Easy Fruit Cocktail Cake Recipe – and a new friend in the cottage garden

Orange Salamander on Pink Flowers

My granny used to make this wonderful recipe for us. This is a very simple cake using a can of fruit cocktail and a few other ingredients – and it is unbelievably moist & delicious!

FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE
2 c. unsifted flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 scant tsp. soda
Pinch of salt
2 beaten eggs
1 (1 lb.) can fruit cocktail
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift together flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Add remaining ingredients. Beat well. Bake in greased and floured 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan at 300 degrees for 50 minutes. While cake is hot, pour icing over it. This cake freezes well. If cake batter looks thin, add a little more flour. Some fruit cocktail has more juice than others. Ice with Fruit Cocktail Cake Icing.

ICING FOR FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE
1 stick butter
1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
1 c. coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped pecans or walnuts

Cook together the ingredients. Pour over cake as soon as you take it out of oven.

*Pictured above – a new little friend in our cottage garden! I was coming out of my front door, and there he was… this beautiful little orange salamander having a peek around the garden! We couldn’t resist this little photo opp before sending him on his merry way 🙂

Flowers for the Cottage Garden

This week I made a stop at my local Lowe’s garden center. I try to stop in frequently throughout the summer, because there are always so many unadvertised specials to be found! While I was there this week, I overheard a sales person talking with a customer, trying to explain the over abundance of plant material. She said – they have a contract with a large wholesaler, and they receive a certain number of plants whether they need them or not. This usually means that they have way to many plants & need to mark them down – or else they will risk loosing the plants due to lack of proper space & care.

There is almost always a rack of plant mark downs when I stop in. I routinely find deals of 50-% – 75% off!

I am so thrilled with my latest finds!

This is an evergreen ground cover called: Lithodora – Grace Ward
Lithodora Ground Cover

It flowers in May & June, only gets approx 6″ high, and is one of the best blue flowering ground covers available!

This little beauty is a wonderful option for; ground covers, rock gardens, spilling over walls, hanging baskets, or edging your flower garden borders. I think this plant would look wonderful with the white version of this plant which is called “‘White Swan”. I think I might also mix mine with some ajuga.

I was VERY excited to find this Longwood Wisteria plant with a few flowers already on it, especially when some types of wisteria plants can take up to 7-10 years to bloom!
Wisteria - Purple Longwood

They like to grow in sun or partial shade, and can reach 20 – 30 feet tall! It will grow in zones 5-9, and I was surprised to find out that this particular wisteria is a US native! Although this plant blooms from late spring to early summer, there are also reports of this beauty showing off again right through September!

Humming Bird Feeder – Vintage Glass Look

Red Hummingbird Feeder

I wanted to show you this great new humming bird feeder that I picked up at my local Walmart for $9.95!

The reason it caught my eye (besides the fact that it was deep red – my favorite color… for now ;), was because I thought that it was a thick red wine bottle that had been made into a humming bird feeder. It reminded me of some of the other thick bubble glass that some of my other garden features are made out of.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was actually plastic!

It has the look of a vintage wine bottle with a cork. At first, you might think about how hard it would be to keep the feeder filled after you take out the cork, but you actually unscrew the bottom of the feeder, turn it upside down, fill it, then turn it right side up – (after you put the bottom back on of course :).

Both the hanger & the bottom of the feeder are made out of metal, both of which help add to that vintage feel.

Peach Begonia

I purchased this feeder a week or so ago, but while I was working in the office today, I saw a little humming bird come up to the window. He was trying to get to the beautiful begonia flowers that a friend had given me (he must have been spying on me through the window :). So… I figured it was finally time to share the pretty red “vintage looking” feeder with him – and not just keep it all to myself 😉

If you get a chance, go check out the garden center at your local Walmart… maybe you can find one for your cottage garden!

A Storybook Life – The New Issue is Ready!

The new issue of “A Storybook Life” is out now!

If you have not subscribed to the monthly newsletter & would like to, you can subscribe with one click at our site: http://www.LittleCountryVillage.com

Once you subscribe, you will get an email with this month’s newsletter inside.

Enjoy!

Pearl

Here’s what’s inside the latest issue:

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In This Issue:

From the Cottage – Pearl’s Ponderings

Letters to The Editor

How to Boil the Perfect Easter Egg

Elegant Easter Eggs – Your little masterpiece will be the talk of the hunt!

Have a Designer Look For Your Walls Using $1 per Yard Fabric

No Mix, No Measure, Delicious Rhubarb Crunch Cake

You can Have a Beautiful Cottage Garden Even in a Temporary Space!

Interesting Things You’ve Got to See – Pearl’s April Picks!

Various & Sundry Other Tips & Treasures
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Gardening – Fill Your Cottage Gardens With Free Plants!

Foxglove in the Cottage Garden

I love to dream – and one of the things that I love to dream about is my cottage garden. I pull out back issues of my favorite magazines, gardening books, and seed catalogues to add to the plethora of ideas already stored in my mind’s eye. There is one small problem however. When you start shopping at the garden centers & from all of the plant catalogues, you start to see a growing trend – all of these beautiful plants add up to lots of money!

I need to be honest with you for a second. You see, I’m not really good at waiting several years to add a plant here & a plant there to my garden. I’m the kind of person who sees something beautiful, then tries to find a way to make it happen in my own garden. Sometimes the ideas work out wonderfully, and sometimes I learn a lesson from the whole process. In any case, my garden is always better because of it.

We all live such busy lives, and we do our best to have our obligations taken care of. Sometimes, despite all of our work & effort, we just don’t have the extra amount of money that it would take to have the garden of our dreams. I know that feeling personally, and that’s why I wanted to take this time to share with you some of the ideas that I have discovered for finding free plants over the years. Soon, with a little bit of creative thinking, you’ll have to start giving plants away due to lack of any more space in your garden!

I’ve posted the full article in my article bank due to length – read it here:

Gardening – Fill Your Cottage Gardens With Free Plants!