It May be January but It's Spring at Linderhof!!!

We hurry Spring at Linderhof

With the glitz and bling of Christmas gone

back in the boxes

and back in the basement

The house seems barren.

And cold.

So we get a stash of hyacinth bulbs every fall

Chill them 

And then get out the forcing vases

To add both beauty

And fragrance

to Linderhof

Although in magazines paperwhites are often seen as Christmas flowers

alongside the poinsettias,

We prefer ours in January

When days are often bleak and dreary

We buy way too many bulbs each year

But we do it again and again

And we will continue to do so

They lend their beauty

And their aroma

to Linderhof

during January

And we rush other things as well

Not ourselves

But we have a source

for some lovely forsythia branches

Which we buy for the mantle

Their staying power is good

And, even though there is no yellow in the living room at Linderhof,

their blossoms seem to brighten the whole downstairs.

And this weekend at Costco,

they had more forsythia . . . 

I could have bought three bunches

But I resisted and brought home only one

Taken apart, it made

A nice bouquet in an amber glass vase on the bedside table

And

The rest seems right at home in the yellow guest room in the Wedgwood vase

(a gift from a dear friend)

The vase always resides on the table -- ready for whenever we have guests

For fresh flowers.

A guest room isn't complete without fresh flowers

whether garden ones or florist ones.

No guests are expected

But the bunch was just a little too big for my bedside table

And I couldn't think of a better place to put the rest

than in the yellow guest room!

It is January on the prairie.

A week or so ago, we were stuck inside because of first

the ice that fell and then the snow.

Today,

I took my afternoon tea on the front porch.

Coatless!

It's 70 or so today

This 28th day of January

I had to take advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures 

to sip my tea outside on the porch.

Earl Grey tea as is my afternoon custom

And a great tea bread -- orange scented buttermilk cake.

From one of my favorite people, Mary at One Perfect Bite

What I like best about the recipe

is that it makes three loaves

One for now, one for the freezer, and one for a gift.

She topped hers with a shower of powdered sugar

I decided to make an orange glaze.

Either way it is a good cake.

Mary's Orange Scented Buttermilk Cake

3-1/4 cups cake flour, sifted, plus more for dusting

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously coat three 8-by-4-inch loaf pans with butter. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper. Butter parchment paper and dust pans with flour. Arrange pans on a baking sheet. 

 In a medium bowl, whisk cake flour with baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. 

 In bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter with sugar and orange zest at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions and scraping down the sides of bowl. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla.

At low speed, beat in dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk and beginning and ending with dry ingredients; gently fold just until blended.

Scrape batter into prepared pans and smooth tops; gently tap once to release any air. Bake loaves for about 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of each loaf comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

 Transfer the loaves to a rack for 20 minutes, then turn them out onto rack and set them right side up to cool. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, slice and serve. Yield: 3 loaves (21 slices).

Note:   I made a glaze of orange zest, orange juice and powdered sugar and topped the cakes with that.

It's Tuesday and I'm joining Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday and Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday