The high nineties is hot. Add the dry wind and it is very hot. All the animals have different coping mechanisms. The Matriarchs dog has decided that he would rather ride than walk. So he sits like a mini king in his chariot. And the Tall Teenager pedals him all over the county on their travels. 
The Big Baby Bobby cools his heels. 
When she is not in the shade of the barn, Mama stands in Queenie’s shadow. As Queenie moves across the field grazing so does Mama. Keeping her head in Queenie’s shadow the whole time. Moving in tandem. The cow lopes along with lazy strides. The Sheep trots quickly to catch up. Hairy MacLairy does this with Daisy too. The cows are like great big trees to the sheep. Mobile shade. It is quite funny to watch. 
The Plonkers need water and mud. They have no cooling mechanism. They suffer in the heat especially when they get this big. So they stand in the sprinkler. Then wallow in the mud. 
Off they go on another jaunt. Bye Bye Joey. 
Good morning. Yesterday I baked the original butter cake with the home made butter, eggs and cream from the farmy. I was interested to see how it turned out with such creamy fresh butter. So I used the most simple recipe I have so I could taste clearly what was happening. And it turned out very well. It was light and lovely.
I have been making this cake for as long as I can remember so the recipe lives in my head which is not always the most secure place to be.
Mama’s Butter Cake
- cream 4oz room temperature butter
- and 1 cup sugar
- add 2 room temperature eggs one at a time
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- alternate 2 cups of flour mixed with 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- with 1/2 cup of cream or milk or cultured buttermilk, though mine is still working at becoming buttermilk
Cook at 350 for about 45 minutes
The Lanky Teenager and his grandmothers dog have hollow legs, so it is almost gone.
I remember moaning to my own children when they were younger. ‘It is pointless me baking cakes, all you do is eat them!” Then thinking about what I had just said. Baking takes effort though and then kids descend like a horde and it is all gone in minutes. This is why this cake is popular. It is very fast to make. And even faster to eat.
It is dawning clear and hot again. So I had better get busy early. Have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
80 responses to “The Heat is On for Mama’s Butter Cake”
The king in the chariot and those smart, smart sheep have started my day with a smile. Thanks for always noticing the details in farm life and sharing them through your most royal writing.
Mama is so funny and Queenie sometimes has had enough of being followed and tries to give her sideways kick. But mama is too fast for him, plus she raised him to be her own personal umbrella! c
What fun pictures today! Love The Matriarch’s dog getting a ride in the Burley. Too funny! Who knew sheep were so smart? How clever they are to stand in cow shade. The heat must not bother the cows as much? The pigs look like they are a lot to deal with! Ha! I’m thinking I’ll stick with chickens…
Your cake is gorgeous. I love that it has simple ingredients. I could almost smell it just from looking at the picture! I’m going to have to try it and experiment with some gluten free flours.
Hope you have a lovely day and are able to stay cool. Looks like summer is finally coming our way. We get to reach a whopping 74 degrees today! I’m looking forward to the sun and getting a little yard work completed.
~ April
I have noticed that the cows will be out in the sun way more than the wooly sheep. they stand next to their water and chew. the sheep spend most of the day in the shade of the barn and when they do come out they use the cow sun shade trick!
The wind blew all night here, (I’ve become very tired of the wind this year) but this morning is dawning a wee bit cooler. I’ll take it. 100* is too hot…87* nice!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Oh 87 sounds alright to me too and we are also blowing and blowing and blowing, not one plant in my garden is growing straight.. it has to stop soon.. maybe in july! c
Hot? I spent 10 minutes toasting in a rare burst of 70 degree sunshine this afternoon. It’s gone now and the cardie is back on.
Your cake sounds very like my basic Victoria sponge – though I don’t have the home produced butter, eggs and milk, which must be what makes it special. I use that recipe to make all sorts of other treats like coffee and walnut, jam and cream and even peppermint-iced chocolate (which the children always demanded for birthday cakes). My recipe also made a poem for me one day when I ran out of inspiration on a baking day: http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/wordle-15-victoria-sponge/
Excellent i shall pop over, it is years since I made a sponge!! c
Fantastic pictures – you need a clay oven outside for the baking though, preferably in the shade 😉
a kind of sun oven? that would be s tremendous idea.. c
We will NOT discus the heat. Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away. It couldn’t get much hotter, so why not bake? It makes perfect sense to me.
I think it may be hotter today though so i am making cheese!! c
What a lovely recipe! I am partial to a plain cake, and this sounds like such wonderful buttery richness! You’re good to bake in the heat, but I know you start early! Cow shade is a new one, but isn’t nature fascinatingly efficient! I have trouble determining my favorites, but I think I’m currently quite enamored with the Plonkers! Sending a cooling breeze, Celi…Debra
Hahaha! Oh I love that little dog in the cart! How adorable is that?! Wish you could send some of that heat my way. Seattle barely tipped 65 yesterday and today we just might break 70. I’m ready for hot summer weather so my tomatoes will grow. The cake looks divine and the perfect snack or dessert for summer. I love that it’s an easy cake to make!
You must get some heat soon? Is it usually so cool where you are? c
Unfortunately yes. I’ve been here ten years. Probably three out of the ten we’ve hit 70 mid May. But it seems lately summer doesn’t get rolling until after the 4th of July. Although today, summer solstace of all days, it’s reaching 74F. We’re a happy bunch of people today. 🙂 By the weekend we’re back to the 60’s.
hard to grow tomatoes when it is not nice and hot for a while.. c
I sort of gave up last year when all my tomatoes were still green in September. Lots of fried green tomatoes in my house last fall.
In the 90s here today too – wish I could stand under a sprinkler :). That cake looks heavenly!
that sprinkler works very hard around here! c
The pooch chariot is splendid – I can imagine a crown on the doggies head as they both ride by!
he is just the type to want a crown too, so lets not say that out loud! c
That cake looks fivi
Sorry 😛
I was meant to say that your cake looks divine 😀
Delicious and perfect!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
fivi works too!! maybe you will start a trend! c
Your hot weather photos and farmy commentary are quite a contrast to the environment in which I’m reading and that’s part of the magic of it. I make a similar cake (& the better the quality of the eggs, butter & milk, the better it tastes), the only recipe I can be bothered with so it rolls out of my head also, and often add a layer of marmalade/jam or fruit I want to use up in the middle before baking. Like yours the bonus is the cake itself is so good you don’t need icing or even the middle layer.
very true, i never ice cakes.. that jam in the middle sounds good, do you pour in half the mixture , then the jam, then the other half? i must try that.. c
Mr. N just told me the other day that I need to make more cakes. He would devour this no doubt. Stay cool – it is HOT!
You stay cool too, the city gets extra hot on these days! c
I want a trailer like that. Do you think I’d convince the husband to tow me around?! 😉
You may already know this, but it’s supposed to rain overnight and be cooler tomorrow. Here’s hoping : )