My mom and I decided to take a road trip this weekend, so we hit the open road and headed to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents and aunt. Road trips are my favorite (as long as it’s not too far of a trip. I start to get antsy after the four hour mark). I love them because I get to car dance the entire time I’m driving. My mom and I totally busted some awesome moves to some Rob Base. I’m sure we got a few snickers out of the passing drivers.

I tend to take over my grandparents kitchen when ever I visit. I gave them a list of items that need to be kept in stock a few visits ago. If they want cake, I need flour, sugar, and butter. They gladly provide me with the essentials. Why? because they want cake. My grandmother loves it when I visit because she gets a break from the kitchen. When I arrived on Friday, my grandmother had a page with a cake recipe bookmarked in one of her favorite magazines- major hint, right! Of course, I couldn’t say no to my sweet, loving grandmother, so I gladly made the cake. Good thing I did make the cake because it was delicious. It’s a very simple cake. It has a lovely buttery vanilla flavor, and the cinnamon sugar center  provides a delicate sweetness to the cake. My favorite part was the cinnamon sugar topping. It really gave the cake a nice crunchy texture. After all this talk about the cake, I want another piece.

My brother ate four huge slices of this cake on Saturday. Four! I’m sorry, but I had to share that with you because I thought it was hilarious. Every time I turned around he had another slice of cake. I took it as a compliment.

Cake baking wasn’t the only thing I did this weekend. My aunt and I headed over to the local vineyard to taste some wine. I love wine! We ended up buying a case. We’re wine lushes. Hey, we know how to throw a fun girls weekend. I ended up making a very tasty sangria with some of the red wine I purchased. It’s gone!

If you’re ever in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, you have to stop by Vynecrest to sample some wine. The staff is friendly and helpful, the view is breath taking, and the wine is amazing.

The vineyard is much prettier when it’s in bloom, but I love this photo for its rustic charm.

Me getting my picture taken while taking a picture. My aunt has an obsession with taking photos. Basically, she documented our entire girls weekend in photos. It’s her thing.

 Wine sipping- my favorite part! I believe I was sampling the red wine I used to make sangria later that evening.

Wine loot! Gotta love the saying on the bag. We recycled some grapes that night.

Love and sweet treats,

Jennie

Recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a tube pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to butter mixture, beating until just combined after each addition. Spread half of the mixture into your prepared pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar mixture over batter. Top with remaining batter and sprinkle the top with remaining cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if your feeling fancy. Enjoy!