Easter, Sweet Easter, Lemon Butter Cake Recipe and "What an Egg 2010!"

Easter was oh so sweet this year for a few reasons.

Reason #1:  Baby Nugget, the newest sibling to Fluffy Nugget, arrived Easter morning, hand delivered by the Easter Bunny to my nieces house.  A baby grey and white bunny, fitting perfectly in the palm of my hands and sleeping cuddled up to a stuffed animal rabbit in a large Easter basket was the big surprise in the Broussard household.  The name Baby Nugget was only sensible in the mind of my niece Gabriella who is 5.  What else to name the baby sister bunny than Baby Nugget when the big sister rabbit is named Fluffy Nugget?  I guess at the end of  the day I really can't disagree with that.  

2.  The arrival of my baby Doves in the nest has been fully confirmed!  The parent left the nest and I was able to snap a couple of pictures by reaching above, though that is the only way to see them as they are so high up.  Cute little things, they are about 5 days away from being strongly encouraged to leave the nest and become independent.  Surely most of us can identify with the feeling of leaving the nest, however most of us do this on our own time.  From what I have read, the parents basically give these birds no choice.  And I thought that I had a rough week ahead!

3.  Lemon Butter Cake... Oooh, Ahhh, Ohhh!  It's Half Gone in one sitting kind of good.  Very basic ingredients and the perfect ending to any meal or the perfect beginning to any day, with coffee or hot tea, IF you're not diabetic.  Gosh I hate to be a bad influence and I know one should not start their day with a piece of cake.  I just know better, but it's still sooooo hard to resist!  RECIPE COMING IN TOMORROW'S POST.  JUST DON'T DEPRIVE YOURSELF OF THIS RECIPE.

On a humorous note, the photo contest "What an Egg 2010!" maybe should have been named "What Egg 2010?"  I did get a couple of what I consider, in my non-professional photographer opinion, to be a few great Easter egg shots.  Most of them were taken by me.  It was all in fun, and was fun, and also a learning experience at the same time.  Eventually through feedback and comments I'll learn what readers want to participate in and/or what is considered useful and/or enjoyable reading and information.  I am humbled by the "Big Bad Computer" and am still learning, which creates a delay in posting for me sometimes.  Maybe next time there is a photo contest I'll give a little "head's up" notice at least a week or two before.  If you're like me with computers, or time schedules, two days is not enough to fit in anything extra especially on a holiday.  It thrills me that I have received a few comments and emails.  It makes this hobby just that much better!

I know that previously I told you that I was going to try Martha Stewart's Egg Dying Project from the April 2010 issue.  Did I tell you that I love Martha Stewart's magazines?  Thought so.  Did I tell you that I love magazines in general and that I have an armoire full of years worth of old magazines that I still pull out every month?  Maybe not.  But back to Martha Stewart Living Magazine... although some of the topics, projects and recipes are close to impossible to accomplish anything even slightly close to the picture in the magazine, I still love the photography and ideas.  Sometimes, eeeevery once in awhile, you run into something that is easy and you feel all proud of yourself and artistic for a minute or two or thirty!  Well, the project for eggs this year was not easy to figure out, definitely not for the impatient, absolutely not for very young children if you want to keep even a small piece of your sanity, and was like going on a scavenger hunt to find some of the materials (except the eggs and dye).  So, in case you still want to try it, obviously not this year unless you just love the bluish orangish greenish brownish nail stain and can't get enough of it, I have to say that it produced like four really cool eggs out of two dozen, less the 4 that cracked and turned in to egg salad.

In the end I used Electrical Tape, designer punch outs, and a high gloss junk mail advertisement to get the electrical tape to stick to something other than my Punch out.  This was necessary to get anywhere with the project.  Once I got a few designs punched out, peeled off of the glossy advertisement and cursed a little bit, I stuck the designs on the eggs, dunked them, let dry and then peeled off to get something like this:

A Pretty Paisley Egg, Dunked once in Apricot Colored Dye, Dried, Designs Peeled off and then dunked again in Teal Colored Dye.

And, with a little inspiration from Roy our Rat Terrier, we got this one!  If Roy were an egg, this is definitely what he would look like.  For sure.

If you really want to get the exact details on how to do this, I'd suggest you buy the magazine.  To me, the recipes this month are worth buying it, definitely, but I think that I might just go with solid color eggs next year.  Just a thought!

AND THE WINNER OF THE "WHAT AN EGG 2010 CONTEST!"?  YOU GOTTA LOVE SISTERS, THEY'LL DO ANYTHING FOR YA!  SUSIE BROUSSARD'S EASTER EGG PHOTO, SLIGHTLY MARBLED, BUT STILL PRETTY, AFTER A MORNING IN THE WET LAWN: