Typography + Embroidery = A Relaxing Day

I joined a new site about 5 months ago called Pinterest.  Besides being a totally time consuming website, you end up seeing some of the most amazing things on the site.  And it's such an inspiration board for trying new adventures.  One of the new/old things I been wanting to do was embroidery.  I say new/old because I haven't done embroidery for at least 35 years.  The last thing I embroidered was the Navy Seal for my father when I was in college.  Said to say, that it has been misplaced.  But upon seeing this on Pinterest, I knew that I wanted to start embroidering again.

This was Valentine's Day art work created by Marian Bantjes for Saks Fifth Avenue, who owns the copyright.  Can you see all the hidden words?  Well, my first thought when I saw it was how beautiful it would be done in embroidery.  So, I started this:

I will be adding the names of my brother and sister-in-law and their wedding date to the bottom.  What a lovely day!

Saturday Cake - Banana Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting

For today's Saturday Cake, I decided to make a banana cake. This recipe has been sitting in my "to try" list for a couple of weeks. So last night around midnight, looking at three overly ripe bananas, and no inclination whatsoever to sleep, I made a cake!

Both the cake recipe and the frosting recipe involved two firsts for me. For the cake, it was separating the eggs, and folding in the whipped egg whites at the end of the process. But it made for a very nice light fluffy batter. And I really hesitated about adding flour to the frosting. Not just flour but 5 tablespoons of flour! But I have to say this was hands down the best tasting frosting I've made. It's similar to buttercream, but not as sickening sweet as buttercream can be. All and all, I think this Saturday's cake is a winner!

Here's a picture of the flour paste cooling, waiting to be added to the frosting.

As you can see it looks alot like gravy. Who would have thought of putting gravy in your frosting?

And of course the obligitory shot of the kitchen aid beating the frosting.

After the brown sugar, butter and vanilla are whisked into submission, you add your "gravy", which ends up actually whipping into a really nice, soft frosting. And viola! A lovely Saturday Cake!