Category: Cyber Mummy
I have no idea why I chose to show this cake on a pristine plate with a shiny fork–this cake is made to be held in the hand and eaten while running around the garden.
I wanted to tell you how I came to make Crazy Cake one summer in Oklahoma.
I stayed with my grandparents for much of the summer from an early age, my summer home in the South. I spent my days dressing up Brownie, the Border Collie in my outgrown clothes, brushing her till she purred (dogs purr silently and smile loudly), running with her across the 40 acre farm, climbing trees and quietly discovering nests full of eggs, carefully stepping through the patch of grass on the path where I knew sandburs grew, avoiding the horned toads, but pausing to watch Brownie poke her nose at them, ears forward until they squirt blood up at her and I had to drag her away.
We ran across the sharp quarry gravel driveway (I liked to practice this in bare feet because I thought it made me tough–it worked), through the orchard to the big grey wooden gate where I climbed, Brownie slipped through a hole, and we ran into the field with oaks till we found the goats. Most of them ran away from us apart from George and his gang. We raised George from a small kid when a coyote killed his mama. He lived in a little box cushioned with grandpa’s old work clothes in a warm spot next to the stove, fed with a bottle until big enough to join the rest of the herd. In the field with the oaks I pulled down a branch of richly green oak leaves and George ate them.
Then we ran back to the house again, sometimes past my grandpa who was ploughing a field of sweet potatoes, or sometimes past my grandma who was choosing vegetables for dinner. Green beans, maybe. She was a good cook. When I was back in the house, tracking in sand on my bare feet across the pebble patterned linoleum, the radio was on and grandma was doing kitchen things.
Do little kids ever remember what their mothers and grandmothers did in the kitchen or is it just with our grown up experience that we know? She would have been washing dishes, cleaning vegetables, getting lunch ready for grandpa, sweeping the floor, having a break and sitting in the rocking chair by the phone, talking to her older sister who lived in town. And I would see her on the phone and know I could start getting snacks and things out of the cupboards that are usually restricted. Grandma had to keep covering the mouthpiece on the phone to tell me to go outside and play.
But at a certain time each day–probably nine o’clock, Grandma listened to the radio while she did her kitchen things. She had a notebook or scraps of paper on the countertop because she was listening to a radio show called Kitchen Klatter and it was frequently a note-taking event. Kitchen Klatter was a Midwestern homemaking show, where a mother and daughter talked about recipes, tips for cleaning and sewing I think. I figure it was mostly recipes because that’s the part I benefited the most from. I didn’t hang around to listen any longer than it took to get the pitcher of lemonade out of the fridge, pour a drink, drink it, and put the sweating pitcher back in the fridge. The house was warm enough for a cold pitcher of lemonade to start sweating almost immediately, because warm breezes and shade from the big old trees cooled the house, not air conditioning.
Anyway, Grandma often wrote down recipes from the Kitchen Klatter radio show. I only have two that she copied down, both for different versions of ginger cake. That cake will appear on here at some point. But for now, I will share another with you that for some reason I don’t have her handwritten copy of. It was the first cake I ever made and we made it together, she was marvelling at the ingredients and I was marvelling at the taste of the batter. Don’t try it. You’ll never have enough left for the cake.
We waited till the heat of the day had passed and the warm breezes coming in through the big screened windows had cooled enough that putting the oven on didn’t matter. The lights in the house on, Grandpa cleaning the field dust off, an episode of All Creatures Great and Small about to start—our favourite series, and sounds from Brownie outside on the porch as she circled and curled up again in her favourite spot under the old bench. I stood on a stool next to Grandma, both with our aprons on, making cake in the summer evening.
I cannot one hundred per cent guarantee this is a cake from Kitchen Klatter, but I guess there’s a pretty good chance that’s where Grandma got the recipe. This is another dairy free cake, for those of you interested. Just like the angel food cake I made in November for my birthday. And egg free. I suppose that’s why it’s called a Crazy Cake. Try it for the pleasantly unusual tangy chocolate taste, if nothing else!
You can convert this to cupcakes I suppose but I just use it as a super quick and easy table cake recipe. Nothing fancy, but pretty tasty and pleases most people. Don’t bother with icing or you may as well have made a regular chocolate cake because you’ll lose the unique flavour.
Yep, that's an old cake pan. Perfect for Crazy Cake.
Crazy Cake
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tablespoons vinegar
6 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup cold water.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Sift the dry ingredients directly into an 8×8 inch square cake pan. Stir them around the make sure they’re well mixed.
Make three holes in these dry ingredients. In the first hole pour the vanilla, then the vinegar in the next, then the oil in the third. Pour the cold water over all.
Stir it all together with a fork. When the batter is smooth, it’s ready to go in the oven! Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
One time we drove and parked. We got lost during a roadwork detour, desperately searched for signs to Heathrow airport parking and when we found our way, we didn’t know where to park. But once we did find a place we got on a bus easily, and were dropped off exactly where we needed to be at the airport.
