Festive Fruit and Nut Cake with Cranberry Cream Icing

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If you still have room, this is the last of the desserts for the final course in MHicTy's Thanksgiving buffet of posts!

I came across the ad above for "Festive Fruit and Nut Cake with Luscious Cranberry Cream Icing" but it had no recipe!  I guess it was included on the can of 1940s Spry.  For the heck of it I checked online and I found the exact recipe!  I am including it here for sake of posterity.

2 c. cake flour, sifted (if all-purpose flour is used reduce flour 2 tbsp.)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice
1/2 c. Spry
1 1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs, unbeaten
1/3 c. diced citron
1/2 c. each seeded raisins, currants, dates, cut in sm. pieces
3/4 c. filberts or walnuts, chopped & toasted
May add candied pineapple and cherries

Sift flour, sugar, soda, salt, cocoa and spices into mixing bowl. Drop in Spry. Add applesauce and beat 200 strokes (2 minutes by hand or on mixer at low speed). Scrape bowl and spoon or beater. Add eggs and beat 200 strokes (2 minutes by hand or on mixer at low speed). Add fruits and nuts and mix thoroughly. Bake in Spry-coated 8 1/2 inch tube pan at 350 degrees for one hour and 25 to 35 minutes.

Even with all the yummy stuff in this recipe I didn't care for it but Mr. Husband thought it was great.  I think if you like fruit cake it's worth trying since this one has a twist being a chocolate fruit cake with an interesting icing. 

I just realized that I didn't include the recipe for the icing and I can't seem to find it nor can I remember how I made this batch!  I know this sounds weird but I think I blended jellied cranberry sauce with prefab cream cheese icing....but fancier folk could make a home made cream cheese icing and then add homemade cranberry sauce that has been well seived. 

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving.  Keep loved ones close if only in your heart this season.

Holiday Cranberry Bread

For the final course of MhiCty's Thanksgiving buffet of posts I have desserts!

Holiday Cranberry Bread was a winner from the first ever Pillsbury Grand National Bake Off contest in 1949.  I made several loaves of this bread as gifts last Christmas, wrapped as a yule log and presented in a mini cardboard fireplace (see here for more on that).  I was able to swipe a slice and it's very good warmed with a bit of butter.  

Thanksgiving Decor 2020

Welcome to the third course of this MHIctY Thanksgiving buffet of posts!  Here I am presenting the Fall and Thanksgiving Decor I pulled together this season.

 

  I wrote up a couple of posts last year (Thanksgiving Decor: Vintage Style and Vintage Thanksgiving Decor: Accessories) to help me get a grasp on how to decorate for a vintage Thanksgiving, making good use of items that I already owned, could make, or scrounge off of mother nature. Over the past year I have acquired a few more pieces that I have incorporated into the mix.

Enjoy my Thanksgiving Home tour! 

I am coo-coo for cranberry sauce over how it looks!

To see last year's decor waddle over to Thanksgiving Decor Reveal 2019

 

Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase: Dining Room

Welcome to my virtual Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase, the second course of my Thanksgiving buffet of posts.

 Over the last year (make that Nov 2019 - March 2020) I seeked out and snapped pics of Early American(ish) furniture at thrift stores that would make for a cozy setting to pretend you are sweeping dirt floors by.

My last furniture selection I have to present is someplace to gather and scarf...the whole point of Thanksgiving!

I was only able to find a table set and hutch during my brief amount of time of hunting but the pieces are pretty perfect!

 Set the table with some placemats made from Early American fabric and fill the cabinet with a collection of  thrifted ceramic turkey shaped candy dishes from paint your own pottery places!

This ends my second course offering. I thought it was a fun idea, even if it got cut short I still came up with a good amount of samples!  Any of the items from my "catalog" can be ordered by hunting your own local thrifts when it's safe to do so.  

Third course is my own Thanksgiving decor for this season, up next!

Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase: Lighting, Knick Knacks

Welcome to my virtual Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase, the second course of my Thanksgiving buffet of posts.

 Over the last year (make that Nov 2019 - March 2020) I seeked out and snapped pics of Early American(ish) furniture at thrift stores that would make for a cozy setting to pluck a turkey.

My third furniture selections I have to present consists of lighting that runs by the modern miracle of electricity yet harken back to the days of whale oil.

This is a Early American styled chandelier, a bit hard to make out with the gross 90s light fixture under it.

A perfect spot to store a collection of mid century home magazines featuring Early American styling on the covers!

Someplace to keep crafty supplies to make corn husk dolls.

A little wooded dish to hold your homemade potpourri to keep away all of the varieties of colonial stink. 

 A plastic wall plaque hitting all the classics minus the butter churn and musket gun!

Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase: Side and coffee tables

Welcome to my virtual Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase, the second course of my Thanksgiving buffet of posts.

