It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas....

In case you haven't figured it out it is very rare for me to say no to cake. Not just because I have issues in trying to please everyone but also because I love to bake cakes. So when one of my co-workers, let's call her Aggie, asked me to bake a cake for a church function how could I resist? Last year, you may remember, I made a cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday. This year we did something a little more in the holiday spirit but still with a religious story (or should I say fable) surrounding it, and made a candy cane cake.

The fable of the candy cane talks about an Indiana candy maker who wanted to make something special to honor Christ's Birthday and made this candy white for his purity, red drops (or strips) stand for the blood he shed, and it is in the shape of a J to represent his name. Although historians have proven the story to be inaccurate, it is Christmas so why not believe?

So in the spirit of the holiday and having faith and believing, I set out to make this cake. It is a yellow butter cake, actually two to make sure we had enough to feed everyone at the church. The candy cane cake is on top of a sheet cake. They candy cane is traditional with red and white strips and if you smell hard enough you would even swear you can smell the peppermint flavoring traditional with all candy canes. When I delivered the cake everyone seemed please and ready for the annual church celebration. I must say the decor was festive with Santa's from Aggie's personal collection scattered everywhere. I know they had a great time and those children left full of faith and belief in the real meaning of the holiday.

It's a Fancy Nancy Christmas

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. So when my the children's librarian asked if I could make a cake for the Fancy Nancy Christmas Party I was honored and confused. I must admit I am not up on my children's literature (actually if it is Winnie the Pooh I can fill you in on the details). Fancy Nancy, I found out thanks to a quick Internet search, is one of the hottest characters around. She is the main character for a series of books and everything she comes into contact with suddenly much fancier. When I got to the library (later than planed...thanks to a lake detour in my kitchen-fixed thanks to my talented adopted McLean family) there were still about 30 very fancy children with crowns, necklaces, and other fancy accessories. So I brought in the Christmas Tree Cake. Instead of a star on top I made a crown-just to make it fancy. I also replaced red ornaments with pink, because it seemed to be a fundamental necessity for a Fancy Nancy cake. It took mere moments to cut the cake and divide up among the fanciest of guests. As a special reward I was given the opportunity to pull the ticket for a Fancy Nancy basket. It seems as if it was a sweet day for all involved.

How Many Times Can You Celebrate One Birthday?

The answer to that question is based on your age. When you turn one hundred you can celebrate for at least three years and have as many cakes as you want. That's right we celebrated the North Carolina 4-H Centennial again. This time it was as part of the annual 4-H Youth Achievement Night in Robeson County.

The cake was actually three sheet cakes. I carved them into a one and two zeros. Each cake was also a different flavor. The one was a butter cake, one of the zero's was devil's food cake while the other was a marble cake. All were iced in white icing with green border, and confetti sprinkles across the top of each.

As part of the event the 4-H staff, State Senator Michael Walters, County Commissioner Hubert Sealey and County Extension Director Everett Davis took part in the cake cutting. The audience of 120 sang happy birthday, twice. To see photos from the special evening and learn more about the night check out the 4-H blog.

The cake seemed to go over well. When we cleaned up from the evening...there was less than one cake left, and people taking cake home with them. Congratulations 4-H!