Update: Goodbyes, Cats and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Hey Blogland,

It's been a pretty long hiatus, hasn't it? 

Well most of you reading this will know why, but for anyone who doesn't and would like to-my Grandma passed away last August. The family has spent every weekend since her passing clearing out her house, and it's been a very long, hard, physical and emotional process. But in a way I feel as if I know her a bit better. Seeing all the little collected pieces of someone's life through out the years will do that I guess. I have a few things of hers around my apartment now, one of them being her cat. That makes three now. Oi. Vey. Gardening shows and knitting magazines, here I come.

Anyway- I won't babble on, sometimes I feel the more you talk about something the more it loses meaning. So I will end the updates there.

One of the items from Grandma's I got to keep was her incredible Betty Crocker Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book-from 1946! Which leads us to the other part of this post. There are lots of cut-outs from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine as well (meant to be added to the cook book, appropriately sized and everything), but nothing older than 1954, I'm in vintage baking heaven. 

Inside front cover

Front Cover

Look at this beauty! It's been through the wars alright but is still completely gorgeous. Just imagine all the history this book has seen!

I like cooking but baking is just special. It's what fills your house with those smells and warmth and really just makes things feel like home. There's only a handful of things I can do to sort of "time travel", and baking is one of them (listening to records is my other fav!).

So with my "new" cook book in hand I decided to tackle one of the recipes that has mystified me for years-the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake!

My cake will totally be as pretty as these, yep.

Here's the recipe we're working with:

This recipe does not call for soaking the pineapples slices in (spiced) rum, but I sure did. Why the heck not?!

Step 1: In the butter goes to melt               

 Step 2: Brown sugar added to melted butter, mmm.

Step 3: Arrange pineapple slices and maraschino cherries over the sugar/butter combo

As you can see I wasn't able to fit the specified 9 slices of pineapple, 7 was really pushing it. 

Aww don't be sad my little left over rum soakers, you will be a delicious Mai Tai soon.

Step 4: Here we have the egg yolks, sugar, and pineapple juice (it came in juice, not syrup) all mixed together

Step 5: And now the dry ingredients added (flour, salt, and baking powder)

Step 6: Pour batter over pineapple slices (I forgot to get a picture of this but here's the finished batter! It was thick.)

I did the dishes while I waited for my cake.

Hahahahaha. Nope.

I sat down to enjoy my quasi Mai Tai, which consisted of rum/pineapple juice from the soakers, pineapple slices and cherries that stained my fingers. (That can't be good to ingest right...? Eh, oh well.)

Afore mentioned kitty trying to muscle in on my booze, rude. 

Aaaand 45 minutes later I had myself a cake! (It was looking done before the given 1 hour time).

Okay now I know it's not so pretty but don't judge, at this point we're one Mai Tai in, and this is also post flip and a transfer back into the pan. But the best part? It was DELISH. There was a sort of almond creamy ness to it (although none was added)/amaretto type flavor, and the sugary butter top was just so mmm.

Well I hope everyone enjoyed my little vintage baking adventure as much as I did, I plan to do many more! Till then darlings ❤

Save Bomb Girls!

If you haven't heard of this incredible show yet- you really, really ought to. It's set in 1940's Canada, following the lives of a group of young women who work in a factory building bombs for the war.

This little trailer gives a great quick introduction to the main characters:

As you can see there are plenty of outfits and handsome men to drool over...

But this show had so much more than that. I'm sick to death of "reality" programs, and so to genuinely care about these characters was very refreshing. It also gives what I think to be a pretty realistic, less focused on account of the time-the difficult dynamic between men (especially those not serving) and women, and often the prejudice these women simply trying to earn a living received. The actresses captured the spirit of those strong and brave women perfectly.

This  program sadly only aired two seasons before it was announced this past April it would not be renewed for a third, despite a huge fan base and multiple awards. Here in the U.S. the first season is available via Netflix, and the second I watched on YouTube. There's a petition you can sign to help save this wonderful show, they still need a little more than 1,600 signatures before they can submit it. We need more quality programs like this around, so please sign if you can, it only takes a second! Also if you're interested there are more ways to help, please visit the Save Bomb Girls website for more information.

M.I.A. No Longer!

A quick post to get the ball rolling here after my nearly three year absence!

I thought I'd just start off with a little find of mine the other day - this adorable head scarf with mock bow I picked up in Urban Outfitters (can you believe it?)!
A little pricey at $14, but it feels like nice strong material that should last awhile.

Not as cute as the full on head scarf:
But surely a lovely and glamorous edition to your house cleaning attire! ;)


Hope everyone is doing well, in the next couple of days I will be doing a post on every vintage gal's
must have - eyeliner!

Till then darlings!