Tuesday, August 30, 2011

happenings in Between

The name of our community is Between. We're halfway between Stone Mountain and Athens (Georgia Bulldogs, you know), but we're also halfway between Loganville and Monroe. I said all that to say this -- ta da! we have a traffic light in Between now. Highway 78 has striped crosswalks at the light. Everything the big city has, we have. Also, since Between doesn't have a post office, our address is Monroe. And Monroe just happens to have the oldest person in the WORLD living here. She was 115 last Friday. And feeling well, too. There are only a very few people who've lived in three centuries. That's just so amazing.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Fig Preserves Cake

Be sure to use homemade fig preserves. Finely chop figs.

For the cake:
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups fig preserves
1 cup pecan pieces, toasted

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 lb. confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

To make the layers: Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour three 8-in. pans. In medium bowl beat eggs till light in color. Add sugar and oil and continue to beat to make a smooth batter.

In a bowl combine flour with cinnamon and salt and stir. Add half the flour mixture to batter and STIR to blend. Add buttermilk and sour cream and mix well. Add preserves and nuts and stir into batter. Divide batter equally among 3 prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Loosen layers by gently running knife around edge and turning out onto wire rack to continue cooling while making frosting.

To make the frosting: In a medium bowl combine cream cheese and butter and beat with mixer till smooth. Add sugar and vanilla and beat at high speed till fluffy. Spread frosting between layers and over assembled cake.