Friday Friend Recipe #160 and #161-- Easter Cakes

Making my way thru my Friday Friend Cookbook, one recipe at a time.

What is the Friday Friend cookbook: I have about 50 of my closest friends and family on an e-mail forum which I called the Friday Friends (from all over the county). At first, most of them didn't know each other, (they knew me) but over the past 18 years, we've answered and shared silly--and serious---questions, exchanged Secret Santa Christmas gifts, had a dieting contest in which we paid a $1 a week and that money went to a scholarship fund for a Friday Friends son's memorial scholarship, and we went on a great vacation for my 52 birthday.

AND, we contributed recipes for a cookbook.

I was looking at the cookbook the other night and I said, "I should make every recipe in here for my blog."
The Handyman--who knows me better than I know myself (this happened to be a question on the Friday Friend forum once---does your spouse/partner know you better than you know yourself?)--said,  "you'll never, EVER do that."
WELL---maybe I'll show him!  Maybe I will.

Which brings me to this... recipes #160 and #161

Easter Cakes

They are really not Easter Cakes per say, but I made them the Saturday before Easter and took them to church for Fellowship Hour, so I can call them that, right?

They are spring and summer time cakes to me. 

Light and easy cakes.

And everyone loves them!

Let me just state that there are no Cool  Whip and Sprinkles in this recipe, but my lemon juice and powdered sugar glaze didn't look quite 'enough' to me-- to take to church-- so I spread some Cool Whip on top, added some sprinkles and Wah-La!

  Still very lemony and good. 

And a Jello-Poke cake?  It's just good.  You can use any flavor you want, but for some reason I always pick strawberry. 

Two recipes, two contributors, 

Myself and Betty  But you know so much about me already I'm just going to go with telling you a Betty story.

This is Betty's 2nd recipe in the countdown

(you can see all her recipes here)

But her first one was #61 in the countdown and this is #161!

This makes me laugh because....well... possibly because I don't get out much?!

If you recall, Betty is my Mom's best friend in the whole wide world.

They were roommates for a semester.

When my mom graduated from High School, she only wanted to get married, as did Betty,  but their  parents strongly encouraged them to get a higher education. 

So off they went -- my mom  to Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR.

(not nearly as well-known as those silly Ducks)

And Betty headed off to Business College in Spokane, WA.

After one semester, my mom was so homesick, she dropped out and headed to the big city of Spokane to room with her best friend Betty,  join her in Business School and to begin that wild single lifestyle of young women away from home in the late 1950's.

Ahhh-- what adventures awaited them.

Secretly tho, they were both planning their weddings and in the spring of 1958, they both married their high school sweethearts!

(seen below -- Christmas dance 1957)

50 happy years later, still happily married to those sweethearts,  they found themselves  together at our cabin to celebrate and to be initiated into the Secret Friday Friend Handshake!

First you lick your thumb.

(Betty and my mom and in the back me and my sister-in-law, Sylvia)

Then you sizzle it on your palm!

And then you 'seal' it with your fist!

And I obviously forgot to get a picture of that part.

(Sylvia and I are obviously confused about our secret handshake in the photo above)

One thing about Betty is she makes the best potato salad in the world!  Which is funny because she uses the same ingredients as I do and the same as my mom did, yet  her's  tops ours every time!

Why is that?  Potato Salad, spaghetti sauce--they are all the same, but different!

This lemon cake was great, but if I ever get lucky enough to have dinner at Betty's house again, I am going to ask for the potato salad.

And now, more Friday Friend Secret Handshake pictures!

If you click on the post---you can get the background for the shake.

(see original post here)

And that my friends makes recipes #160 and #161 a thing of the past!

Only 133 more to go!