A very thin cakey layer topped with an ooze of sugary butter goodness.

From Holmesburg Bakery, this is my favorite butter cake.

In Northeast Philadelphia, everyone has their favorites. Rillings Bakery on Southampton Road, The Danish Bakery in Fox Chase, Holmesburg Bakery on Frankford Ave and even as far away as Croydon in Lower Bucks at Fritz’s Sticky Buns, where the buttery topping will ooze and fill up the space where you just cut a piece.

When I lived in Florida, people looked at me funny when I would ask if anyone knew where I could get one. After checking in with Mom, who of course fed me this confection since I was a child, I found out it’s a Philadelphia thing.

You know. Like Scrapple. Philly Cheesesteaks. Or Tastykakes.

Or so I thought.

I like to treat out of town friends to area favorites that aren’t likely to be found in other places. When Chris and Cherie, my Technomad friends, came by last summer, I offered butter cake. “You mean “Gooey Butter Cake”, like from St Louis?”

Well yeah, it’s gooey, but it’s not usually part of the title.

But. Wait! There’s butter cake in St Louis?

Yes, Barbara, there is Butter Cake in St Louis. Actually an internet search brings up many more instances of St Louis Butter cake than Philadelphia.

I intended to visit St Louis anyway, The City Museum has been calling since I viewed Cherie’s video blog post about it. So this past June, Wendy and I took a road trip with a stop in St Louis. Here’s what I found out about butter cake while out there and since returning.

The St Louis and Philadelphia butter cakes are definitely different animals but with a common ancestor: Butterkuchen.

Butterkuchen is a German cake with a buttery sweet topping. Usually a breakfast or coffee cake, it’s a little tricky to get right. But as German immigrants entered the United States, their recipes followed and evolved regionally.

As I mentioned earlier, in Philadelphia everyone has a favorite place to get their butter cake, usually a neighborhood bakery. In St Louis, it’s more of a homemade treat- everyone has a favorite recipe. It’s served at family functions, backyard parties and special events. The “store bought” St Louis butter cakes just aren’t as good, with exceptions of course.

In St. Louis, most of the recipes use cake mix as a base with modifications. Then the topping is made with cream cheese, eggs and powdered sugar. It’s very important not to overbake.

The Philadelphia butter cakes do not contain any cream cheese. The bakery I spoke to creates the base from a yeast based recipe and the topping is made with butter and sugar. And no, they didn’t share the recipe with me.

This was a fun research project that required hard work tasting and making butter cake. I suggest you try it yourself. If in Philadelphia, look in the Northeast for the bakeries I listed above. If you aren’t in the area, then just take a recipe and make a Gooey St Louis butter cake. I’ll post the recipes in another post.

I especially want to thank Kathy Dunphy who, not only shared her home with Wendy and I while we stayed in St. Louis, but opened up her kitchen and family recipes to share with me for this project.

Wendy, me, Kathy Dunphy & Cherie VeArd

The taste was wonderful. Texture- not so wonderful. Fresh churned ice cream is always a little soft when it’s done, especially so with the KitchenAid device because the frozen “bowl” you are churning in will only get warmer as time goes on and there comes a point where it’s not helping any to keep churning. This is why it is vitally important to have all your ingredients chilled before you start churning.

I tasted it a little, put the whole lot (about a quart and a half) in a tupperware container and into the freezer. Overnight it became super hard. Dishing it out was more like chiseling or shaving the ice cream.

Other than a couple of spoonfuls, I finally got around to serving it about a week later. It was more manageable if I let it thaw for about 20 minutes or so.

Overall- the taste was great, Texture- more research and experimentation needed.

The syrup came out great and I’ll post later if it ever makes it to the ice cream stage.

Intensely Sweet Masala Chai Syrup

Pressure cook about 10-12 min:
12 cups water
1/4 c. whole cloves
1/4 c. whole cardamom pods
4 sticks cinnamon

Release pressure and keep the mixture simmering while adding:
1 c. sugar
1 1/2- 2 c. honey

Stir often for about 15 min and then add:
6 black tea bags.

Leave on very low heat for about 3-5 min and then remove from heat. Let it cool for about 10-15 min and strain into a container to keep in the fridge. Makes about a half gallon.

Stir the syrup before pouring because of settling.  Pour into a cup with milk and/or half & half with about 1 part syrup to 2 parts milk. Serve iced or heated in the microwave.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, then boil the first step for about 30 min, but you may need to add extra water because some of the water will evaporate in the boiling process.

Carly Burke wears her new creations with delight.

Yesterday was my travel day back from Floyd, VA, home of the Jacksonville Center for the Arts. My five day Basic Jewelry Fabrication class went over very well. With a full enrollment of 5 creative women, we transformed the glass studio into a metalsmithing mecca. I was impressed and inspired by the original designs each of these students finished.

I’ve enjoyed teaching in the past, but this class really energized me as much as the students. Once they got started I couldn’t wait to see how they would finish. During the process of explaining the techniques and helping the students to learn them, I realized that it’s really fun to teach something that I so love doing.

Chris Cox made this piece to give as a gift.