Another time we did both. We should have used Luton airport parking even though we were flying from Stansted. Yes, they are about an hour apart. Here’s my logic: We parked at Stansted, got our flight to Italy from Stansted, had a fantastic weekend, reboarded our flight and sat for so long on the runway that a new day was thinking of dawning before we took off again and by that time we had missed our slot at Stansted (the airline pays for permisssion to land at different airports at different times, it was explained) and so we landed at Luton instead of Stansted. Awesome. If only our car was at Luton as well (obiously that wouldn’t have really worked as we would have had to get a taxi from Luton to Stansted at the beginnging of the journey instead). We then had the option of a 2.5 hour bus ride back to Stansted, or sharing a taxi for an hour with others from our home area. We chose b. We had to be at work in about 3 hours.
Most of my friends and family who come to visit fly into Gatwick, so I have a lot of experience parking at Gatwick in the shortstay but I’ve never actually parked there for a flight of my own. I like Gatwick. It seems so much easier to navigate than Heathrow.
So the pro’s for driving and parking at the airport are that it is less expensive and you’re in your own car.
The pros for taking a taxi are that you get dropped right at the entrance without looking for a shuttle bus, and you don’t have to drive home after a nine hour overseas, overnight flight.
I guess it depends on the journey, and sometimes I’ve learned, you simply can’t plan in advance!
What do you do?
Although this was a sponsored post, it gave me the opportunity to ask what others do about this, something I’ve wondered for a while!
Sponsored post.
My top tips for how to save energy around the home? Here’s how I do it, and it has added benefits:
I work at home all day most days and apart from the flurry of housework before I do the school run I am mostly sitting at my desk. Which means I get chilly. But instead of putting on a heater I either go for a brisk walk (walks are really good for thinking time as well), or do some exercise to a DVD or on the rowing machine. And if don’t have time for either, I run up and down the stairs 10+ times. Yes, really. It works! It warms me up and wakes me up and I can sit back down to my desk and carry on until the furry of housework time.
Exercise is good for us, duh. Who knew it was good for the environment as well?!
This post was inspired by the BritMums and British Gas Watt Loss Challenge, in which I have a chance at winning one of the four sets of £250 in Sainsbury’s vouchers! If you’d like to be in with a chance as well, just write a post about how you’re reducing energy consumption at home; include a vid or photo if you like but they aren’t necessary. Then click on the link above and add your post to the linky. Hurry, there’s only a few days left of the competition.
It was easy to write this post, and important. If we all focus on reducing energy consumption now it will be a habit that we don’t even think about by the time our childen grow up!
So am I the only one running up and down my stairs to keep warm and wake up? Or do you do something even more strange…?
The Lake District is a fantastic place to take a family holiday. There are lots of family friendly activities to keep children entertained whilst helping you enjoy a well deserved holiday in a beautiful part of the country. With a large array of outdoor activities available there is something to suit everyone.
- Beatrix Potter is a much love children’s author and with her home situated in the Lake District, there are lots of activities orientated around her and her adorable characters. From visiting The World of Beatrix Potter to wandering around the Beatrix Potter Gallery where the original artwork from the books is displayed to seeing where she imagined and created her beautiful books at her home at Hill Top.
- If you have older children then there are lots of outdoor activities for them to enjoy. One such place to visit is a fantastic GO APE course in Grizedale which is full of high wire climbing fun and zip line screams.
- If you are looking for something to occupy the whole family then why not visit one of the many country parks such as Fell Foot Country Park. A great place to let the little ones run and explore and a beautiful place to enjoy a family picnic.
- There are also lots of water based activites in the Lake District, from learning about the secret world of lakes at Aquarium of the Lakes to enjoying the beautiful scenery on a lake cruise.
- Do you have a train fanatic in your family. Well the Lake District has some wonderful steam trains which any train enthusiast, young or old, will love to ride on.
- Another great place to visit whilst in the Lake District is the famous location of Hogwarts wizardry school. Great for all Harry Potter fans.
So no matter what age your children are , there are lots of great attractions and activities to suit the whole family. With a great selection of Lake Distict cottages available for weekend breaks or weeks away, suitable no matter what size your family is. So what’s stopping you visit this breath taking part of the UK?
This post is brought to you by Holiday Rentals.
It's a kaliedescope–kind of like all our blogs together, aways an interesting mix.
I’m joining one of clever Kate’s listography’s this week and offering up my top 5 tips for bloggers (pop over to Kate’s for many more tips). Yes, I’ve done blogging tips before, and I’ve just given you some ideas for your About page (so, have you jazzed up that About page yet?) but this is a slightly different list of tips–it’s for people who are more experienced. Or perhaps ‘intermediate bloggers’, is a better decription of the ideal audience here.
And then no more blogging tips for a while because I know that’s not everyone’s thing.
1. Help newbies.
Some people call this Paying it Forward. Some people call it Karma. I call it Being Nice. I do it because it feels good. I like helping people. And I know how it feels to struggle in a blog jungle and how nice it was when a more experienced blogger stepped in and said, ‘hey, try it like this and see how that works for you!’
The internet is not a dog eat dog world, it’s a place where the successful people are the one’s that help others.
