But a little visit from Santa and perhaps a little chocolate motivation from my PawPaw may have provided the inspiration I needed to get back in my Granny's kitchen. ... and my own for that matter.
This time I'm sharing one of PawPaw's signature dishes, Hershey Cake.
Only he makes it and he knows we look forward to it every Christmas. He makes this famous (at least it's famous in our family) Hershey Cake only once a year, twice if we're lucky. So when I sat down at the table to play with my new Canon toy and this cake happened to be sitting right in front of me. I knew it was time to blog again. I might even dare to say it was fate.
I've learned that PawPaw has been making Hershey Cake for over 50 years. My mom recently shared with me that each year on Christmas Eve when she and her siblings were eager to get to bed so Santa could come, PawPaw would always need to stay up to make his Hershey Cake.
Hershey Bar Cake
8 -1.55oz Hershey bars
5½ oz Hershey's Syrup
2 c sugar
2 sticks butter2 c sugar
4 eggs
2½ c cake flour, sifted
1 c buttermilk
½ tsp. baking soda
1 c pecans, chopped (optional)
1 tsp vanilla1 c pecans, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350° . Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan (Pawpaw uses a tube pan). Melt chocolate bars with Hershey's Syrup in a double broiler and set aside to cool. Cream sugar and butter adding eggs 1 at a time. Combine milk and soda. Alternately add milk and flour. When combined add chocolate, nuts and vanilla. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.