BakeKing & SewWing

ABOVE: Bake King insignia on bottom of pan, at the thrift store

I just put three loaf pans of lemon pound cake in the oven. They're for the birthday of a coworker tomorrow--Supershopper Louise. She's from Mississippi, and she and other coworkers from the South talk about liking pound cake. I didn't realize it's a Southern thing.

My mother's family was from southern Missouri, and she made orange pound cake when I was little--as well as other Southern foods, like fried pork chops and gravy. We grew up calling cornbread Johnny cake. Gosh, I hadn't thought of that in ages.

I haven't made pound cake since my mother taught me to cook. I don't have her recipe--used a recipe off the 'nets that calls for lemon zest and juice, and buttermilk. The batter tasted great.
I'm afraid three pans crowded into my small oven will bake wonky, but two loaves wouldn't be enough for everyone, so I took the chance. I'll move them around, halfway through...

I'd burned out the electric hand mixer I'd gotten from the thrift store, making Big Boss's big birthday cake, so I stopped at Target after work and bought a new one. Twenty-five dollars for the cheapest mixer! Geez. I forget how much things cost, new.
If I'm going to keep baking cakes (I had the idea I could do it as a little side business, just maybe), I'll need a top-of-the-line mixer. I'll research more before I invest though.

I had fifteen minutes before the bus came, so I got a cup of coffee at the Starbucks in Target. On the café table, I arranged in a grid to photograph some odds and ends I've been saving in a box at work.
This morning I'd listened to an episode of the Curious Minds podcast: "Always Be Knolling". Turns out knolling is the name for this kind of flat-lay photography, from above, of things arranged at right angles or parallel. I had no idea it had a name.
I've always liked lining things up like this--do you?

The photo I snapped at Target is out of focus, but I'm posting it anyway--small. I'll set up another one when I'm not so tired.

There, the kitchen timer went off, and I've turned the pound cakes around.

While I was listening to the podcast this morning, I was starting my next Fashion Week remake of an old baby-doll item of clothing.
I wish I'd done a Before & After of the earlier ones.
 Before:

And this, below, is During.
I had to leave for work, so I couldn't finish it then.
This remake is more complicated than the earlier ones, which were mostly a matter of pinning loose fabric.
I am just winging it, you know. (SewWing.)
Here, I've cut off the skirt and turned the bodice sideways--
the girlette's head is through the armhole. Will need actual stitching.

And now the cakes are out of the oven and cooling under the curious gaze of Odo and the other bears.
They look kinda misshapen, but when they're cool they'll get a lemon drip glaze, which should pretty them up.