It's not "Fair"

I am always intrigued by the yearly furor over tatting things to be judges in the annual fair. I have never visited our local fair. I might enjoy it, but my beloved other half wouldn't and to drive more than half an hour and pay to get into an event that he doesn't want to see just seems silly. However, I thought that this year I would check it out just so that I could enter some tatting and keep the subject in public view. I eagerly anticipated dozens of ways to enter tatting into the fair submissions. That was, until I saw the entire listing under "Homecraft". The whole list is 12 items long including 2 items specifically listed under woodworking, a picture of which is included here for your amusement. There are 2 PAGES of classes for quilted items. I guess that's what happens when there's a quilt guild in town.

I don't have time to design and tat a realistic 3D rose which is what I would have done if I had known that roses were going to be this year's theme. The tatting that I have done this year, a lot of which were snowflakes, don't fit into any of the categories. So I think I'm just going to give it a pass especially since there is a $10.00 registration fee and the "prize" in any of these categories is the fantastic sum of $4.00 for a first prize. (The prizes in the quilt category start at $8.00.)Kind of makes you feel like a poor cousin, doesn't it?

If these categories were posted earlier it might be possible to do something inventive for each category, but as I only have a couple of weeks, I think I'll forget it.

Pineapple Cake

This cake may not look wonderful, but it tasted yummy. The last time hubby asked for a lemon cake and I made a lemon cake with lemon icing. Then I discovered that he said lemon but meant orange. Orange? So the next cake I made was chocolate!

This time for a tangy cake, which is what I discovered my honey meant, when he said lemon, I went with pineapple, and it met with his approval. Since we have been experiencing a heat wave I wasn't interested in being in the kitchen with the oven going all day, so I opted for a basic white cake mix, instead of working from scratch.

The filling is pineapple and the basic buttercream icing is also pineapple. Both recipes are included here for your enjoyment.

Bake cake in two 8 or 9 inch pans and cool thoroughly.

Pineapple Filling
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 cup pineapple tid bits packed in pineapple juice
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon butter

Directions
In the top of a double boiler over simmering water, combine sugar and flour. Stir in egg, pineapple and pineapple juice. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture has thickened. At this point it tasted a little too sweet so I added a few drops of lemon juice. Stir in butter. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Pineapple Frosting
1/2 cup butter
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons well drained crushed pineapple
1 to 2 teaspoons pineapple juice

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar together. I drained the crushed pineapple through a strainer and used a large spoon to squeeze out most of the juice. Stir in crushed pineapple and blend thoroughly. Add
just enough pineapple juice to make it spreadable. How much juice is needed depends on how thoroughly drained the pineapple was.

The cake, while it tasted wonderful, was a stinker to ice because of the bits of pineapple and it dripped excess pineapple juice over the cake plate and onto the table after it was done. For the day or two it sat on the table before we gobbled it up we had paper under the cake plate to keep catching the puddles. I'm not sure if the juice was dripping out of the filling or the frosting, just that it made a mess. The reason for baking a cake in this heat? Our anniversary of course. My honey is definitely a keeper.

If I make it again, and I probably will, I'll do a sheet cake, remove it from the pan, split it in half lengthwise and put the bottom back in the pan before adding the filling. Then I'll put the top on and ice it keeping all of the mess in the pan.