Maid of Honor Cupcakes

I don't know where I had been hiding but this is an old treat that I had never tasted before. My dear friend Cheridyn and her sweet mama Lauralie shared this old time treat with our girls at a recent Girls Activity Day. Cheridyn shared a story about her great Grandmother Lucille Rawlins and shared this tasty treat that she used to make for her family each Christmas. I was lucky enough to know Lucille and she was a wonderfully sweet lady. She was always very pleasant and had a great sense of humor. She was really old when I knew her and I was only 12 or so. I remember her always being busy doing something.

This treat is a very old one. According to the story (as I remember it) this treat was a real Luxury for Lucille to make. It required using precious sugar which was rationed during WWII. It also has raspberry Jam in it which was a real Luxury because the berries were dear and because it required so much sugar to make it.

Here is the recipe as we got it.
Pie crust - from scratch, mix or ready made from the store.
Cake batter - from scratch or from a box (use a yellow or white cake)
Raspberry jam
Frosting - from scratch or a can

Directions:
Roll out your pie crust and cut out circles ( you can use a large glass or I use my biscuit cutter that is just under 3" in diameter)
Place the circle of pie crust in the bottoms of your greased muffin tins.
Place a small spoonful of Jam in the center of each pie crust.
Mix up your cake batter and pour some over the pie crust and jam. Fill the tins 2/3 full.
Bake at 350 deg F for about 20 minutes.
When they have cooled, remove them from the pan and frost them.
You can add half a maraschino cherry on top for fun.

These are really easy and so tasty. You can put any kind of jam inside these and I was thinking that raspberry jam with a lovely piece of chocolate on top of that baked in there. It could be something wonderful!

The Little Women's Club

Doesn't that look inviting???
I am a new Primary President in my ward (church unit) here in SW Missouri. One of my bestest friends in the whole world has been called to be our Girl's Activity Day leader. Miss Jill has so many fabulous plans for these girls. I have to admit that I have a vested interest in her plans as two of my own daughters are in this fabulous group of girls age 8 to 11.

Twice a month these little girls meet with Miss Jill and as many helpers and she can pull in, to learn about Jesus Christ and how to be the wonderful women we know they will become.
The other half of our program is the cub scouts. Those little boys get to meet every week with their lovely blue uniforms, they get to have pack meeting once a month that is just about them, and they get to go to scout camp every summer. As the mother of two boys I think this program is fantastic, however, the little girls tend to get lost in the shuffle and wonder about their value.

Our last leader did a fantastic job with these girls. Now miss Jill is on board and we are so excited about her plan. She wants to instill in these little ones their value in the grand plan we have here on Earth. So we decided to give these little girls a uniform. We (Jill and I and several ladies in the Relief Society group and church) made up some of my double sided, Sassy Little Aprons for them. The are simply darling!

Why aprons? Well because the girls love them, aprons are the coolest things ever, and because of what aprons represent. Aprons are the uniforms that we as women choose to put on as we pledge to serve and protect our families. Most of these girls are going to grow up to be moms. That is a noble thing. Good mothers is something we need to be creating more of in this world of ours; Women of faith, intelligence, and purpose. I hope these girls grow up to be many wonderful things someday and expect my own three girls to get good educations. I also hope that they are good homemakers to boot.

So this year Miss Jill is planning all kinds of wonderful activities that will help teach these girls so many things about themselves and life.
The aprons are just one fun things that we have planned. As more of these activities happen, I will post some of her great ideas.
The aprons came with this lovely invitation.



At the meeting Jill introduced herself to the girls. They learned to make Pizza from scratch and a treat (rice crispies). She said that she wants them to learn how to make several dishes that they can fix all my themselves at home. They get to copy these lovelies down in their own little cookbooks. I am so excited for my Little Women, I can hardly stand it. :o) They are also so excited and have talked about nothing else all week.

Oh, I almost forgot, Jill told me yesterday and she is going to call the girls her "Little Women" after the book and they will call themselves "The Little Women's Club."
Coming up later this month is a trip to the apple orchard, apple dumplings, sewing drawstring bags and more fun! I can't wait.