A festively fabulous 1950s recipe for Coconut Candy Cane Cake

When my family meet sup for a meal, there are a lot of diverse dietary needs (most medically based) amongst my relatives and I that must be taken into consideration. Though there will always be some types of dishes that no everyone can partake of, when cooking for a crowd of my nearest and dearest, I do really like to create recipes that can safely be eaten by as many folks as possible. And certainly at no time of the year does that ring more true than this month, with the merriment and excitement of Christmas starting to hit its stride.

I'm always on the prowl for tasty, crowd pleasing, easy to prepare foods that I can bring to, or prepare and serve at home for, holiday get-togethers, and when I happened upon this fabulously fun 1950s Coconut Candy Cane Cake earlier this year on Flickr, my eyes lit up my Christmas bulbs! With a few tweaks (using gluten-free flour or a GF cake mix and swapping eggs for an egg substitute), it's something that both myself and most of my relatives can safely eat and that makes it an instant winner in my books.

With December 25th just nineteen days away and plenty of wonderful social occasions on my busy calendar this month, I'll be whipping up this great vintage Christmas cake soon for at least one of them and hope that it proves to be every bit as delicious and appealing as it looks.



{There's no need for a fancy cake pan to create this festively shaped dessert. Just cut and arrange squares, frost and adorn them with coconut, and you'll have an instantly eye-catching, completely Christmas season perfect vintage cake to bake and take (or serve) anytime this season. Image source.}


The recipe above suggests using boiled (aka, 7-minute) frosting, but as it traditionally contains egg whites, I'll be skipping it in favour of butter cream or another egg-free frosting myself. Aside from that and the two tweaks mentioned earlier, I won't be doing a thing to this wonderful vintage Christmas cake recipe - short of tucking into a big piece of it that is!

You could easily tint some shredded coconut green, too, if desired, to create the look of an iconic three-colour candy cane. If coconut isn't a hit with your family, you could easily skip it and use coloured sprinkles/sanding sugar or icing instead to produce the desired candy cane look. Small candies, such as mini jujubes or mints, could also be put to work in the same capacity.

I love that this vintage holiday season cake looks fabulously impressive, but isn't time consuming or challenging to make in the slightest (always an extra big plus at this time of the year). Partner that with the fact that I can serve a slice to just about everyone in my family, and I'm one seriously happy Christmas time baker! :)

Sporting the world's cutest kitty print dress from Pigtails & Pirates while being bathed in dreamy late fall sunshine

Outfit details

Pink beret: eBay
Vintage kitty cat brooch: unknown (likely thrifted)
Yellow orchid and pearl earrings: Save-On Foods
Pearl necklace: Birthday gift from Tony ♥
Smitten Kitten 1950s style dress: Pigtails & Pirates
Brown button front shirt: Banana Republic
1950s pink gloves: eBay
Faux pearl stretch bracelets: Real Canadian Superstore
Camel coloured cross body purse: eBay
Teal blue tights: (New from) Value Village
Brown 1940s style heels: Walmart
Lip colour: Clinique Raspberry Glace


Photography by Tony Cangiano

♥ ♥  ♥

When I look back over all of the dresses that I've had in my life - and I'm including those from my very early childhood in this mix, too - I honestly don't believe I've had had the pleasure of owning a more adorable one that this uber cute kitty print one from the awesome Australian vintage inspired clothing line Pigtails & Pirates.

Frequent readers of my blog may recall that earlier this fall while Tony and I were on holiday in Victoria, I had the opportunity to model the splendidly beautiful Blue Bloom skirt that I'd received as a review gift from this company, which I chatted about in a fun post called My gorgeous new Pigtails & Pirates skirt and the most stunning Victorian gate I've ever posed with.

In that post I mentioned that I'd soon be sharing another stellar Pigtails & Pirates offering with all of you and this ultra adorable 1950s style Smitten Kitten dress is just that garment. Fittingly given its name, I'm smitten, seriously, entirely, 100% smitten with this precious frock. Not only is it very well constructed (complete with a sturdy plastic zipper up the back, however I've been informed by the fine folks at P&P that the zipper is changing to a more subtle style, that will still work just as well, but be less noticeable), true to size, and immensely pretty, it also features tons of retro kitties all over it.