2. Stay brave.
In the early days of your blog you were brave just by stopping by someone else’s blog and saying ‘hi’. As someone who has been blogging a while now, you’re comfortable, getting a bit set in your ways and you have your routines because that’s what you’ve learned works. Every now and then just push yourself, be daring, do something a little bit different with your blog. Get a new header, change your blog theme, save up for a designer, if you’re anonymous become known, host a big giveaway, challenge yourself to find 20 new readers this month–do something that you wouldn’t normally do. Add a bit of sparkle to that routine!
3. Do a regular audit.
If you’re an intermediate to experienced blogger you’re probably pretty clear about your niche, your audience, your social network platforms, your plans for the future with your online branding… no? Then it’s time to do an audit of your blog and your social networking.
Try using an anonymous poll to see what your readers think, what they want more of and what ever else you want to know about the readers’ experience with your blog.
Look at your stats to see what posts are popular, what time of days are peak times, what days of the week are busiest, etc. The general advice on stats is to not over analyse them or look at them too much, but a regular audit is a great reason to spend a little bit of time on them. Both Google Analytics and Statcounter combined are best for an overall big picture.
4. Keep up to date.
Do a bit of refresher reading about updates on G+, Pinterest, Stumble Upon, FaceBook, Twitter, Quora… are you using them as effectively as you can? Perhaps some are better for spreading info about your blog than others.
Keep reading the big sites like Mashable and Problogger to stay informed about upcoming changes in social media or other relevant areas.
5. Remember the golden rule? It was written for the internet.
Seriously. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. If you’ve been doing this a while, you might be really busy doing many things, you might not have time to do a lot of ‘sharing the love’ but don’t forget this golden rule or you’ll start sliding backwards. That’s just how this online world works.
If you want people to reTweet your posts, then RT others. If you want people to comment on your blog, comment on theirs. If you want good information for a task you’re working on, then help others when you see someone posing a Q on Twitter. If you want people to be friendly, welcoming, interested in what you have to say, then be friendly, welcoming and interested in others. You don’t have to be good at your numbers to understand this equation.
Happy blogging!
Does your child ever feel left out? If so, read them Love Monster
Peggy Melmoth (39) lives on board a narrowboat with her husband, and daughters (aged two and four). She works from home as a writer, professional blogger and virtual assistant.
Peggy Melmoth
The first event of its kind in the UK, The Party Plan Conference and Awards 2012 is the must attend event for anyone looking to start or excel with their party plan, direct sales or MLM business.
Throughout the day there will be seminars on how to start, improve and expand your business, with inspirational and igniting speakers such as Gail Reynolds, a leading sales manager for AVON UK and Joanne Dewberry, Dorset Business Mum of the Year and to round off a fantastic day, an awards evening to honour and celebrate the achievements of those dedicated business people from within the industry.
The Party Plan Conference and Awards 2012 is being held on Saturday 28th January 2012 at The Queens Hotel, Bournemouth and has been organised by The Party Plan Guru and Party Plan United and with a large array of party plan companies exhibiting on the day, making it easy for anyone to make an informed choice on where to start their business. There will also be a great variety of business advice and support available on the day too.
The awards ceremony during the evening is the ideal time for direct sellers to let their hair down, mingle with likeminded people and enjoy the awards ceremony designed to honour and reward the achievements of individuals and companies who may not normally receive the recognition they deserve.
Paula Giles, The Party Plan Guru says, “The conference is the first of its kind in the UK and allows the direct selling industry to get to learn more about their profession. It’s also a chance to start a new business for you while having the backing of such amazing companies. The direct selling industry is being brought into the 21st century and we are here to help others achieve their dreams”
To book tickets to attend this event, exhibit or for more information, please contact Paula Giles at theguru@thepartyplanguru.co.uk, or visit http://www.thepartyplanguru.co.uk to nominate someone you know for the awards. Closing date for the awards is 13th January 2012.
Are you looking to increase the number of customers you reach and in turn increase your sales? Well ACEInspire have a fantastic brand new ‘NO COST’ Business Promotion Basics eCourse which will share with you their best tips on how to market your business yourself.
Business Promotion Basics runs over 8 days, a new lesson is delivered direct to your inbox each day. Simply read the lesson, take action and you will see your business have a great start to 2012. Each lesson is full of great information and tips on how you can market your business yourself to reach its full potential.
Sign up to ACEInspires Business Promotion Basic eCourse click here or find out what other resources ACEInspire has to offer your business.
There’s not much in life for free any more, and often when you get something for free, you can see why. The Lego kids magazines, however, show that sometimes you CAN get something great for nothing! We’ve been subscribing to the magazine for over a year now. Every few months each of the kids gets sent a 20 page magazine with puzzles, cartoons, and ideas for new Lego builds.
The magazine is produced in different editions for different age groups and the builds are easier in Lego Club Jr magazine than in the magazine for older kids. It’s a great day when D, J and K get home to find the new magazines have arrived!
Incidentally, the magazine is NOT a big plug to buy Lego: it is all full of good content and ad-free.
If you want a change from constant pestering to spend money on magazines, you can sign up for a copy at Legoclub.com
This is not a sponsored post – I just love Lego!