Angel Food Cake, Ballerina Candle Holders, and a Birthday

Thursday, September 16, 2010
When my Mom was a little girl (50+ years ago), her Mom used to make her an angel food cake with pink icing, and little ballerina candle holders on top. 
This year I decided to continue the tradition.  We have one or two of those ballerinas dancing around my house somewhere, but I decided to EBay it and order some more. 
I bought two of these vintage sets of ballerina candle holders, and the pink platter to put my cake on this year.  I'm a few ballerinas short of her actual age, but....they aren't the sturdiest little gals, so....we will just say she's young at heart and not load the cake up with too many. 
I baked up an Angel Food cake, with a little help from Betty Crocker, in my Grandmother's Angel Food Cake Pan.  I love the idea of traditions, for a moment, they capture those sweet moments from the past. 
I took a leap of faith and tried my hand at a 7 minute frosting.  I've never had one work out for me before, but I made a few changes this go round, broke one of my favorite dishes, but eventually came up with a really tasty icing (thanks to Paula Dean's recipe). 
7 Minute Frosting
 
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar (it was really sugary, but I like sugar, so....be warned), 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar,
1/8 teaspoon salt , 1/3 cup water , 2 egg whites , 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Place sugar, cream of tartar or corn syrup, salt, water, and egg whites in the top of a double boiler (I put a heat proof glass bowl over a boiling pot of water).  Place pan over boiling water, being sure that boiling water does not touch the bottom of the top pan. (If this happens, it could cause your frosting to become grainy...oops this happened, but just at the bottom of my dish). Beat constantly on high speed with electric mixer for 7+ minutes. Beat in vanilla.   I read some reviews that said that it may take longer than 7 minutes, but mine finished up in about that amount of time (for the first time).  Just in case you are like me, or
you are me someday trying to remember how this worked out 'that one time'---->it starts out looking like marshmallow fluff, and ends up look like this. 
I really like the combination of angel food cake and 7 minute frosting.  The frosting is sweet, but Angel Food is light enough to handle it.  It's also covered up some pretty major imperfections in my cake.  I have plans for this recipe in the future.  In the meantime, today is my Mom's birthday!  I'm excited to celebrate my Mom every year, and I'm glad that I KNOW  how truly fortunate I am to have her in my life!  Very few people get to experience the depth of unconditional love, and unwavering support my brother and I experience daily, yearly, for a lifetime.   I could never put her story in 'a' post, and I could never capture it on a blog.   Every once in awhile I throw a pity party for myself for one reason or another, and then when I look at the scales of life, there is so much to be joyful for, but even if it was my Mom on one side, and the rest life threw at me on the other, the scales would still be completely in my favor without question because I get to call her my Mom.  Happy Birthday, Mom! 



7 comments

Jenn said...

I had the same candle holders growing up that my grandma gave me! I still have them and can't wait to use them if I have a daughter some day!
Thanks for bringing back some wonderful memories!

Marie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marie said...

Cute Cake!! I really need to take some lessons from you! :)

Ella said...

happy belated birthday, margie! i'm sure it was a wonderful day...especially since it involved that beautiful, and I'm sure quite delicious, cake! very thoughtful and i love the ballerina candle holders..i've never seen those!

tt.scraps said...

You brought tears to my eyes with your last paragraph. I feel that way too. Both of my parents have passed and even though that is tough, I am still grateful that they were mine! And the scales STILL tip in my favor!!!
Thanks for sharing and making me remember!
xoxo,
Tammy

Elizabeth said...

I would love to find those too. My mom used them on all of our birthdays and I have been looking for them. If you find anymore please let me know.
Thanks

DoRemy73 said...

This truly brought back my childhood memories. I also had these on my cake. I will look for them on eBay too! Thank you so much! This is great \0/ DoRemy in Hawaii...