My grandmother left this world this past week a few weeks shy of her 88th birthday. She was a remarkable woman who left an enduring legacy of love, joy, beauty & style. Simple words cannot describe her life or the impact she had upon her family but she left the world around her richer & a seemingly better place to be in. I will continue to use her as the measure of how to live & treat others. Never will I hear a Frank Sinatra tune or the hundreds of other joys I know she had & not think of her. Kindness was her virtue & soft were her words.
Margaret Ann Harrington, 1920~2008
Rare is a childhood memory complete which doesn't include Nana. Sister & I rang in the New Year in 1965 with our Nana & Grandaddy (& Raggedy Ann of course~)
Nana was a beautiful woman lucky enough to marry a man who cooked for her but she had a few favorites which make me think of her. Both she & my Great Grandmother enjoyed making this simple cake with Apricot or Strawberry Nectar. Easy & elegant we made it for the 2009 New Years Eve at our house.
APRICOT NECTAR CAKE
1 yellow cake mix
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
1 tbsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. apricot nectar
Place caked mix in a large bowl and add the sugar, butter, eggs, apricot nectar and vanilla. Beat with a mixer for 8 minutes. Pour into a well greased and floured tube pan (A Bundt pan works nicely). Bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 55 minutes. Turn off oven and let cake set inside oven for additional 10 minutes. Cool partially and then remove cake from pan. I wait till the pan is cool enough to handle with bare hands & then turn out the cake onto a wire rack. Glaze cake while still warm.
GLAZE: Confectioners sugar and some additional apricot nectar mixed to desired consistency. Sprinkle with light dusting of powdered sugar.
*The Apricot cake can also be a strawberry cake using strawberry nectar instead.
12 comments:
Oh how beautiful...you also are a true creative soul...still jealous of your music I am loudly asking hubby to help me figure that one out :)
R.A. dolls-I had one of those...and that cake looks devine!
The cake is divine and hopefully we will all be able to live up to the example set by Nana.
Chef E~you can totally figure it out. Go to playlist via the bottom of my blog & it's pretty easy to add once you make your selections. I can't wait to "hear it".
Dee - I'm so sorry to hear about your Nana's passing. Sharing her cake recipe is a marvelous way to give tribute!
Dee- I also meant to say 'My Sympathies' about her passing too, just got caught up in Sinatra...woke the hubby up with it playing...
I have something for you on my TMI blog...not sure if you have ever really gone there...just a silly therapy site...
I'm so sorry about your Grandmother. What a lovely tribute you've written. My Mom still has my sister and I's Raggedy Ann's, they are in surprisingly good condition. The cake looks so delicious, especially with Strawberry Nectar.
So sorry to hear about your Grandmother passing away. She sounds like an amazing woman!!
Oh how wonderful to love a grandmother and know she loved you back with everything. It is also good to have one (and only one) who was not crazy.
Chef E~ will totally check it out today. Nothing is silly when it gives balm to the human spirit, thanks!
Reeni~Raggedy & I go way back. When I was a kid it was sometimes used as a nickname for me since my entire name was DeeAnn.
Carolyn~thanks, Chica!
Andrew, Cousin, PrayingPostmodern~You& only you(& our siblings) know how true that statement can be, ha! Thanks so much for being there, enjoyed seeing you.
I'm so sorry about your Nana's passing...it sounds like she had a wonderful life and such a great family too. It's great too to incorporate much of their lives into our own lives with memories, music and food.
Thanks for that recipe..I've been drooling over it since you posted the picture last week. Part of the charm though is that cake pan...I need to find one of those!
Kate~check the Nordic ware cake pan site. They have so much. Believe it or not the cake pans like that are something I can easily find here in Mexico, strange as that sounds. There is a store here in Monterrey which carries many of those decorative Bundt cake pans.
Thank you for sharing this. I am so sorry for your loss, but what fantastic memories you have! The cake looks fantastic and I can't wait to try it!
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