Best of the Holidays

The holidays are absolutely my favorite time of the year. I wish we could take the feeling of the holiday sprite and share that all year long. But Christmas sprite only last a couple of weeks and so we have to take advantage of that. One of the fun activities that we all enjoy is all the cooking that goes on. I mean it is tradition, we all have are favorite side dishes and desserts we love making and sharing during the holidays. I can remember as a small child walking in to my Nana's house on Christmas and that smell of the wonderful food that she had been preparing all day long. Of course Santa Claus had come to her house the night before and left me and my 2 sisters and, of course all of our cousins huge bags of toys. As you get older it is memories like that you hold on too. And so now it is time to make special Christmas memories with my family.

One of my husband's and mine favorite desserts for Christmas time is actually a cake. And I have to say it is the best cake I have ever made. I am going to share the recipe with you and hopefully you will love it as much as we do. It is kind of a hard recipe, it takes both of us to make this cake. So we cook it together, but that is part of the fun of the Holidays. Working hard in the kitchen to prepare yummy food for the ones you love. It is the fact we all come together and celebrate as a family, the true meaning of Christmas. We are able to enjoy each other for a little while, that is my favorite part of Christmas . So here is my recipe.

PEACAN PIE BUNDT CAKE

Yields 10 to 12 servings

Ingredients

3 tablespoons all-vegetable shortening

1 2/3 cups finely chopped pecans, divided

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

2 1/3 cups all -purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 cup whole buttermilk

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

GLAZE: 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

6 tablespoons butter

3 table spoons heavy cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 15 cup Bundt pan with shortening. Sprinkle 1 cup pecans in pan, shaking pan to coat.

2. In a large bow, beat butter, granulated sugar, and vanilla with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. In a medium bowl whisk together flour , baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. In a small bowl, stir together corn syrup and buttermilk. With a mixer on low speed gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with corn syrup mixture , beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar, cinnamon, pepper remaining 2/3 pecans and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir in cake batter. Dollop half of remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon brown sugar mixture over batter in pan. Top with remaining batter.

5. Bake until a wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs, about 1 hour. Let it cool in pan for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto wire rack, and let cool for 30 minutes.

6.Prepare the glaze by adding the 3 ingredients mentioned above in a pot and melt together until smooth, stirring often. Let cool , after cake has cooled it's 30 minutes add glaze to cake.

And there you have it. Our Bundt Cake recipe. I have many awesome memories of baking this cake with my husband over the Holidays. And I want others to have the same thing, which is why I am sharing our best home made cake recipe. Besides the taste of the cake is of the charts . You really have to try making it. I hope anyone who makes it , enjoys it as much as we do. Merry Christmas everyone.