Vita Sackville-West (circa 1926)
My momma’s birthday is today! We celebrated it last night with a tasty meal at home. I try to make those I love a special dessert for their special day. Our resources and mobility are limited these days, obviously. Because of this, I needed to make something with ingredients I had at home. I decided that it was finally time to make Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake. It’s been on my radar for at least 12 years. No joke.
Emily’s handwritten recipe
I used this post as my guide. Like that blogger, I mixed the cake by hand.
Since this was for my mom’s birthday, I embellished the cake a bit by adding a blueberry glaze* before topping it with walnuts and confectioners’ sugar.
Birthday cake
The cake itself is moist, flavorful, and not overly sweet. Perfect with a cup of tea.
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*For the glaze, I added approximately 3/4 cup blueberries and 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar to a blender and mixed it until it was smooth.
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“Hold dear to your parents for it is a scary and confusing world without them.”–Emily Dickinson
Happy birthday, mom! I love you.
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I hope you are all well during these difficult, uncertain times. Have a great weekend.
“Elegance is elimination.”–Balenciaga
Ngaio Marsh by Henry Herbert Clifford (1935).
This 85-year-old photograph of New Zealand writer Ngaio Marsh proves that elegance, coziness, and individuality can be as stylish as anything out of the pages of a 21st-century fashion magazine.
Embellishments are minimal: an eccentric shoulder, a few buttons, an indifferently tilted hat, a bit of pattern and texture here or there.
Clean lines. Confidence.
She is, more than anything, mysterious.
How appropriate.
Lady Reading Poetry by Ishibashi Kazunori (1906):
Lady Reading Poetry by Ishibashi Kazunori (1906).
Eudora Welty
This is a close-up of the wallpaper mural at Austen & Company. The Biblioteca Wallpaper is by Ekaterina Panikanova. Isn’t it delightful?
Biblioteca Wallpaper: Detail. Design by: Ekaterina Panikanova.
Baby Peggy (April 1922).
Kirk Douglas, circa 1955.
Harriet Frank Jr. (Amazing Stories, June-July 1953)