Part of what I love about repairs and custom work is design. Decisions about design and fabrication methods go hand in hand. Challenging a student, but not over reaching their new skills was a fine line. Helping the students design the pieces while learning the techniques was, surprisingly,  a lot of fun. It’s where art meets craft.

But I must say, I was extremely impressed with their final pieces. And for these five ladies, it’s just the beginning.

Designed and created by Deborah Carter, this pendant can be worn three different ways.

Sailing has been a huge part of my life.  It was a serious hobby for about 6 years before I decided to abandon land living and moved on the water. I then lived aboard sailboats for 12 years and my daughter spent the first 7 years of her life living on a boat. Most of those years were spent docked in marinas while working normal jobs and sailing our home on weekends and vacations. A couple of those years were spent cruising the Intracoastal Waterway of the East Coast, roaming from place to place on a full time basis while running a small software company.

It’s a life of compromises and challenges. I enjoyed the challenge of entertaining friends and cooking full meals in a sailboat galley. I enjoyed the challenge of converting one of the two heads on our boat to a office and workshop for my jewelry making tools. Raising a kid on a boat? I was right there, having fun building our own playpen out of the  converted settee, fitting a crib in the aft cabin, finding and creating multi use products that fit the live-aboard lifestyle.

But at some point those challenges no longer were exciting, but burdensome. A sea change came in my life and I moved off the boat to the relief of a spacious apartment.

I still carry many of the habits from living aboard, like conserving water, packing efficiently and owning only what I really need. But in the last few years, I’ve really missed the actual sailing- riding the wind, trimming the sails and navigating around a body of water. My life choices for the last 5 years have tied me to this house, taking care of my disabled friend and with a partner who really doesn’t want to sail. But the itch to get back on the water wasn’t going away. Rather than be sad and figure that I was done with that part of my life, I looked around for a compromise.

So last June I chartered in the Chesapeake with Wendy. 5 days out of Rock Hall, MD and it was a great time. I realized that I still had the skills and I could finally start imparting some of them to Wendy. I loved sharing the fun of sailing, my favorite memories of sailing always include friends.

Starting to plan for this year, most of the friends who wanted to sail with us were unable to commit to several days in the Chesapeake, so I took a different tack. Across the river from where we lived at the dock for a few years on Toms River is Nelson’s Sailing Center and they rent sailboats for use on Toms River and Barnegat Bay. Maybe a series of daysails through the warmer months would be an even better idea.

So one Saturday in Mid-May, Wendy, her friend Serena and I took a drive down to Nelson’s. We did the one hour orientation required for a bareboat rental and went for a 2 hour sail on Toms River. (Bareboating is renting a boat without a captain.You have to be an experienced sailor to begin with, the orientation is only to assess your readiness.)

I think I’ve found the perfect compromise to fit sailing back into my life without the expense and responsibility of owning my own boat. Many of my friends who would like to go with me are available for a day sail and at about 90 min away, it’s closer than driving to the Chesapeake.

Wendy’s Girl Scout troop was interested in having a sailing day, so yesterday 13 of us rented an O’Day 25 and took to the river in two groups. I got the chance to share my enthusiasm and knowledge of sailing with 12 other people. Some of the girls just wanted a sailboat ride, others wanted to learn more about how sailing works. They raised and trimmed the sails, steered the boat and soaked in the sun. (And what a lot of sun! The temperatures in Philadelphia were around 102, but we got a little break in Toms River because it was only 98.)

I expected to be exhausted after a day spent sailing in the sun, but I kept myself hydrated and just sharing the experience seemed to keep me really pumped the whole time. I was surprised myself at how very enjoyable it was and I’m excited to start planning my next outing and with whom?

I was thinking this morning about how we create our lives. Sure there are many things we can’t control that affect us, but it’s what we do with these situations that define who we are as individuals.

“You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however.” – Richard Bach

Today I am packing my tools up to travel to The Gateway Burn, a regional Burning Man event in Missouri. We’ll be camping with our dear friends, Chris and Cherie of Technomadia. This will be my first “burn” type event, but after 13 years of pagan festivals I think I’m ready.

What’s new for me is the gradual addition of hard metals, steel and iron to what I’m used to: soft fine metals, silver and gold. This means I have to bring my oxy/acetylene torch and my new (to me) 200lb Vulcan anvil. I started dabbling in blacksmithing almost 2 years ago, but I haven’t felt confident enough to share until now.

I’m always glad I do this. Sure, it’s a pain to pack up my tools and then reset them somewhere on ground that isn’t level, using a portable workbench, trying to solder in the wind, trying not to burn up the bugs that are attracted by my torch after dark.

But there’s something to be said for having someone walk by and watch quietly, (or with questions) learning about things they always wondered about, like how to size a ring or solder a chain. I love interactive art because you never know what you inspire in someone and how it will be manifested.

And it gives me a chance to organize my tools in packing, unpacking and repacking. Keeping tools together by use, instead of spread across my work bench where they were left when I “finished that order and had to move on to the next thing”. Tool boxes and buckets. Boxes and bins. It’s a lot of fun to do this in the most efficient way possible.

Wendy is coming along and we’ll be meeting up with family in Kansas and seeing the sites in St. Louis as well as some other yet to be determined side adventures.

