~Holy Saturday~

Holy Saturday is a traditional day of baking at RoseCreekCottage.
This year, one of the desserts we're working on is Carrot Cake. Here is the recipe:

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
2-1/2 c. grated carrots
2 c. granulated sugar
1-1/2 c. oil
4 eggs
2 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
3 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground cloves
1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts
1-8 oz.- can crushed pineapple

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
1 stick of butter, room temp
2 t. vanilla

Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves.

Slowly beat the flour into the liquid mixture until combined, scraping the sides. Add your grated carrots.

Next, drain the pineapple well. With your hands, pick up the pineapple mush and give it a good squeeze. You want the extra juice, but not too much because you're getting quite a bit from the carrots as well. Add in the pineapple and walnuts.

Pour into the greased pans and bake for about an hour, or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes in the pan. Carefully remove from pan and onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the frosting, beat together the butter and cream cheese until creamy and well combined. Add in the vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar, until smooth and creamy. Frost your cake rounds and enjoy! (* I added grated orange rind to the icing this year*)

~What A Difference A Year Makes~

One year later, and Mom is unable to come to our house to celebrate Easter. Last year, she really wanted to help make the Lemon Meringue Pies and Bunny Cakes....and help she did. Read about it here.

This year....she is unable to stand and walk. She's totally wheel-chair bound. It's hard for her to move. She is unable to do anything for herself. It's heartbreaking to watch. She no longer has the ability to make choices for herself.

So this year, I'll make the lemon pies myself....and take her some. And this year, I'll get on my knees and thank the Lord that at this point in my life, I am still able to do so. We take SO much for granted.

This Easter Weekend, thank our Lord for the blessings in your life. And thank Him for dying on the cross for us.

~Easter Baking With Mom~

Each year when we were growing up, my mom made us her traditional Easter Bunny Cake : white cake, gooey seven-minute frosting, coconut..... Every year. So once I had my sons, I followed her lead, and made an Easter Bunny Cake just like my Mom's. Every year.

Last year, I decided to make 3 Bunny Cakes: a Mama, and two Babies.... one for Ella and one for Jackson. When I proudly set them on the table, Ella asked me who the bunnies were. I told her there was a Mama Bunny, an Ella Bunny and a Jackson Bunny. She looked up at me with her big green eyes and said, "Grandma.....that is VERY sad." I looked over the three cakes. They LOOKED okay. They each had jelly bean eyes and nose. And pink paper ears. Just like MY Mom used to make us. I was puzzled until she explained: "There's NO Papa Bunny, Grandma". Okay. I admit it. I felt awful. I had left out the Papa Bunny (my son!) . Bad Grandma. I learned my lesson. So this year, I baked the complete family: A Papa Bunny, A Mama Bunny, and two Babies.

And guess who spent this Holy Saturday with me? The original Bunny Baker herself: my Mom! She is out of the hospital and back at her assisted living home. She's on two new alzheimer's medications that are helping with her memory and delusions. She still gets confused at times, and talks about 'going home to her parents'. No....she doesn't mean heaven....she means back to the farm house in Uniontown, Pa, where she grew up once they came over from Italy. She forgets she's all-grown-up now at almost 89 years of age....and she gets confused. But when we picked her up this morning so she could come and help make the Bunny Cakes and pies....there was NO confusion on her face. She was a happy, determined mother-with-a-purpose: helping her daughter bake for Easter!

We had lunch and she laid down on the sofa with the puppies and snoozed while I made the seven-minute frosting for the cakes I had baked last nite. When she woke up, we iced the bunnies together. She giggled like a school girl and licked her fingers when they got too gooey....then headed for the sink to wash them and begin again. We had coconut everywhere!

I don't often stop to remember long-ago memories like watching my mother ice the Bunny Cake when I was seven...or eight....or nine. They came flooding back to me: my beautiful mom with her dark curls and big brown eyes standing in the kitchen, old-fashioned apron tied in a big bow behind her back. Determinedly icing that cake. I can see her like it was yesterday.

It was a beautiful Holy Saturday. One I will always remember. I pray that God let's us have her for a few more Easters. After all....there are still a whole lot of Bunny Cakes that will need to be baked!