the way there Saturday morning, we stopped at Lone Star Motorcycle Museum and Ace Cafe. This was really a neat place to stop and eat lunch. You can check out the classic and modern motorcycles while you wait for your burger or Australian meat pie to cook up. It also gave us perfect timing to arrive at Garner State Park about 1:30 and get our campsite so we could set up our tents.

We hiked the Bridges trail where the view from the scenic overlook at the top was worth the steep climb. I was the self-proclaimed camp cook for the weekend and dinner Saturday was delicious Camp Chicken Cordon Blue cooked over our campfire grill.

Sunday morning, we walked by the river near our campsite and played some cards. After a tasty lunch of grilled ham/turkey and cheese sandwiches, we hiked the trail along Horseshoe Canyon. Unfortunately, the rockiness of the trails was hard on poor Dalton’s feet and he and Kristy turned back and just hung out while we went up to the Crystal Cave. On the return hike, we saw the cutest little armadillo.

Sunday night was a lot more quiet as there were only a handful of campsites occupied compared to the handful that were unoccupied Saturday night. We ate chicken fajitas for dinner, roasted marshmallows over the campfire for smores and had to shoo a skunk away from our campsite by hissing at it.

Monday morning, we packed up and headed to nearby Lost Maples State Natural Area where we hiked the Maple Trail and a portion of the East trail.

Over all, our camping trip was a lot of fun and I think we’re going to have to plan another one or two for the spring.