Absolutely, June! I don't see that anyone on here needs to fear posting their pictures on any site. Besides, I have found everyone to be kind and helpful. We all started somewhere. You, for sure, remember some of my early, very clumsy attempts! Had I not had the help and support of you, Betty and the other dear friends I met on CakesWeBake, I would have never even considered trying the things I now do with confidence (sort of, lol).
@MBAlaska the trouble is I HAVE made a lot and eaten too much of it - I just don't post it here! By the way I have always read your CCname as MBakedAlaska! I know that's wrong!! And I am having a big family dinner this weekend and plan on making BakedAlaska too! I mean, what says winter in New York like Baked Alaska!
Theresa
I've done a ton of baking too, but nothing decorated in a fancy way. I made sourdough English Muffins last week for the first time.
Today I made sourdough soft pretzels and have the dough in the fridge to make another batch of sourdough English muffins. I am about to gain back all of the hard lost pounds!
When I was growing up, my Mom would make baked Alaska, just because, for Sunday night dessert. I thought everyone’s Mom made desserts like this..ha ha. Nope. I was fortunate that my Mom was a awesome baker.......breads, rolls, danish, cinnamon buns, cakes, pies, squares. And icing for cakes, I have vivid memories of soooo many types of icings my Mom made. Think Mom liked the experimentation and challenge. Mom never did sourdoughs tho, but don’t think that sourdoughs were on the radar in 50’s/60’s where we lived. I really believe now, besides my Mom’s being a seamstress for customers, my Mom sewed for herself and family and baked as her creative outlet. I discovered my Mom was talented in sketching and drawing, which got buried with her sewing business, household duties and raising a family. I’m sure knowing my Mom, she considered it frivolous, and would have felt guilty pursuing sketching/drawing in her free time. And knowing my father, there wouldn’t have been much encouragement there. So Mom knitted in her spare time, when there was any.
Those are great memories June!
I learned to cook and bake by doing it with my Mom, who would experiment from time to time. Like pipe mashed potatoes in a heart on meatloaf for dinner on Valentine's Day! And 2 of her books - the Durkee Coconut cake book were my favorites. Little poems about cakes made in the shape of things covered in Durkee Coconut. When I found them again about 15 years ago, I fell in love with that all over again. I made the butterfly for my niece long long ago but I used really big pans so my butterfly looked more like Mothra! I still have the happily shocked picture of my niece and the cake I drove 50 miles with! Mom also taught me to sew and used a phrase that haunted me - 'you could make that nicer yourself' whenever we went clothes shopping,. damm she WAS right! My grandmother taught me to crochet (her job was making buttonholes by hand in a factory!) and my father was a carpenter so I can put together any IKEA item or make it myself. I like to say my parents were DIY before it was a 'thing'. It's called survival lol! But they passed their skills along to any of us that would spend the time to pick them up. Sadly, my sisters would toss a shirt with a missing button because they don't know how to sew it on. Madonn! lol
Yes theresaf I know I thanked my Mom when she was alive, but the older I get, the more thankful I am of the skills Mom taught me. Yes...DIY indeed. How creative of your Mom. I bet you enjoy those baking/cake cookbooks. I have several of my Mom’s cookbooks and recipes that I still use today. It’s wonderful to look through those old cookbooks and recipes. I really learned how to pinch a penny and to budget. To grocery shop smart. Cook what was on sale and in season. That helped me tremendously when I was raising my children. I really do believe tho, that cutting out home ec/shop from the school curriculums was a mistake. After I graduated high school, boys were allowed to take home ec, girls to take shop. Which was a good thing. Boys learning to cook and sew and doesn’t challenge there masculinity. Ditto girls learning to use power tools, making simple simple projects from wood, and girls not considered “butch”....a very old fashioned term for masculine “girls”. I tried to teach my daughter simple basics, but she wasn’t then, nor now, interested in any sort of cooking/baking (with the exception of chocolate chip cookies). Certainly not sewing!!!! I gave my daughter my Mom’s old sewing machine, which is languishing at a former friend’s Mother’s house in another province. I’m sure the sewing machine is still in the box it was packed in when my daughter finished university. I would dearly love to get that sewing machine back, because it was a very good one. Not to keep, but give away so it could be used. I don’t actually sew anymore because, sadly, it’s become way too expensive. But I also heard that refrain from my Mom also....you paid WHAT, for that...fill in the blank...blouse, dress, etc. You could have made it better AND cheaper. When I shopped with my Mom, which was very rare indeed, Mom would turn any Aron clothing inside out and immediately check out the workmanship!!! I can here Mom...tsk, tsk, tsk...look how shoddy these seams are, you call those darts!!...and the hem, you can see the stitches....it’s not blind hemmed!!! Ha Ha. Sewing is a skill, and it is time consuming. So the younger generation like my daughter, just don’t have that time. Daughter collapses at 9-10 pm at the end of almost everyday. Most times later.
