Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Imari Trio, Pumpkin Surprise Loaf Cake

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea! The last few days have been low key, with an annual bout with allergies. Yechch! BUT...I am feeling much better and want to thank you for your thoughts, prayer and kind messages and emails. But I missed my 2 favorite Christmas bazaars! Rats!!! Ah well...there will be more next weekend!

I have the linky and the list of some of the blogs I link to at the bottom of the post, so please link one post of something related to tea, and visit the other wonderful blogs!

For those of you familiar with this blog, you know I love Imari cup and saucers. The name Imari is generically given to china with the colors of rust, cobalt blue and green that developed in the early 1800s with the trade with the Imari region of Japan. They continued to be popular into the 1940s when they began to wane, and the last version seems to have ended in the early 1950s. But I love the sepia transferware and the hand painted bright colors. This particular set of Imari cup and saucer with matching plate was made by Doric China, England between 1926-1935. It has some gold trim wear, but I love the floral vignettes as well as the colors. Imari was very popular during the late Victorian and Edwardian era. If you watch seasons 1 & 2 of Downton Abbey, you will often spy an imari teacup in use.  For more info on the teacup trio at Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos.

I was going to share another recipe today, but a member, Valerie, of my Brunch, Tea Scones Yahoo group sent us a link for this and I decided to post the wonderful cake idea from Sheknows.com (to go there and see step by step photos, click on the cake photo) called:

Peekaboo pumpkin pound cake with brown butter pecan icing

Ingredients:

For the pound cake

• 1 (14-ounce) box pumpkin bread mix
• 1 (16-ounce) box pound cake mix
• Orange food coloring

For the icing

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
• 3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:

Prepare pumpkin bread

Mix up pumpkin bread ingredients according to the directions on the box. Add orange food coloring to make it more "pumpkin-y" looking (less brown).

Bake and cut

Bake in a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan according to directions. Remove from oven before completely done, about 8-10 minutes less than instructed. Let cool, remove from pan and refrigerate for up to four hours. Cut cold pumpkin bread into large slices. Cut pumpkin shapes from slices.

Align them down the center of a lightly greased and floured 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Make pound cake

Mix up your pound cake batter according to the directions on the box. Pour over your pumpkin bread cutouts in the pan, making sure to cover the tops of the pumpkins. You may have more pound cake batter than you need. Try not to overfill the pan. Bake according to the directions on the box. Let cool when done.

Prepare icing

Meanwhile, prepare the brown butter pecan icing.
Put powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan, melt butter and boil, stirring until it starts to brown and form dark flecks on the sides and bottom.

Remove from heat. Pour the melted brown butter and flecks over the powdered sugar. Add the evaporated milk and vanilla. Stir until combined and creamy. Add more powdered sugar if it appears too runny or more evaporated milk if it seems too stiff.

Ice cake

Remove baked and cooled pound cake from pan and top with brown butter icing. Add chopped pecans, if desired. Cut into slices and delight your guests with the pumpkin-shaped surprise that peeks out from inside!

As we all in the group thought, a little extra work, yes, but what fun! And think of all the other holiday shapes you could make with this! Terrific!

So...there you have it for today. Please link your tea related post with the linky and visit the other wonderful blogs. I hope you are all not too harried with Thanksgiving preparations to be too busy to take time to refect on how much we do have to be thankful for. No matter what problems or challenges you are facing, there are always so overlooked gifts in our lives that we pass by when we are in a hurry, that need to be found and cherished.  Have a cup of tea and look for them...they're usually right there so close and familiar we have missed them!

I don't know why the blog list is showing up in different colors...beyond me...I'm not techie!!!

Common Ground ~ http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com

Monday Marketplace

Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
Tea Party Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 

Tea On Tuesday
Miss Kathy ~ http://thewritersreverie.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Tea       

Michelle ~ http://www.finchrest.com

Tea On Tuesday

Betty ~ http://teacoziecottage.blogspot.ca/

Tea Tuesday

Phyllis ~ http://www.relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Shawn ~ http://poetryinapotoftea.blogspot.com/

Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

Bernideen’s ~ http://bernideensteatimeblog.blogspot.com/

Friends Sharing Tea Wednesday

 Ivy And Elephants ~http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

What’s It Wednesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Home On Wednesday

 A Tea Lover     ~http://the-teaist.blogspot.com/

Tea Talk Wednesday