Saturday, October 27, 2007

Muscadine Cake



In the Ozark Mountains, wineries grow Muscadine grapes.

Muscadine Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup of oil
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup POST Familie Muscadine Juice

Preheat oven 350 degrees
Mix all ingredients ande beat 4 minutes and beat 4 minutes. Pour batter into well - greased and floured bundt pan. Bake 40-50 minutes. Check with toothpick. Cool slightly, turn out while warm, and glaze using 4 tablespoons of POST Familie Muscadine juice and 1 1/4 cup of powdered sugar. You can stick holes in the cake to let the glaze go into the cake.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This cake is great, a must have! -Tom

October 28, 2007 at 8:30 AM

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Party Planning

For the last 6 weeks, I have been working on my mother's surprise 80th birthday. Her birthday is in November. There is not much published to give guidance on how to plan a party for an 80 year old. Most of what is available less than traditional. Our family is traditionally southern.
Issues that came up were who to invite (lots of people this age do not drive at night), date (you have to work around doctors appointments), time (afternoon is best) and location (a place everyone can locate). Luckily, our family has a large family reunion every year in south Mississippi at Thanksgiving. This is a two and three day affair.

The party was planned between the reunion scheduled events. This large extended family keeps in touch by a quarterly newsletter. The newsletter is great for planning. One of my first cousins maintains the mailing list. I used the newsletter mailing list to send invitations. The invitation selection is great at the Hallmark Crown store. The selection I chose were more traditional (nothing silly such as "aged to perfection").

Plans were discussed with one of my mother's sister and another first cousin in the area to select the best time between meals, games, and visting.

On the invitations I requested only regrets to let me know who would not be attending. After the invitations were mailed the real party planning began. The theme was southern traditional with using the fall colors for cake decorationg, table decorations and flowers. The main table was covered with white table cloth and matching floor length lace.

Games were probably the most difficult. I decided to use milestones in my mother's life and have the guest try to guess when each of her children were born on what date, what year. Schools attended elementary, high, nursing, university she graduated from.

The prizes are a gift bag with all the ingredients for the Muscadine Cake in my blog minus the eggs and oil. You can actually use any of the recipes and pack them in a gift bag. I also, sell Mary Kay comestics so I purchased hand cream, lotion etc. It was important for everyone to get a prize.

I had two custom cakes made by a co-worker who makes and sells custom cakes. The birthday cake is a Italian Cream Cake with Sour Cream frosting decorated in the fall theme with "Happy Birthday Mom". The trimmings are fall leaves, acorns all in the green, gold, and orange colors. The secondary cake was the Chocolate Sheet cake for those who do not like Italian Cream Cake. The Chocolate Sheet cake recipe is in my blog. The Chocolate Sheet cake is always a big hit for any party. Party Punch was pineapple lime again the green color theme. Of course we have decaff coffee since it usually cool in the early afternoon and evening.

Since my mother is moving to an active retirement center (Kirby Pines) in December she does not need any additional trinkets. I let everyone know she only needed things to decorate here new apartment such as matching towels for bath and kitchen. Everything turned out perfectly.

I had pre - purchased thank you notes with postage stamps applied. This was great for my mother after the party to thank all of those that attended.