Joyful Abode

Yesterday, I made two delicious applesauce spice cakes. One was for me and my husband, and the other was to take to work.

Last year, I was one of 40+ new faculty members at my school. It was like a huge boot camp bonding experience for all of us. This year, I am the only new member in the central staff of a child development center. Total central staff is less than 15. Most of them have been there 5+ years, and one of the teachers has been there since I was 3. It’s a very different situation than the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year for me.

Well, they all LOVED my spice cake. I said, “I may be the baby here, but I’ve been making this cake for six years.” It got some giggles and a couple eyebrow-raises. I almost raised my eyebrows to myself. Six years?? That’s a smidge more than a quarter of my life!

The recipe was given to me by my husband’s mother, near when we started dating. I made a couple under her tutelage, though the recipe is so easy you don’t really need to “practice” anything. Then, when I went to college, I bought a sifter and some cake pans so I could make them for myself, friends, and co-workers.

Now you can make it too. All you need to do is:

Preheat your oven to 350*F
Butter and flour two cake pans (or use Pam with flour, which is amazing).

Mix:
2 cups applesauce
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup oil

Sift:
3 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon

Add the applesauce mixture to the sifted mix.

Stir in:
1 cup nuts (I use walnuts)
1 cup raisins

Pour the batter into the cake pans.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
While it is baking, lick the spoons and give your husband the bowl. Mmmm.
After the cakes are cool enough to remove, cool them on cooling racks, otherwise they’ll get soggy, which is gross.

This morning, I went to take a picture of the cake (the one that wasn’t wrapped up to go to work), but about 1/5 of it was already gone! I guess we know what the husband had for breakfast this morning. Yum!

I love Marianne’s pocket… it’s why I fell in love with her. It’s more like an attached pouch, because it was made separately and then sewn into the waistband. Her fabric is really punchy too, with a great color scheme, flowers, AND stripes. Rick rack is always good too.

She’s one of a kind, so if you are smitten with her too, hurry to Joyful Abode @ Etsy to claim her for yourself.

It seems like there is some confusion about my vintage items. Some people thought I made the vintage aprons! I am not a vintage person, so I cannot have made vintage aprons! I find them here and there (sometimes they find me), sometimes in thrift stores, sometimes online, sometimes in yard sales or whatnot. (I made the aprons that say “Joyful Abode” in place of “Vintage.”)

I love each one, but if I kept them all, my personal apron collection would be gigantic. It’s like my students, as a teacher… they pass through my class, and hopefully come out better than before on the other side. I love them all, but I have to hand them over to the next teacher. If I kept them all, I’d have an overflowing classroom!

So with these vintage beauties? They come to me, sometimes a bit rough or worse-for-wear, then I clean them up and pass them on to you!