Sweet Sentiments - Confetti White Cake Recipe

My birthday was this past Wednesday, April 28th , right in the middle of the week – perfect for a week-long celebration! In our Burlington, Vermont office, the April Cornell team enjoyed a wonderful birthday lunch in our kitchen / dining room overlooking beautiful Lake Champlain in springtime. Our big natural wood dining table was set with the calm blue of our Shannon Patchwork tablecloth surrounded by an eclectic set of mix ‘n match chairs. Sitting or standing, fresh fruits, salads, a selection of Vermont cheeses and baguette breads were shared as glasses clinked in celebration. Following all this was a beautiful traditional confetti white cake with ambrosia orange frosting!! I call this “The Birthday Cake of Dreams”!!! Three tiers of perfectly layered cake is covered with smooth frosting and decorated with paintings of my flowers and birds, rendered in food coloring “paint”! This moist and decadent cake was made all the more delicious served surrounded by smiles and songs of ‘Happy Birthday’.

Spread sweet sentiments at your next birthday event and whip up this fabulous cake!

The Cake was made by doubling this recipe:

Ingredients

· 1 cup white sugar

· 1/2 cup butter

· 2 eggs

· 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

· 1/2 cup milk

· 1/4 cup rainbow jimmies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add the rainbow jimmies and fold slightly to spread them through the mix. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

The frosting was made by doubling this recipe:

Ingredients

· 1 bag powdered sugar

· 1/2 cup Crisco

· 2 tablespoon orange extract

· 3/4 cup milk (add milk until desired consistency is achieved)

Directions

1. Combine powdered sugar, Crisco, orange extract, 1/2 cup milk. Mix with mixer on medium speed. Add milk in small doses until desired consistency is achieved.

NOTE for frosting cake the consistency should be light and fluffy. For piping and decoration the consistency should be stiff enough to hold shape.

To get a smooth surface after frosted, dip knife in hot water to warm blade and smooth over surface.

To paint – use bright vivid food colors and a fine paint brush. To give a water color effect, swirl brush in water before dipping in food color to soften the effect.

Enjoy!

April

Feel Beautiful, Be Beautiful, Live Beautiful

Part of

For more info on Foodie Friday, Click Here!

Five Ways to Feel Good + Book Giveaway!

I live a busy life, and with a busy life it is easy to forget to stop and enjoy the minute marvelousness of this world.
Here are five simple ways to feel good, and remember that you and the world are important and beautiful.

1. Open a tablecloth and watch as it falls gently unto your table.

2. Light a candle and watch the shape of its flame.

3. Smile at yourself in the mirror. See how good you look.

4. Pat a cat, slowly and softly, without rushing.

5. Wash your face with warm water, and remember that water and heat are precious.

Those are five to start.
Do you have some simple rituals that make you feel good, that make life slow down, and embrace being alive? Let me know about them and I will select one and send you a copy of my book, April Cornell at Home. (Please remember to post your email address, so I can contact you!)


Thanks,
April

Live Beautiful, Feel Beautiful, Be Beautiful

Collecting Colorful Tablecloths

Are you like me? In love with textiles, in love with cotton, in love with flowers and all of their colors, in love with embroidery and all of its stitches, in love with jacquards and plaids and totally besotted when all this beauty comes together in a tablecloth? I think you are like me. I love to collect textiles. Tablecloths and napkins offer the prettiest and least expensive way to enjoy my most innocent of addictions.

My treasure cupboards and linen closets are simply spilling in the most pretty of ways with cloths yesterday and yesteryear. They remind me of Christmas dinners, and Easter lunches, meals with friends and birthday parties, intimate tête à têtes, and boisterous family gatherings. Older softly faded cloths remind me of picnics washed in sunlight, of lazy afternoons and sleeping children.

Tell me your memories of one of my tablecloths, or describe your own linen collection – even send a photo (aprilcornell@aprilcornellholdings.com) - and we will randomly select a winner to receive a free tablecloth!

April

Feel Beautiful Be Beautiful Live Beautiful

Behind the Scenes

This week is all hands on deck at our office in Burlington, VT. We set up a photo studio in our warehouse, painted cinder block walls, draped backgrounds, collected props and created mini environments of beauty to showcase new table linens, scarves and clothing for our website.
Many eyes, and hands were involved - there was the designer's eye [this is my vision], the graphic artist's eye [this is what I see on the screen], the buyer's eye [can the customer understand the product?], the perfectionist's eye [there's a wrinkle in the napkin], and the photographer's eye [this is what the camera sees!]
So many details, so much focus and such excitement and laughter made a great creative day.
My favorite part was when I was being photographed sitting at a table, and four people were dancing to YMCA behind me to make me laugh - it worked!

April

Be Beautiful, Feel Beautiful, Live Beautiful

Tablecloths of Many Colors

Music, Flower Market, Amadine, Jess: I enjoy naming each new print. Often the name comes from the inspiration I had at the time, such as a beautiful sunset over the lake. Sometimes I enjoy honoring someone special in my life, like my granddaughter or one of the team here at April Cornell. A special friend might find it a surprise to peruse a new season's line and see that a coat, blouse or tablecloth print bears her name.

     These beautiful prints are from the new fall line. As is true to our style, you can see we reveled in a symphony of color once again. Each of the colors and designs in these prints requires its own hand-cut screen. The screens themselves are works of art, each having been created by a team of skilled craftsman. Over the years we have accumulated so many of them that it gets a little hard to store them all, but we do. Keeping a library is important because I never know when the inspiration will strike to pull an element from a past design into a new one.

Here is a close-up shot of the screens after they have been put on rollers for printing. Depending on the design and textile it is going on, we sometimes print with rollers, while at other times we use flat screens that are pulled by hand.  Once you see more of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into our products you'll see just how many hands and how much talent goes into creating the tablecloth you use on your table or the pretty new blouse you add to your fall wardrobe.