52 Poems: Week 6 William Shakespeare

Valentine's Day is upon us, so I
thought I'd post a poem, a love sonnet.
So here are fourteen lines you'll recognize
and when you are done I hope you got it.

Sonnet 18
By William Shakespeare 

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Valentine's Day Cake Tradition

For many years, I've baked this cake from Martha Stewart for David for Valentine's Day. It's a white layer cake with raspberry meringue frosting (or seven minute frosting) and it's always tasty. But this year David wanted to make cupcakes so we made David's first batch ever using the same recipe.
~We halved both~





White Cake

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for pans
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, cream butter and add sugar.
Combine milk/vanilla and add to butter/sugar mix alternately with the flour mixture.
Fold in egg whites after beating to form stiff peaks.
Spoon into lined cupcake tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Seven Minute Frosting
Mix one third of the frosting with 1 cup raspberry jam to use for layering or on top.