Ha! You sound like you could've been my neighbor! It's just so interesting to me how people can be so alike in their upbringing and yet so different and far apart - you write "province" so I know you're not my neighbor lol. I was born in Brooklyn and the fam moved to Eastern Long Island when a lot was still undeveloped. Jeez - I am sounding older by the second!!! Foot stomp!
I love reading about the things your moms taught you June and Theresa, sounds very much like my mom. She started teaching me to take as soon as I was big enough to hang out with her in the kitchen and I actually learned to sew standing up at the treadle sewing machine. I was too short to pump the treadle if I was sitting. Mama always raised a big garden and canned and froze the bulk of our food and she was the best seamstress I've ever known. I was good, used to make men's suits and designed formal attire for my daughter, but she was much better! It always seemed to me that, between the two of them, my mom and dad could do anything.
My daddy was always drawing and I just took for granted that I inherited my artistic ability from him. It was not until I started college and brought home my oil paints and canvases that Mama said she had always wanted to paint. I had never even seen her try to draw. I gave her a paint box full of oil paints and brushes, canvases and an easel for Christmas that year and we were all blown away by the works of art she created! She was a fantastic artist.
Oh, I certainly grew up differently than you, Theresa! I am a dipped and dyed hillbilly and grew up on a farm. We don't farm, but still live on twenty acres in the country....way out in the country, lol. A few of the other things I learned growing up was how to cut and spike tobacco, take up hay, bush hog and plow with the tractor, swim in the creek and ride horses. I was a glorious way to grow up!
Ha Ha theresaf You do sound like your from the same generation. I was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Which was the Steel capital of Canada. Very similar to Pittsburgh. Not now. Only 2 small steel mills left, like Pittsburgh, that industry slowly died, and both Hamilton/Pittsburgh had to, and are still growing and changing the types of businesses to replace steel. Our downtown core suffered very badly when the steel industry collapsed. Some very tough times. Many, many department stores and businesses closed. Downtown became very seedy. But over the last 10-15 years, massive resurgence, regrowth and change. Downtown has been revitalized, and is back to the former glory it was when I was a child. There’s still more improvement needed. Especially on the peripheral of the downtown core. But it’s coming, albeit, slowly. I live a city over now, Burlington. About 20 minutes away from where I grew up. Brooklyn and Long Island weren’t that dissimilar from Hamilton. In the house where I grew up there was absolutely nothing, that was in 1954. Brand new survey. Typical of that era in Canada and the USA. When I go back to the area now, hardly recognizable. The whole city has grown and changed. Areas I’m still not familiar with. Ditto the city I’m living in now. Moved here in 1979, and the growth has been phenomenal. The house I’m in now, we bought brand new, from plans, in 1987. There was nothing around but trees and bush. Completely developed now....schools, arenas, parks, shopping centres...etc. One of my good friends was born and raised in Long Island NY. We were close for many years and raised our children through elementary school. Sadly, after I moved out of my old neighbourhood to the house I’m in now, our friendship slowly faded. I stil remember her referring to her purse as a “pocketbook”. That was definitely a Americanism we didn’t use here. :o)
SandraSmiley There is a new show on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) called “Back in Time”. They have taken the family from the 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, and now there moving into the 1960’s. They actually renovate the family home to reset the era, furniture, kitchen. I especially love the kitchen. I watched the 1950’s episode with Steve yesterday. The young girls, twins, probably 12 years old, were thrilled they got a refrigerator in there kitchen!!!! Before that, strictly a icebox!! And the poor 16 yr old daughter never had any leisure time as she was working with her Mom as a “wife in training”. Learning all the wifely skills!!! Man oh man the hard work and drudgery of keeping house in the 30’s/40’s!!! Woman never sat down accept to sew, or do mending or knitting. At least 1950’s had some new modern appliances. Like a actual automatic washing machine. I laughed when I watched the Mom and daughter’s trying to use a wringer washer. Was hilarious!! Not a clue. They gave up. I so remember helping my Mom with removing clothing from the wringer. Stood on the other side to catch and put in the laundry basket. And our wringer had an electric motor.....fancy!! So you muffed the clothing into the wringer, and...wa la...out it came the other side. No hand cranking!!