 Over the last year (make that Nov 2019 - March 2020) I seeked out and snapped pics of Early American(ish) furniture at thrift stores that would make for a cozy setting to drink Wild Turkey by.

My second furniture selections I have to present is someplace to sit down that Wild Turkey.

The above side table reminded me of the coffee table seen in my post from last year on Thanksgiving Decor: Vintage Style, fourth photo down.

This set of side tables have a hinged flap with ample storage for all your hand dipped candles!

If phones were around in colonial times, this could have been where you would have sat to call in a order of eel pie from the local baker.

 An interesting mini hutch to maybe store onions in to keep them away from critters.

Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase! Couches and Chairs

Welcome to my virtual Thanksgiving Furniture Showcase, the second course of my Thanksgiving buffet of posts.

 Over the last year (make that Nov 2019 - March 2020) I seeked out Early American(ish) furniture at thrift stores that would make for a cozy setting to eat canned cranberry sauce by.

I present to you first some place to rest your weary turkey tryptophan ass.

And if you need to turn it into a nap, here is a fall appropriate knitted afghan to snuggle under!

 

Early American 1955

Last year I wrote a post (Thanksgiving Decor: Vintage Style ) about pulling ideas from Mid Century Early American styling to be used as inspiration for decorating for Thanksgiving.

Here is an article from Household magazine January 1955 that showcases a living room that would be perfect for scarfing down pumpkin pie in.

 Above are some helpful hints for color choice if you happen to be planning on painting your interiors as part of doing the ultimate in Thanksgiving decorating!

I wanted to show these images as preparation for the second course of this buffet of Thanksgiving posts.  Since we all just can't switch out our entire home contents to suit a proper Thanksgiving look I decided to do the next best thing.  After last Thanksgiving I started a year long project (that got cut 8 months short) where I would photograph furniture and decor at thrift stores that had an Early American flair to it, stuff that I could have decorated with but just don't have the room for!  

Colonial couches and other tweedyness up next!

Pilgrim Plaques

{New Vintage Thanksgiving Stuff 2020}

I saved the best find for last!!

Last year when I showed a few examples of vintage accessories that would be perfect for Thanksgiving decor these plastic pilgrim plaques were the ultimate pieces!

And I found a set for my own at a thrift store last December!

I am pretty impressed with the items I was able to find with only having four months to look before everything went nuts.

 

Early American Fabric

{New Vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

Last year I worked on a series of posts that focused on what was vintage fall/Thanksgiving decor.  In the one about accessories I showed samples that I found out in internet land of items that I thought would work, mostly being the popular styling in the midcentury called Early American.

I showed a couple of pieces of fabric back then and lo and behold!  I found some myself that is very similar!

Not sure what I am going to use it for just yet...could work for pillow covers for the couch or mini tablecloths.

Mayflower Plaques

 {New vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

These ships could be the Mayflower(s) right?  I found these vintage chalk ware plaques at a thrift store in January.  They aren't official Thanksgiving decor but I thought they could work.

Gurley large pilgrims and turkey candles

{New Vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

I got these candles along with a bunch of other Halloween ones at the last prepandemic estate sale I attended in February.  The turkeys are in really nice shape but the pilgrims look a little bedraggled... rough ride over on the Mayflower.

 

Turkey Tray

 {New Vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

I bought this vintage plastic large turkey platter at an estate sale being run by a friend of ours last December.  She was helping with set up when she came across it and texted me a picture.  It was the exact one I had been eyeing on ebay!  I do alot of eyeing on ebay, just not a lot of buying.  I call it research.  I picked this platter up for 5 bucks, the ebay one was like 20!

Mini Pilgrim Gurley Candles

 {New vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

A friend of mine got these candles for me from the flea market earlier in the year. 

Melted Plastic Turkey

{New vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

Some fellow scrounging pals found me this melted popcorn plastic turkey at a Goodwill pound sale!

Mr. Husband bought me the matching melted plastic pilgrims for Christmas in 2018 and I had been keeping an eye out a turkey pal for them on ebay.   But then I got this one as a gift! 

 

Turkey Ad

{New Vintage thanksgiving Stuff 2020}

I came across this vintage newspaper ad from the 1940s for a "ready-to-cook" turkey on ebay.

It's about 14 inches tall so I wasn't able to scan it.

It had too many cute things about it that I couldn't pass it up.  I think it was about 10 bucks.

 

Hallmark Pop up Decoration

{New Vintage Thanksgiving stuff 2020}

Last year a friend and I went over to ladies' house to check out her amazing vintage Christmas collectibles that she was selling off.  (See here, here, here, here, here here and here for what I bought.)  One other thing that I picked up was this nondescript looking Hallmark folder.

When you open it up it's a pop up Mayflower and Plymouth Rock!

Fun!  And I like how easy it is to store!