What a cruddy weather weekend!  Lots of snow on Saturday and icy rain Sunday.

At least it was a good chance to get inside projects done. I did some work on Saturday as well. I will be glad to not be transcribing on weekends any more. I can count down the days left now!  I was saying to John that I am starting to taste the freedom of having more time!  Even though I will be running the business, it’s not the same as being tied to the computer all day.  One thing I’m looking forward to? Listening to music while working again. I obviously can’t have any on while I’m transcribing, and I miss it.

I’ve been wanting to make a cranberry cake recipe for a while now and a snow day was as good as any!  I used this recipe with a couple modifications:

Ingredients for cake:

• 2 cups flour (240 grams)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I boosted because…cinnamon )
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/2 cup milk + 1 teaspoon vinegar (to make buttermilk if you don’t have it).
• 3 cups frozen fresh cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a small bowl, mix the milk and vinegar and set aside. This makes buttermilk if you don’t have any. If you do, just use 1/2 cup of that.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon  and mix.  Remove about 2 tablespoons of the flour mixture and put into another bowl and toss with the frozen cranberries.

In a mixing  bowl cream the butter and sugar together. Add in the egg and the extracts and mix to combine.  Alternate adding the flour and the milk to the sugar/egg mixture until the batter just comes together.  Now add in the cranberries (and whatever flour is in the bowl) and fold in with a spatula. The batter is very thick, so you need some muscle.

Spread the batter evenly in a 10-inch cast iron skillet sprayed with cooking oil. Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Yum!

Now make the glaze:

• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 – 4 tablespoons of orange juice.

In a bowl, mix the sugar, extract and 3 tablespoons of the orange juice. You need a thicker glaze since the cake is hot. Add another tablespoon if you need to.  Spoon the glaze onto the warm cake in the center and let it slowly flow over the cake.

Now eat!  This was delicious!  It’s really good warm, but also good the next day. The cake is very moist and the sweet glaze compliments the tart cranberries.

I could eat it for breakfast. Or any time…

After an icy start to Sunday, the afternoon cleared up enough and I picked up my next project.  I’ve been looking for a desk so that I can set it up for my coloring and other things rather than using the dining room table 😀   It’s been a long search, but today on a vintage group someone posted what they called a buffet, but I think it is either a desk or was a vanity as it looks like something was attached to the back at some point – like a mirror.

Yay! $50, so not bad. I need to reinforce the top to the base (which will straighten out the drawers).  There are chips in the veneer, so I will repair those. The bottom will likely be painted because my veneer repair skills are fairly nonexistent. I’d like to refinish the top as the wood is very pretty. It’s going to go where the bookcase is currently behind it.

Like I need more projects!  I still have 2 trunks to finish up. Not to mention my parents’ kitchen!