Needlepoint Christmas

Years ago when I started needlepointing I was honored to be invited into a needlepoint Christmas exchange with a group who had been doing it for years. As the eclectic group would sit around the table stitching I would learn so much, not just about stitching, but good books they were reading or wonderful shows they were binge watching or recipes they were cooking.

When I was welcomed into their fold I offered to host the lunch where we exchange the ornaments we loving stitch for each another in secret. They were quick to accept this invitation and happily have not felt the need to move the lunch anywhere else. I love hosting this group and making something special for lunch, especially the dessert.

I know that it is not my event, that I am just a junior member, so sorry I can’t invite anyone else to be a stitching advisor. Please don’t have your feelings hurt that you aren’t invited, it is not my place to do that. That being said, sorry you don’t get to come to this lunch.

This year I had a yummy shrimp, crab and corn chowder, caramelized pear, onion, arugula and blue cheese quesadillas, deviled eggs, a delicious salad my friend Cindy brought and then dessert. I am not really a baker. Being precise in my cooking is not my style. With the very southern menu I was having I needed something equally southern. I decided on a caramel cake.

If you have never had a southern caramel cake you have not really lived, but if you have had them too often you will not live long. It is a decadent thing. I studied a lot of recipes, deciding that I liked one from a blog called Southern Boy Cooks. He made a two layer 9 inch cake. I liked many more thinner layers with a caramel cake, because it is all about the icing.

My cake pans are 8 inch so I thought I might get four layers out of his recipe. I got seven! That made for a very tall cake. With all these layers I doubled the icing. That was too much.

Carmel icing is a difficult thing to make because it can get grainy if you overcook it, but if you undercook it it won’t get thick enough to stay on the cake. Many hours of labor and I got it close.

The only thing that mattered is the stitching advisors enjoyed their lunch and their cake. I am so thankful for this multi-generational group of friends. I am also looking forward to learning how to make a birthday plaid and do beading this year. So here is to more reasons to get together. I’ll make the lunch.