Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage PINK Cake back after 40 years

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!! If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so  please make sure you follow the instructions. 
Please only ONE link per week.    

I was going to post the second half of my vintage books, but this week for some reason my photos did not want to load, so I moved on to the post I had set up for next week. Hopefully, I will get it figured out.

Vintage Lunchboxes bring back lots of memories of the favorite subject in grade school, which was always lunch, then recess. I used to love shopping for school boxes at the beginning of the school year. One year, I had a lunch box just like this one....but I remember I wanted another kind, and for the life of me I can not remember what it was.....so I guess it was not too important after all. But I would take my lunch in this same type of box when I did not want to eat what was in the cafeteria.

There was never a day that this very cake was not served that I brought a lunch from home. This "pink" cake was my very favorite thing we had at school. I remember thinking all morning about that slice of pink cake that would be on my tray at lunch, and crossed my fingers that the lady working behind the counter with the hairnet on would be nice and give me a big slice!!

Do you remember these lunch trays? That wonderful pink cake would be in the top left square.....the thought of that very cake would make my mouth water! In all of 40 years since grade school....wow....did I just say that??? Anyway, I have never come close to finding any cake similar to that beloved "PINK" cake we had in grade school.

A couple of weeks ago on facebook, there were groups popping up about what town you grew up in...I joined that group from my hometown and not long after joining, one of the discussions was about this very pink cake!

It seems that I was not the only one who had fond memories of this delicious cake served from the school cafeteria. There were schoolmates from all ages talking about that pink cake and how yummy it was. My friend's mother worked as the bakery manager of the school district and with a little prodding from my friend, she was able to break the recipe down from serving a hundred people to a size fit for a family.

I am posting the recipe here for you to enjoy if you care to take a trip back to the late 60's and a homemade cake that was served to school children of all ages. A cake so wonderful, we are all still talking about it 40 and 50 years later. It was so nice to relive a wonderful memory of school lunches and something so wonderful, I have not been able to recreate it in all my adult years.....until now.

"PINK" cake - By the wonderful bakers at Burleson School District

How to:

cream together 2/3 cup shortening and 1 1/2 cup sugar. Beat in 3 eggs. Sift together 2 1/4 cups flour, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt. Add 1 package of Strawberry Jello (small box)

Stir in 1 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla alternately with flour mixture into the shortening and sugar mixture. ( I used my kitchen-aid mixer to mix all the ingredients)

Pour into greased and floured (2) 9 inch pans or one 9X13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.

Frosting:

1 lb. or 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
red food coloring - add enough to get the pink color your want.

Mix well and frost cake.

Then, sit back with a vintage plate and a slice of this vintage treasure. Once you take a bite you will think you have died and gone to heaven....or in my case.....whirled back in time to a loud lunchroom filled with rowdy kids and the smell of mediocre pizza in the air. Back to a much simpler time, a time that was slower paced, a time where school lunches were prepared by moms and ladies who baked for school children from scratch.

This is a treasured memory that I really thought was all but forgotten, and I am here to tell you, this cake is all it was back in my grade school years. The icing the same, the cake texture and flavor the same. It has been a memory and a dream come true all rolled up into one.  Yes, a treasured memory for me and my taste buds. Hope you enjoy!!

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday everyone....and special thanks to Betty who is and will always be, the very best cake baker I have ever known.......

Quilting Update: Begging Quilt Project - BIG HUGS

I know this post has been a long time in coming, but finally I have something to show on my begging quilt project! I finally have all 85 blocks sewn together. That is 85 blocks with (64) 2 inch squares in each.

That is a lot of little squares my friends!! I am so glad to finally have them all put together. The photos are just the big square block laid out on the floor, none of the big blocks have been joined together yet, it is just nice to have a sneak peek of the progress and visualize what the finished quilt top will look like!

Now, I just need to sew the 85 blocks together so I can get this beauty quilted. My problem is, I really enjoy piecing the blocks, but always seem to procrastinate on sewing the blocks all together to make the quilt top. I will work on this however, and not set it aside. It is high time I finish this treasure.

Many of you may remember the quilt I saw that Mary had finished. Mary was my swap partner for the Brown Bag Quilt project last fall and we quickly discovered we had lots of things in common. She calls her postage stamp quilts "Big Hugs" and somehow when I started my quilt project, the name begging quilt project just sorta stuck....after all, I did beg for donations of scraps for this quilt....and true to bloggers fashion, I received more scraps than I could have ever imagined for this project.

However, scraps alone was not all I received.....the past few months have not been easy for me. I have struggled with so many things and pretty much have decided from a series of events that you (myself) are just not as important as you think you are to other people. I'm over it now, but I tell you it was not easy to swallow. I tell you there is nothing like a reality check to open one's eyes, even if the reality cuts into your heart.

But I will say, on my darkest days, when I would retreat into my sewing room, it was these pieces of scraps that helped me cheer up and at least feel I did matter enough for someone to take the time to send them to me. This project has been my therapy, and when I started this, I would not or could not have known what it would mean to me when it was finished. This quilt is very special to me indeed. And as we all know, the hard times don't last and brighter days do follow the darkest of times. But is was these fabric bits that hugged my heart when I needed it the most .

I think Mary very brilliantly named these quilts when she calls them "Big Hugs" because that is what this really has developed into for me......big hugs from all of you wonderful blogging friends. I just want you guys to know that all these little scraps that were sent to me from all over the world have been, and are in process of being joined together and this is going to be one special quilt that I will treasure always. Stay tuned, I am working on this a little each day, and I can't wait to show you the final quilt all stitched together.



Today ~ I am sending big hugs out to all of you.....everyone needs a hug now and then!