I’m still with Ruby. We went to Macon this morning & Bevier. We went over to the café tonite & ate supper. Ruby made 2 cakes today. One for Dollie’s birthday.
Sounds like a busy day at Ruby’s house. Dollie Parrish was one of Roy’s sisters (he had three). Dollie and her husband, Gus, lived on a farm north of Bevier. They had a daughter that died in infancy from the flu. Gus died young from a blood clot in his leg, and Dollie never remarried. When Dollie’s father was trampled and killed by a team of runaway horses (sometime before 1945), Dollie’s mother moved in with Dollie, and the two of them lived together on Dollie’s farm north of Bevier for the rest of their days. They owned, at one time, three head of milk cows that they milked twice a day.
Dollie was a very sweet lady, and I can remember visiting her farm. I always remember it being so much fun. She really knew how to put on a grand picnic!
Dollie owned a grindstone, one of those big concrete wheels that was used to sharpen knives and the blades of farm implements. Normally, those old grindstones had a hand crank, and to get the stone spinning, you had to crank the handle (or get someone else to crank it while you held the implement in place). But Dollie’s was fancy — hers had a seat (an old metal tractor seat), and pedals like a bicycle. You sat on the seat and pedaled to get the stone spinning, which left your hands free to hold the implement you were trying to sharpen. I can remember riding that thing like a stationary bike, and getting that wheel to spinning, even though I wasn’t sharpening a thing. Too bad I don’t get that much enjoyment out of riding a stationary bike these days!
Just in case you have any birthdays to celebrate, I’m going to give you Ruby’s cake recipe. I don’t know if this was the exact cake she made for Dollie that day, but it is one of Ruby’s recipes, so I’m sharing it here.
Ruby’s White Cake
Mix together:
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsps. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
Set aside. In another bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup shortening (melted)
3/4 cup milk
Add the dry ingredients to the shortening/milk mixture, and beat for two minutes. Then add
3 egg whites
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond flavoring
Put into two greased and floured 9″ cake pans, and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until tested done.
Frost with your favorite frosting, since once again, there is no particular frosting recipe specifically for this cake. As usual, I wimped out and used the pre-made stuff . . . But it does taste like birthday cake!
And once you’re done with that, you can quilt! Here’s today’s instructions . . .
Option 1 (large quilt):
Today you’ll need Fabric #5. From it, cut four squares 3″ x 3″. 
On the back of each square, draw a diagonal line with a marking pencil.
Store these in your “Block 3″ baggie.
Option 2 (small quilt):
Today you’ll need Fabric #5. From it, cut four squares 1 15/16″ x 1 15/16″. Remember, you did this the other day, and it’s not as hard as it sounds. Just line your ruler up on the 2″ mark and then back off till it’s halfway between there and the 1 7/8″ mark. Easy peasy!
On the back of each square, draw a diagonal line with a marking pencil.
Store these in your “Block 3″ baggie.
[...] Hazel doesn’t say what kind of cake she made him, but here’s a recipe that I published before that’s a good birthday cake recipe: Ruby’s White Cake. [...]