ALL OVER IT!!! Huge kitty fan, and devoted cat mama that I am, I can't get over how fabulous this dress is. I love its fit, becoming coming sweetheart neckline, hem length, and the high quality fabric used to create it with. Though it is more of a spring/summer frock, due in large part to the fact that it's sleeveless, I didn't let that deter me from wearing it in November (when these photos were taken) for one red second.

Instead - and this is a tip I highly recommend for helping to get extra mileage out of many of your warm weather dresses - I envisioned it as a jumper style dress and slipped a button front shirt beneath it for extra warmth. Had it been even a degree cooler (it was a couple below zero that day, if memory serves me right - so hence my pink nose and cheeks and somewhat squinty, watery eyes in these photos), a jacket or sweater over top would have been a must, too, for photos. I wanted to forgo one that day though, in order to show you the dress in its uncovered state so that you could see the full garment in its full kitty covered epicness! :)

To keep the feline theme going strong, I place a cute vintage kitty brooch on my pink beret. I love adoring hats with brooches and find that it's a styling trick that always garners compliments. Most people don't wear hats these days, let alone vintage or vintage style ones with pins attached to them, so when they see you sporting such, it jumps out at them all the more.

Interestingly, as much as I adore them, I only own two berets at present. This bubble gum pink number and a classic black one. They both get a fair bit of wear though, so I'm thinking I really should invest in at least a couple more colours in the near future. Perhaps a red, navy blue and/or grey one, as those are all hues I don frequently.

Both the weather and my own health have been less than ideal lately, so I haven't been able to do a lot of new photo shoots, but thankfully we got this one in on a rare day of frosty sunshine last month. We shot these photos down at the Okanagan Lake end of the River Channel, a manmade channel that connects the the two lakes (Okanagan and Skaha) that sandwich Penticton. It's a spot I've visited countless times throughout my life, especially as a youngster on my bike.

It struck me as extra fitting then that I'd model this dress, with its youthful, immensely charming print there, as I would have loved to have owned this dress every bit as much when I was a child as I adore calling it my own now. Should you happen to have a wee one who would go crazy for one of Pigtails & Pirates marvelous creations, you're in luck, as the line produces children's clothing as well and also accepts custom clothing orders, if there's something you've been dreaming about having made for you and/or your child.

This dress is like a majestic rainbow made from sparkles and candy with a flock of unicorns prancing around under it. It's so amazingly pretty that you almost can't believe it - or at least that's how it feels to me. I honoured that Pigtails & Pirates bestowed both it and the afore-blogged-about floral print pencil skirt on me and wish to thank them again very much for doing so.

Both of these gorgeous and very feminine pieces will be frequent players in my wardrobe the whole year through and I can't wait to wear the kitty print dress in the summer a few yards over on the beach at Okanagan Lake itself, where its sleeveless cut will be a blessing in the 40C weather of the dog days (or would that be cat days? :D) of the warmest chapter of the year.

Vote for me as The Blogger's Lounge 2014 Blogger of the Year - pretty please!

Today's post is short and sweet and entails a request to all of you, my fabulous friends.

Chronically Vintage has been awarded the marvelous honour of being shortlisted as one of five finalists for the Unique category in the Blogger's Lounge Blogger of the Year 2014 Awards.





I've never been in the running for anything like this before, so this is my first time ever publicly appealing to all of you to vote for me.

If you could please do so, that would be truly appreciated and may potentially help Chronically Vintage come out on top in that category (you don't have to signup for anything or even vote in the other categories, if you don't want to; all you need to do is select Chronically Vintage for the Unique Topic category).





It would be a great joy and an over-the-moon awesome Christmas present to win this blogging award this year and with each of your help (the winner is based entirely on votes, so each vote you give Chronically Vintage truly does help), hopefully - fingers firmly crossed - we can get there.


*PS* 

Please feel free to share the Blogger’s Lounge voting page on social media and even your own blog, is so desired, to encourage people (your significant other, friends, coworkers, random strangers - it's all good! :D) to also vote for Chronically Vintage. Thank you, thank you, thank you, all soooo much!!!