So are the days of our lives...

You`re looking at one happy dog. It's useless to plant anything in this corner of my new ( still forming) bed. He has claimed this corner under the lilac bush. Squatters rights ya know.

In other news, after reading what seemed like a nice lemon loaf cake recipe, I baked last night. Epic fail. Was it me or the recipe? Who knows for certain. I have been a bit impaired these days due to, well life. No whining because...I have a happy dog who has a shady lilac bush to lay under.

ISO a fantastic lemon loaf cake recipe.

 The bookshelves are a better source for reliable baking success. A mutiny will form at my house if I don't find something good among the pages of my many cookbooks. Redemption is in order. My family smelled the lemon cake baking and woke up to a lovely iced loaf on the cake plate and were met with a custard like UN-enjoyable mess.

My mom gave me a recipe for a breakfast bundt cake that is just simply divine. It calls for a boxed cake mix (eww shudder in horror) and a box of instant pudding ( I can hear the nay saying from here) Listen here you food purists.. sometimes real people have to make use of convenience items. Anyhow, the failed lemon loaf cake recipe reminded me of my Mom's cinnamon and nut cake. The ingredients were similar. I think it was that damned cheap box of cake mix I used.

Let me shock you with this bit of news.  I never rarely bake cupcakes from scratch. Cupcakes are a pain in my behind to start with. It's a fair estimate that I have baked and frosted 5,000 cupcakes in the course of raising 4 kids. I would rather buy them any day then stand there and scoop batter into little paper cups. So, the last thing I want to do is measure ingredients. I buy a cake mix and then shoot for a good homemade frosting. I detest canned frosting. So, there is no pretentious confusion. A good store bought cake mix is of no shame. Unless, it's carrot cake. Come on, use real carrots and make a good one.

Our carrots are planted in one of the raised vegetable beds. Economically speaking this isn't a crop to plant in the home garden purely to save money on your grocery bill. The taste however of home grown carrots is far superior to store bought. Few crops give me as much pleasure as digging up the root vegetables.

Tucker (the dog) has claimed his corner of my flower bed, which I can accept. My carrot bed is another thing. If I find paw prints in my carrot bed he is gonna have some splainin' to do. Right after he stops licking the lemon loaf cake off his chops.

I hope your world held a little sunshine this weekend.