Spray painting leather boots!

   I nabbed these pink metallic, leather, cowboy boots from my sister-in-law a couple of weeks ago. They were my niece's and she had outgrown them. Desmond wears pink all the time because I am not a believer in any color belonging to one gender. His favorite sneakers are a pair of light up sparkly hot pink numbers. But I didn't love this color pink so much. So, I decided to spray paint them. I have spray painted leather boots a couple of times and it has worked really well in the past. 

   The first step is cleaning the boots with rubbing alcohol to make sure all the oils and dirt are wiped away, or as much as possible anyway.

   Then you tape off the sole of the shoe so you don't get paint on it. Be real careful to get right up to the edge  of the leather shoe. I placed the edge of the tape right into the fold where the leather meets the hard sole and pressed it down in there, then pressed it down over the edge and under the bottom. You can use small pieces of tape to get around the round shape of the shoe or boot.

   Then spray away! I used a metallic royal blue for the whole boot, then added a dark brown and silver. The covering of the boot in the blue took a few coats and a few turns of the boot. I laid it flat to spray it to prevent dripping. Too much paint will drip. It's better to be patient and do extra coats then to spray it on too heavy.

   Now they are space cowboy, rock star boots for Desmond! I am so jealous. 

Mother's Day Orange Chiffon, Blueberry Cake

  I love, love, love baking. But more than I love baking, I love licking the spoon and the bowl and eating the cake. Always too much of it. I end up frantically handing it out to neighbors or sadly throwing it in the garbage. And pouring ketchup on it. 

   For Mother's Day, my family and I were invited to our neighbor's BBQ at the park in town. I volunteered to bake a cake, because I love to bake and I would have a bunch of mouths to eat it! And because I wanted to celebrate Mother's Day, of course. 

   I felt that it needed to be a layer cake, with blueberries. Is there such thing as blueberry cake? This turned into a massive google search. Is a blueberry muffin recipe the same as a cake recipe? The answer was inconclusive. I found a lot of bundt cakes. I saw some lemon blueberry cakes. That sounded nice. I found and then lost a cake that had orange in it, with the blueberries. This stayed with me and I regretted not  bookmarking it. I hadn't made lemon curd in a while and that seemed like the right thing to do. And is there a recipe for frosting that doesn't take a POUND of powdered sugar?!

   In the end, I turned to my shelf of cookbooks. The paper kind, with pages stained with cooking juices and baking powders. With little hand written notes in the margins by my mom and then later, by me. Things like "Good!" or "Great!!!" or "Line the pan with aluminum foil!" Or my mother's common, "nice".  She used to send me to the supermarket with a list that would have "nice bread" on it. I used to make fun of her for it. Now my heart swells a little when I see her little notes. Now I know what "nice bread" means. 

   And so, I turned to Blue Ribbon Recipes, County Fair Winners. Published I don't know when but my mom had it in the 70's and maybe the 60's. I settled on Mrs. Harold Snodgrass's Blue Ribbon Orange Chiffon cake, with Mrs. Chester Talley's Blue Ribbon Cream French Frosting and good ol' Martha Stewart's lemon curd. Except that I added blueberries to the cake and topped it with blueberries as well. The result was exactly what I wanted. Moist, fluffy, tangy and sweet.

   Below are some pictures followed by the three recipes. I think this would be a great birthday cake or a great country wedding cake. It is a keeper for sure. 

   And this time, I was lucky enough to find a neighbor who wanted to eat my cake and not a crumb was wasted. Whew!

Folding in the egg whites. 

Two cake layers, puffed up and fresh out of the oven! 

Layers stacked with lemon curd in between. Parchment paper pieces 

positioned under the cake for frosting, to keep the plate clean.  

Frosted. 

Blueberried with the paper pulled away. 

After the BBQ.  

Pretty on a plate. 

Mrs. Harold Snodgrass's, Salmon, Idaho, Lemhi County Fair, Blue Ribbon Winning

Orange Chiffon Cake

2 1/4 C sifted cake flour (I used all-purpose)

1 1/2 C sugar

3 t baking powder

1 t salt

1/2 C Wesson oil

yolks of 5 medium eggs, unbeaten

grated rind of 2 oranges

juice of two medium oranges

1 C egg whites

1/2 t cream of tartar

  Sift together first 4 ingredients in mixing bowl. Make well in center or flour mixture, add oil, egg yolks, and orange rind. Add water to orange juice to make 3/4 C liquid, add to mixture. Beat with a spoon  until smooth. (Here I added a pint of blueberries into this mixture, stirring to coat the berries).

  Put egg whites in large bowl with cream of tartar, whip until egg whites form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites in with the other mixture until just blended. Do not stir. Pour into ungreased 10" tube pan. (I used two cake pans with the release bottoms. I wish I had greased and floured them, I will try that next time. They did stick a little.) Bake at 325* for 65 minutes. (I baked mine for 45 or 50  minutes, checking with a toothpick in the center to see when they were done.) Remove from pans and let cool on cooling rack. (When you cut into the cake, you will see the blueberries sunk to the bottom of each layer but did not disturb the consistency of the cake.)

Mrs. Chester Talley's, Twin Falls, Idaho, Twin Falls County Fair, Blue Ribbon Winning

Cream French Frosting

2 T water

4 1/2 T sugar

2 1/3 C sifted confectioner's sugar

1 egg

1/3 C Crisco

1 t vanilla

   Boil water and sugar together a few minutes. Take off stove. Mix confectioner's sugar and egg, add syrup and stir. Add Crisco and vanilla. Beat until creamy. (I put saran wrap over this, laying it right up against the frosting in the bowl, so it wouldn't harden, and putting it in the fridge overnight to frost the cake the next day and it was fine.)

Martha Stewart's Lemon Curd

• 3 large egg yolks, strained
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

1. Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until consistency is smooth.
3. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour. (I made this the night before as well and it was fine. I did need to microwave it on a 50% power setting for 40 seconds to make it soft enough to spread.)

Assembling the cake

   I took a large serrated knife and cut the fluffy top off of one cake to make a flat surface for the lemon curd and second layer. I placed it on a plate, spread all of the lemon curd on this layer, topped it with the second. I placed parchment paper pieces under the edges of the cake to keep the plate clean and frosted the cake with pretty much all of the frosting. I removed the paper. I took another pint of blueberries, washed and dried them by rolling them around on a towel, and placed them all on top.

   Pretty much everything but the blueberries was organic, which I think makes it taste that much better. I hope you try this recipe and love it!