Nothing bundt ICE

Usually when I get the snow day phone call from my school district I'm giddy with excitement.  That was the case this past Sunday...and Monday...and Tuesday and then the greatest phone call of them all came! The pre-recorded voice informed me that schools would be closed for the rest of the week! WOOHOO!!!!
Soooo, since I've been iced in for 5 days now my entertainment has been looking out the window as my neighbors try [and fail] to get up our nothing-but-ice- hill, finding pinteresting recipes with Granny (on the phone) and cooking up a few treats. 
Today after watching 3 neighbors try to spin their way up the nothing-but-ice-hill, I decided to try Mix and Match Mama's Bundt Cake #79, also know as Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake.  Head over to her site for the recipe.

Obviously I decided to go with "nothing bundt cake" style of icing instead of the glaze Mix & Match Mama uses on her cake.  I'm definitely going to need a few more tutorials on that icing.Yikes!

This cake isn't going to be on any of my favorite lists, but I'm sure it's going to make a great breakfast, lunch and dinner over the next couple of days until I can finally get over the nothing-but-melted-ice-hill!

PawPaw's Hershey's Cake

My goal for 2015 is to blog approximately 12 times more than I did in 2014.  I've been a terrible blogger this year.

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 butter
4 eggs
2½ c cake flour, sifted
1 c buttermilk

½ tsp. baking soda
1 c pecans, chopped (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

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.

It's German Chocolate Cake Day!

So it's German Chocolate Cake Day huh? who knew there was such a holiday? Certainly not this girl.  It took way less convincing than I thought to talk Granny into making a German Chocolate Cake.  I know I'm not the only one in the family who is glad she broke from tradition and made this cake on a June day.  Usually Granny only makes this cake in January -- as a birthday cake for my mom and aunt.
The hardest part about making this cake was finding THE recipe.  Granny apparently cuts out the recipe from the Baker's German chocolate box and places it in her recipe box each time she makes this cake (although she denies it). At some point I even wrote it out for her , but she didn't want to follow that one because I may have written it wrong (hmmm... it didn't match any of the thirty-eleven that were in her box).

Granny finally decided which one was THE one. So we made German Chocolate Cake using the recipe below.
CLICK HERE for a printable version.

German Sweet Chocolate Cake

2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 c. buttermilk 

1 pkg. (4oz) Baker’s German’s Sweet chocolate

4 eggs (yolks & whites separate) 

½ c. water

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350° F.  Line bottoms of 3 round cake pans (9 inch) with wax paper. I can't believe this is actually on the recipe.  Granny lines the pans for almost every cake she makes.

Microwave chocolate and water in large microwavable bowl on high 1 ½ - 2 minutes or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring halfway through heating time.  Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. 

Beat margarine and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Stir in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until smooth. 

Beat egg whites in another large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. 

Gently stir into batter. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched in center. Immediately run spatula between cakes and sides of pans.  Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans. Remove wax paper. Cool completely on wire racks. Granny likes to have her cakes cool on a clean dish towel.

We started making the cake at her house, but since we were going to dinner across the county in my neck of the woods we packed it up and took it to my house to make the frosting. Granny was feeling a little out of her element in my kitchen. 

She threatened to leave me to finish up on my own, but she was afraid I would tear up her already fragile cake. But she stayed and it all came together (and stayed together) in the end.



Oops, I started eating before I remembered to snap a picture! Oh well it can't be helped with this cake.



Icing Icing Baby

Yo, Foodie, Let's kick it!
Icing Icing Baby
Icing Icing Baby
All right Frost
Chocolaty and luscious
I am back with another old recipe
something grabs a hold of me tightly
Then I eat from a spoon daily and nightly
Will I ever stop? Yo --I don't know
Turn off the mixer and I'll frost
to the extreme I rock a cake like a vandal
light up a plate and eat a piece like a champion.

Now that I'm done gracing the stage blog with my rap skills I can provide the recipe for the Chocolate frosting that Granny has been making for as long as I can remember.
CLICK HERE for a printable version of Granny's Chocolate Icing.

Chocolate Frosting

1 box confectioner's sugar

1/4 milk

1/2 stick butter

2 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extact

dash of salt

In a saucepan heat milk.  Remove milk from heat just before it reaches a boil.
Melt butter and chocolate. (Granny usually does this in the microwave)
While that's melting, Mix hot milk and sugar.  When thoroughly combined add melted chocolate & butter mixture and vanilla.  If needed add more milk by the tablespoon until desired spreading consistency is reached (the additional milk doesn't need to be hot).  

Yo Gran - Let's get out of here! Word to my mother!

Icing Icing Baby Too good, Icing Icing Baby Too good Too good
Icing Icing Baby Too good, Icing Icing Baby Too good Too good

*Drops the mic and walks off the blog.

This cake was made for sharing

This cake was made for sharing, and that's just what I'll do.
One of these days this cake I'm gonna share with all of you.

Are you ready Girl? Start sharing!

Usually I'm an iced cake kind of girl, but I can think of 5 reasons why I (and seemingly everyone else) love this pound cake ...despite it's not having icing:

1. Rum Extract

2. Vanilla Extract

3. Coconut Extract

4. Butter Extract

5. Lemon Extract

And for those 5 reasons:

This cake was made for sharing, and that's just what I'll do.
On this day, this cake I'm gonna share with all of you.

Granny came across the recipe for 5 Flavor Pound Cake several years ago and she's been making it every since.  It's become a favorite among family, friends, friends of family and friends of friends.  

Granny gathers up the following ingredients before she begins so everything can get room temperature. 

2 sticks butter

½ c. Crisco

3c. sugar

5 eggs, well beaten

3 c. A.P. flour

½ tsp. baking powder

1 c. whole milk

1 tsp. coconut extract

1 tsp. butter extract

1 tsp. rum extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon extract

Cream butter, Crisco and sugar together; add eggs.  Combine flour and baking powder; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Stir in flour; add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour the batter into a tube pan to bake for 1 ½ hours at 325˚.

After removing the cake from the oven poke holes in the cake and pour on the 5 Flavor Glaze.

 Glaze:

1c. sugar

1 tsp. lemon extract

1 tsp. butter extract

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp rum extract

1 tsp. coconut extract

½ c. water

Combine all of the preceding. Bring to a boil.  Stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour over hot cake and let cool, then remove from pan.

Trust me...
This cake was made for sharing, and that's just what I've done.
On this day, this cake I have now shared with all of you.

You keep starin' when you should be sharin'
and you keep thinkin' bout how it's smellin'.
Ha! You just found out why they call it pound cake, yeah!
and I know your waist soon will be swellin'!

Are you ready friends? Start sharing!
CLICK HERE for a printable version of the recipe.