Speaking of Recipes....

Mary made this coffee cake and brought it to my house one day when we did "Travel MUGS" about 2 weeks ago. She remarked that any coffee cake batter that tasted like sugar cookie dough had to be a winner. It is Maaahhhvelous. I made mine with the cherry filling and had a little bit of cream cheese left from another dessert I made, so I put that in with the glaze, and almond flavoring. It got rave reviews from the hired men, my husband, and my father-in-law so it must have been good! It's best when it's warm, but tastes good cold too! Brew up some coffee and have at it!

CUPS Coffee Cake
Bake 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes


Cream together:
1 cup butter, softened, not melted
1 ¾ cup granulated sugar

Add 4 eggs; beat well.

Add, and mix well:
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder

Spray 9x13 baking pan with non-stick spray.
Spread ½ of batter in the prepared pan.
Spread 1 can of pie filling over batter and drop remaining batter by spoonfuls on top.

Bake; cool until warm and frost.

Frosting:
4 T butter, melted this time!
2 or so cups powdered sugar
2 T heavy whipping cream or half and half
Flavoring of choice


I made it with cherry filling and added almond flavoring to the frosting; with blueberry filling, I used grated orange peel and vanilla for the frosting; for raspberry filling I’d probably go with a lemon flavor.

Chocolate bliss...

Well, CUPS met on Wednesday, sort of, for our last official meeting that has to do with school. It occurred to Traci and I that we don't have anyone to take to preschool next year...Angus and Alli will be too young! BUT, we will probably have to go get groceries and mail parcels and pick up parts at Cenex, so CUPS will continue. The following year, however, will be a WILD time, because our oldest will be in school full-time, and when we drop the little 'uns off at preschool....WE WILL BE CHILD FREE FOR THREE HOURS. Can you imagine the trouble we can get into? And poor little Anne will be going through the toddler/two's/pottytraining/teething. She may need more than coffee in her cup. You know, Kahlua smells like coffee...

We didn't end up touring the greenhouse, as planned, because Miss Alli was with us, and Anne was not. (Anne went to Idaho for Mother's Day. On Tuesday. A bit early, don't you think? Perhaps she was avoiding us.... Oh, she called; FROM GREAT FALLS! and said she'd miss us, but she really didn't sound all that lonesome. And then she cut out. Fzzzzz..can't hear you...fzzzz...later, when we...fzzzz...)

We stopped at the Extension office to pick up the Chocolate Poundcake Supreme prize from Pohney. I didn't take a picture...I should have, but if I had taken the time to do that, Traci would've had a headstart on eating it, and I wasn't going to let that happen! We stopped at Ryans for a Diet Coke (Traci's. I won't defile my body with that.) and a Starbucks bottled Frappucino ( I WILL defile my body with THAT.) and crept up to the Presbyterian Church, to sample the cake.

A little note, here, on the poundcake. It should be called pounds cake, alright? Pounds. Here's what it tasted like...as best as I can describe it...a really large, powdered sugar dusted brownie, with just enough coconut in it to drop you to the floor with gratitude, but not so much as to overwhelm the chocolate. It was baked in the shape of sort of a ruffled heart. So, you could slice off little bit by little bit, swoon, lick all the crumbs off your hand and napkin, then slice another piece when your fellow CUP wasn't looking. That's right. We didn't even use forks. No time.

Traci brought all the attending members a coffee mug, to have at home and to remind us of all the good times we had this year. So nice! I've used mine twice now, and coffee does taste better in it. I hope Anne gets one, too, but since she didn't make the last meeting, I don't know if there's any guarantee on that.

Summer CUPS will be held on the decks of the club members, or in the gardens, and I think we're going to try to meet twice a month, if we can get organized. And we need to get cracking on the secret club handshake. I'm sure it will revolve around wiping chocolate crumbs off on the other member's hand...

The Three Amigas

And here they are, the founding members of C.U.P.S.

Anne, Mary and

Traci There are really only a couple of rules, in C.U.P.S.

1. Check the calories in at the door. No calories allowed. (That doesn't mean we don't eat them; quite the opposite! We eat and drink of the highly caloric, liberally! How are you going to feed your spirit without real cream, sugar and butter?)

2. All for one, and one for all. I realize that saying has been used, but it's still true and good, for our gatherings. And if we know of another woman in need of C.U.P.S. intervention, we move quickly and do so. And we have a branch in Texas (Dixie C.U.P.S.) and one soon to be chartered in Idaho (Tater C.U.P.S.).

3. C.U.P.S can go on the road, whenever they deem necessary. When this happens, they become Travel M.U.G.S. (Mothers Under General Stress). You may find them at a greenhouse, a thrift store, quilt shop, photo developing kiosk, parent's home or Kafe Utza. If you do see them, and correctly identify the C.U.P.S., they will include you as a guest C.U.P. or M.U.G. and you may leave YOUR calories at the door!