And we too had a big garden Sandra. And what we didn’t grow, we purchased from the farmers market. We put down veggies, and all kinds of fruit. Best investment I ever made was a freezer. Really had to convince Steve on that one. Wasn’t cheap buying on one salary. But freezer paid for itself many times over. Was a big chest freezer. We got rid of it when the kids were grown up. Bought a smaller upright freezer, which is still invaluable. And like you Sandra, I never, ever sewed as well as my Mom. I was good, but not like Mom. She made suits, formal wear, not me. That’s some skill Sandra, making a suit. Couldn’t do it, and quite frankly, wasn’t really interested. Yes, Sandra, although it was hard work, times we’re simpler. No where near the stress for younger people now. Honestly tho, if men and women today managed there budget better, not want every blasted new thing/electronic gadget that came out, leaned just how to shop and cook/bake properly, that alone would save a ton of money. Instead of convenience foods, eating out, ordering in. My oh my, we never ate out, ordered in cause it was too expensive. We did splurge occasionally to order a pizza. We have the luxury of doing that now, but we have more disposable income. Yes, fond memories of days gone by. I starting to sound like the clients I use to care for when I was a psw....oh now, I’m really getting old!!!!!
Loved both of your memories Sandra and June
When my family moved out of Brooklyn in 1969, Eastern Long Island was a million miles away from my old friends. I had a gap with my closest friend there at one point and when we got got together when we turned 50 another girlfriend joined our dinner. I hadn't seen the other girl for 40 years and the two are now my closest friends, we group text and try to see each other. One lives in North Carolina so that's harder but the other lives in New Jersey and works in NYC so I will sometimes take the train in for dinner. The three of us couldn't be more different but we are still 3 Catholic School Italian girls who grew up in Brooklyn with the same values and dare-I-say-it, the same no-nonsense approach to poor behavior!! It turns out you cannot take the Brooklyn out of people...
But wait - it's NOT a pocketbook!? I still call it that - although occasionally I call it a handbag. - like if I make a handbag cookie!
Interesting to read your stories :) I too was taught to sew but I never was all that good. Just made some simple dresses for daughters and my self. The girls didn't really appreciate that. I remember one Christmas when #1 was about 13,14 asking for "store bought blouse NOT on sale"! #2 was even less impressed w/home made clothes......she would dress in one outfit that I made but I found out much later she was taking a change of clothes in her purse. She was about 10. I don't remember my mom (or me for that matter) actually teaching cooking I guess I learned by osmosis - the same as my daughters did. Neither of them have ever been interested in learning & have always scoffed at my decorating - even when I made their wedding cakes :( Growing up we also had a very large garden. About the only thing I remember about it was its size (I can still picture it in my mind) & that there were red current bushes growing on the edges. I loved them! Everywhere I have lived I have tried to have a garden....one was just the 12" wide dirt between the foundation & the driveway where I planted some tomatoes! Another was a triangle sliver of dirt about 15' long by 3' widening to about 5' when we lived in the mtns. I spent probably a week digging out rocks to be able to plant :) Right now I have a spot behind the house that is about 3' wide by 6' long and then a couple of 'squares' in the community garden each about 3'x4' that we plant year round - right now with potatoes, carrots, peas and radishes. In a couple of months we'll plant bell peppers, lettuce (several kinds & other greens), tomatoes, Chinese cabbage, 3 or 4 kinds of squash, parsley, cilantro, and other herbs and anything else I come across :)
Living in the country, I remember well when we got electricity. I guess I was about six or seven years old. We still did not have a bathroom or running water and used a toilet and a well in which you dropped a long bucket to draw water. I think I was in the 4th grade when Daddy built us a bathroom and it was WONDERFUL! I also remember washing clothes outside on a wash board. Mama used the wringer type washing machine until around 1990 when she finally broke down and got a regular washer, never had a dryer.
I've heard so many people say they didn't want to wear the clothes their mom made. Carol, Lynn and I were the best dressed girls in school and Mama made everything some of them from feed sacks....have either of you ever heard of corn and other animal food coming in sacks which could be reused for making clothes? Flour also came in printed, cloth bags for reuse. I guess it was a little silly, but my sisters and I really loved each other and Mama made these outfits for us when we took a trip to Disney World, Carol's and Lynn's first plane ride.
I love reading all your stories. So many of the things you write about I also had in my life. I still own the house where I was born (my Dad build it) but I don't live there. Lovely little place, Dad covered it with "white flint rocks" when I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. My Dad was a brick mason. Everyone that lived near was a uncle or and aunt. I treat it like a vacation spot now to go to sometimes, it's only a 10 min. drive from me. I also have the sewing machine (treadle) that I learned to sew on many years ago. Still works. I made a lot of my daughter's clothes when she was young. I grew up in a house where my Mother cooked on a wood stove, never had a electric one as long as she lived there, she was a great cook. The stove is still in the house and not much has changed around the house, still lots of land, not near a highway, quiet, no neighbors too close, a nice "creek" stream near the house that I played in all summer long when I was young. I loved it. Where I live now is also in the country with only one neighbor and he's not to close. I'm glad I have such great memories of my childhood & I still love living in the country where It's peaceful.
