February 27

Elizabeth Rosemond Tayor's Birthday
 

 

During a career that spanned six decades, Elizabeth won two Oscars and made more than 50 films. Some of her most notable films include A Place in the Sun (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1956), and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).  On a Turner Classic Movies promo, Paul Newman called her "a functioning voluptuary … a courageous survivor, a helluva actress and someone I am extremely proud to know"  and goes on to comment on her stunning beauty her remarkable violent eyes. This may be the best tribute to the legendary actress who died in March of 2011. As a side note, it was reported that Elizabeth literally turned over in her grave a year after she died when it was announced that Lindsey Lohan would play her in ther Lifetime TV film Liz & Dick.

Elizabeth was once considered by many as the most beautiful woman in the world. But her beauty had a physical price with more than one hundred hospitalizations for a variety of serious health challenges including a brain tumor, a stroke, osteoporosis,  scoliosis, crippling back pain, a series a respiratory disorders, and congestive heart failure which was first diagnosed in 1994 and which finally caused her death.

Millions of trees have been felled for the newspapers and magazines that carried stories of her marriages with Conrad  Hilton, Jr., Michael Wilding, Michael Todd ,Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton, Senator John Warner, and Larry Fortensky. Elizabeth had many romances outside her marriages. Before marrying Hilton she was engaged to Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis. After leaving Hilton, Howard Hughes suddenly proposed to Taylor by landing a helicopter nearby and sprinkling diamonds on her. In 1984 when she broke off her engagement with Mexican lawyer, Victor Luna, his family held a huge celebration party in Guadalajara.

Elizabeth (she hated being called Liz) pushed the envelope on sexuality: She was one of the first major stars to pose (mostly) nude in Playboy, and among the first to remove her clothes on screen She was condemned by the Pope and members of  the US Congress, for her affair with Richard Burton while making Cleopatra (1963)
while she was still married to Eddie Fisher. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano , accused her of "erotic vagrancy". Congresswoman Iris Blitch (D-GA) demanded the the Attorney General revoke her passport.

Elizabeth became an AIDS activist after the death of her friend Rock Hudson when she was also condemned by many including receiving death threats for speaking out on the need for compassion and funding for those affected by the disease,  and becoming the founding national chairman for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. "At a time when people did not want to touch AIDS patients or be anywhere near them, it was so important that she showed the courage to embrace Rock Hudson," said Art Torres, who was a state senator in the mid-1980s and worked with Taylor on securing some of the first public AIDS funding.

Since everyone who knew her or even met her always commented on her striking violet eyes, an appropriate way to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday make a candied violet cake and watching her in Suddenly Last Summer as she watches Sebastian Venable's death by cannibalism at the mouths of local boys whose sexual favors he sought by using Elizabeth's character in her memorable white swimsuit as a device to attract them.

 

Candied Violet Cake

This frosting and decorations are for a home made or store-bought angel food cake

Candied Violets Ingredients Violet Frosting Ingredients

 

  • 1 cup sugar plus extra for coating violets
  • 1/2 cup water
  • fresh sweet violet blossoms ( do not substitute African  violets for sweet violets)


     
2 TB flour
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup violet sugar*
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
 
*You can buy violet sugars, but you can make it by sealing fresh, unsprayed  violet petals and white sugar in a jar for a week or more. 
 

Candied Violet Instructions

  • 1. Combine 1 cup of sugar plus the water in a saucepan and boil until syrup spins a thread.
  • 2. Cool to room temperature.
  • 3. Using tweezers, dip blossoms into syrup and shake off excess syrup.
  • 4  Dip into granulated sugar.
  • 5  Place on wax paper and dry thoroughly before using.
     
Violet  Frosting Instructions

1. Place flour in a saucepan and stir in a few tablespoons of the milk to make a paste. Add remaining milk. Cook, stirring constantly,
    over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens. Cool.
2  Cream butter using an electric mixer, gradually adding violet sugar and salt.
3. Beat well. Add cooled milk mixture. Beat until fluffy. Add vanilla.
4  Spread on angel food cake , Decorate with the candied violets

© 2011 Gordon Nary and Tyler Stokes