I plan to Twitter our adventures if you want to follow along.

The new dates for the class are Monday July 12 to Friday July 16, 2010.

There are a couple of spots left, so if you feel like 5 days in the lovely Blue Ridge Mountains playing with metal, sign up soon!

I’m also scheduling a Trunk Show of my work in Floyd while I’m there….stay tuned!

Butter cake is one of those things I grew up with. It wasn’t until I was living in Florida for a couple of years that I realized it’s one of those regional specialties. My next trip back to Philadelphia, I made sure to get one to fill my craving.

Since moving back home, I’m realizing there are vast differences in the recipe from bakery to bakery. And yes, we still have plenty of those little neighborhood bakeries and they all have butter cake. And if they have it, I want to try it.

What is it? I hear you ask.

It’s a thin cakey crust about half inch thick, covered with a gooey layer of buttery ooze that is slightly crusty on top.

In the last few months, I’ve been doing some independent research on the different butter cakes in the area. Some are gooier than others, some seemed too sugary or the hint of too much vanilla. Personal preference will make a difference in your butter cake choice.

On the list today. Either stop at Holmesburg or  Rillings bakery.

Caregiving can be a tough gig. Generally I know I have it better than most. I have reliable help with Jack. The house is well equipped to deal with his disabilities. We have plenty of technology to help. He’s pretty independent generally.

But sometimes that independence gets him into trouble. His usual day out is Thursday. On April 15, I was working downstairs, had just mailed the last of the tax returns for which I am responsible and was just thinking I should check on his location with the ATT FamilyMap service when the phone rang.

It’s never good when the call starts with “I have a man in a wheelchair here, what is your relationship to him?”

It was the police at The Gallery, a mall in downtown Philadelphia and one of Jack’s favorite haunts. It appears that he went down three steps in his chair and ended up on his side, still strapped in the chair.  I was told that an ambulance had been called, but I also had to make arrangements for his chair.

So I headed downtown in the van, accompanied by Tracey, who is our Jack help on Thursdays. We picked up the chair and headed to Jefferson Hospital where the ambulance had taken Jack.

They had him in the Trauma area, which was good because it was quiet compared to the rest of the ER. After about an hour or so we had the results, no head injury, but 4 cracked ribs, a broken scapula and a broken clavicle. All on the shoulder of Jack’s “bad” side. That is, the paralyzed side.

The verdict, keep him in overnight for observation. Sure. Except it was going to be at least 4 hours till they got him a bed in the monitoring unit upstairs. It was already 10pm. So I headed home.

I called down the next day and he was still in the ER waiting on a room. Holy moly! So I went down hoping to get a verdict on releasing him. We were also waiting on a physical therapy evaluation to get some more ideas about new transfer techniques.

About Jack and Transfers: Because Jack is paralyzed on the right side of his body, we usually bring him to a stand by supporting him under his right arm bringing him to a stand and then pivoting him to another chair. It’s a good solid method that works well with Jack, doesn’t strain the caregiver, allows Jack to help by keeping his left (good) side free to grab the chair where he is transferring or a walker, cane or bar.

Not being able to hold his right side at all because of the broken bones completely hosed our transfer techniques.

Jack finally got a room late Friday night. No physical therapy came in on Saturday or Sunday, despite that I was there for hours waiting and had the nurses get in touch with them to find out.  Monday the two person team of an OT (occupational therapist) and a PT (physical therapist) come around.

They don’t give me a lot of options. They demonstrate a technique where the person transferring squats in front of Jack, blocks his knees, grabs his buttocks with both hands and pulls him to a stand, pivot and then ease back into a different chair. Talk about awkward! I tried it once and they said it look successfull, but it was so counterintuitive. Lorie was there too and it look very awkward to her too. The next day I had Lorie and Tracey come in to see the PT team about transfers.

The PT and OT then tried to stand Jack up to pull up his pants. No luck. What a mess. They hurt his knee  because his skin is so thin sometimes just being rubbed by something is enough to cause a wound. They start talking about sending him to a rehab for a few weeks before heading home. I ask again about other techniques. They seem to think this is the ONLY way he can be transferred.  They leave and I assemble “Team Jack” (me, Lorie & Tracey) We talked about all the mistakes the PT team had made and how we could deal with his situation at home. I talked to Jack about our ideas vs PT’s and he agreed he would be better at home.

It took until Wednesday before we were able to bring Jack home. With the help and input of Lorie and Tracey, I was able to counter the PT teams’ assertion that he go to rehab. We’re transferring using our own techniques and right now he needs two people to transfer.  Jack seems to be recovering, he’s tolerating transfers well, he’s able to help more again using his good side. He’s got a follow up appointment with his doctor next Wednesday and then he’s still “grounded” until I return from my trip around May 15.

Oh, and the chair that fell down the 3 steps with Jack, no damage, still runs fine.

Class size is small to allow for plenty of individual instruction, but as of now there is only one person scheduled. We need at least 3. If you’re in the Blue Ridge Mountains stop in at the Jacksonville Center even if you aren’t interested in my class. It’s a cool place for creative people!