I love reading all your stories. So many of the things you write about I also had in my life. I still own the house where I was born (my Dad build it) but I don't live there. Lovely little place, Dad covered it with "white flint rocks" when I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. My Dad was a brick mason. Everyone that lived near was a uncle or and aunt. I treat it like a vacation spot now to go to sometimes, it's only a 10 min. drive from me. I also have the sewing machine (treadle) that I learned to sew on many years ago. Still works. I made a lot of my daughter's clothes when she was young. I grew up in a house where my Mother cooked on a wood stove, never had a electric one as long as she lived there, she was a great cook. The stove is still in the house and not much has changed around the house, still lots of land, not near a highway, quiet, no neighbors too close, a nice "creek" stream near the house that I played in all summer long when I was young. I loved it. Where I live now is also in the country with only one neighbor and he's not to close. I'm glad I have such great memories of my childhood & I still love living in the country where It's peaceful.
kakeladi/lynne I’m surprised your girls didn’t like the clothes you sewed. Like Sandra, I loved the dresses, blouses, pants etc my Mom made. Many of my friends were jealous cause all my clothes were so “original”. Especially in high school. Remember well the cool outfits my Mom made me for the school dances!! Mom sewed us nightgowns, housecoats, and knitted us slippers. Mom made me a long Maxi coat lined with thick Borg material, super warm with matching pants. Man I was hot, hot, hot!!!! I wish we had room in our backyard for a garden, alas, we do not. Hubby built a raise garden bed on our deck, we grew tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. Hubby will make another one this summer.
Ha Ha theresaf....Still a pocketbook!!!! Still a NY girl. Quite an adjustment from Brooklyn to Long Island. And although I wasn’t Catholic, had many Catholic friends. My elementary school was literally right across the street from my home, and the Catholic school, down 1/2 block down from my school. Neighbours on both sides of me went to the Catholic school. And as for no nonsense, was raised by a Scottish Presbyterian Mom. Church was a bedrock in our family. Everything revolved around it.
Betty...sounds so idyllic. But being a city girl, not sure I’d want to live that way permanently. Maybe for va ca’s. Your childhood sounds wonderful. Couldn’t imagine sewing on a treadle machine. I have a Singer treadle in my sitting room. Works, but it’s just a piece of furniture. Couldn’t imagine sewing anything on it.
Sandra I couldn’t have imagined growing up with no electricity!! ....and a outdoor bathroom??? Only used those when we went camping in the summer. And no running water...holy moly. I do remember Mom using a washboard in our cement sink in our basement laundry room. Laundry room was located right beside the furnace. We use to come down to the basement after playing in the winter and place our hats and gloves on the furnace ledge to dry. And a wringer washer right up to 1990...that’s serious frugality. We had a dryer, but Mom hung out clothes outside spring, summer, fall and winter. Remember how stiff the clothes were, the stood by themselves. We also had a line in our laundry room, plus a couple of clothes horses Mom used in the winter months. And yes Sandra I remember flour sacks. Mom made things out of them, but not clothes. Mostly for storage. I remember Mom putting potatoes in flour sacks and storing in our fruit cellar. Our fruit cellar was huge where we kept our jams, jellies and fruit in jars we prepared from summer harvest. And I love that picture of the 3 sisters...outfits are so cute!!
Wringer washer yep used that I was STILL hanging clothes out until I was hurt at work Can’t use/raise my arms enough now :( I don’t remember making any but we had canned veggies and jams etc I never did any canning I made “coffee can” bread for a few yrs & fzr jams — don’t eat enough to do so any more
Like Sandra, no indoor plumbing, a well just outside the kitchen door to get water from and no electricity and washing in a tub. I did my homework by oil lamps and went to bed when it got dark. Mom made a lot of things from feed sacks, some of them had really pretty designs/prints. We finally got lights & indoor bathroom way after I started school.
Way back when Jackie and Heath were getting this site going, I was just learning to decorate, and the other decorators on this site were so very inspiring, educational, and supportive. It was an amazing incubator for cake decorators! I had to go back to a corporate job, and so have not been here often and haven't posted in years. My son and I are making a Jungle Book cake and I wanted some inspiration, but the photo gallery doesn't even display most of the photos, and the ads consume so much of the real estate. It's obviously the end of an era.
I'll keep an eye on this thread and will check out the other sites you recommend (Thanks!), but will be sad to lose the wealth of knowledge and inspiration that has been CakeCentral.
Welcome back! As you can see the few of us remaining active here are all sooo very sad about loosing our beloved home & essentially the friends we’ve made too I have joined the other sites but have trouble navigating either one Nowhere near the same You don’t see threads like this or others where we just have some fun/banter
albumangel
Found this on CC: https://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/3221200/jungle-book-cake
https://www.cakecentral.com/gallery/i/1182713/jungle-book-2
Found several cakes on CakesDecor: https://cakesdecor.com/search/cakes?q=Jungle+Book
Hope this helps... o:)
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