Flea Market Finds & Tropical Gingerbread Cake

It was a lovely day here in Northern Illinois. Sunny and temps around 60 degrees. We went to a flea market this morning and I found some more treasures to add to my collections. First, some vintage pins and old lace:



I saw the feather pin and immediately thought it was time to do another peacock project!

Next are some vintage handkerchiefs:



I love the ones with the machine embroidered flowers on them. In fact, I'm planning a new CQ quilt project using some of my vintage hankie collection. I think it'll be a nice project to help me get through the Winter months.

Last but not least, are 2 vintage baking booklets. One is from Bakers Coconut and the other is from a chocolate company. Both are from 1925:



Of course, the minute I got home, I had to try one of the recipes using my new Kitchenaid:



Here's the recipe for TROPICAL GINGERBREAD CAKE:

2 cups Cake Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/8 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup Butter or Shortening
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg, well beaten
2/3 cup Molasses
1 cup Baker's Coconut (shredded coconut)
3/4 cup sour milk or Buttermilk

Sift flour once,measure, and add baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt
and sift together 3 times. Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add egg, molasses, and coconut. Add flour alternately with milk, a small amount at a time. Beat after each addition until smooth. Bake in greased pan, 8 X 8 X 2 inches, in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes.

I frosted it with cream cheese frosting and of course added sprinkles.

Please keep in mind that I typed up the recipe exactly as written in my book. We don't have to do all that sifting anymore. Once is enough.

You know, I used to totally stress about staying on topic as much as possible. I didn't want to stray too far from my needlework theme. Under the circumstances, I'm simply blogging about what I'm doing. I am stitching and will have a photo of my vintage Vogart dresser scarf as soon as it's done but I do think that daily progress photos on that is a bit boring.

Thinking about things now, I'm not sure why I always felt that I had to stay on topic. I mean, there's more to me than just stitching and designing. I've always love baking and I collect all sorts of little vintage things that are pretty and fun to look at. I'm a very domestic person and I guess I'm starting to think that since this is my blog, it can be whatever I want it to be.

I confess, I've lost about 1/2 of my daily readers due to my lack of posting during my illness. I imagine in time, my readers will come back and maybe with a few new topics like baking and other things that I do, maybe I'll attract some new readers.

In the meantime, I hope my readers who have stayed with me through this trying year, are enjoying whatever I write about!

I'm trying to figure out how to have my comments sent to my email address. I would love to reply to everyone's comments but it would be so much easier if could just reply to an email. If anyone knows how I can set that up, please let me know.

Ok, I'm off to wash up a few dishes and then I need to take a bath and call it a day.