Warning - Could Cause a Diabetic Coma

Nothing this good is ever good for you.

I am on this comfort food kick this week (and as I write this I am chowing down on a bowl of PW Chicken Potpie) and last night I tried my hand at Southern Praline Cake.  Consistent with the southern tradition this cake is loaded down with a ton of butter and sugar which makes for good eating (and early heart disease - this is not a cake for faint of heart or those watching their figure).

Pralines - one of the famous treats of Savannah

I have been infatuated with pralines ever since our honeymoon in Savannah which seems to be the praline capital of America. I instantly became enamored with there rich buttery sweet taste, however, Roe finds them disturbing to his palette. He thinks they are just too sweet. But when you are raised in a household where sugar water and sweetening orange juice with sugar is the norm you have a high tolerance for sugar.

I bought back two boxes of pralines from our honeymoon which I have safely stowed away in our freezer. I ration them out to myself to eat with ice cream but I have really been saving them to develop a cake recipe with. I think it would be an interesting taste and texture to have bits of praline either in the cake or icing. I have been unsuccessful in finding a recipe that is in line with my imagination but I may have come across the next best thing.

The recipe directions are for a layer cake but I opted to forgo the layers. next time I will probably make it in a tube pan and stick with the glaze method of icing.

The icing for this Southern Praline Cake when prepared properly draws inspiration from the candy in look and flavor. The icing has that same rich buttery taste and smell as the candy.  But warning it takes 3/4 cup of butter for the icing to achieve this feat. (The mere thought of that much fat could stop your heart). This cake has not the quite the density of pound cake and is heavier than your average layer cake. Yet it is rich with flavor due to the brown sugar and very moist. The cake really reminds of the cake I used to get as a girl from the older southern ladies at bake sales and community events. Rich, flavorful and dense.

My icing turned out to be more like a glaze since I substituted skim milk for evaporated milk in the original recipe. (I was too lazy at 9 last night to run to the grocery store). Ordinary milk has more moisture so its harder for the icing to get that thick spread  consistency that the recipe intends. But sometimes a faux pas makes for good eats and I think the cake benefited from the glaze as opposed to the icing. I think the icing would have been too overwhelming in sweetness for the cake. Also I omitted the pecans since I used my last store of pecans on granola the other week. But I think they would add an excellent flavor to the cake but sans nuts was tasty as well.

Since learning of how much butter was used in the making of this cake Roe has refused to eat anymore outside of the huge piece he had today (he is in training for a race). And to prevent another red velvet fiasco I have quickly dispensed with freezing 3/4 of the cake.

And because I like you all so much :

Warning only bake this if you have friends and family to share it with or you don't mind putting on an extra 3-5 pounds.

The recipe is from grouprecipes.com and can be found here.

Southern Praline Cake

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1-1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 1 cup Light Brown Sugar, firmly packed
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

• Grease and flour three nine-inch round cake pans and preheat oven to 350°F. 
• Cream the butter or margarine with both Granulated Sugar and Light Brown Sugar until very light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
• Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt and add to the batter alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. 
• Stir in the vanilla extract. 
• Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake in the center of the preheated oven for twenty-five to thirty minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the layers comes out clean. 
• Cool layers in their pans over a rack for ten minutes, then loosen and turn out layers directly onto racks for cooling. Cool layers thoroughly before icing.
•  Recipe yields a nine-inch, three-layer cake.
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Southern Praline Icing

• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar, firmly packed
• 4 large eggs of yolk
• 1 large can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups chopped pecans

• Melt the butter or margarine in a large saucepan over medium heat. 
• Remove from heat, then stir in Granulated Sugar and Imperial Light Brown Sugar. (Sugars will not dissolve). 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the evaporated milk until smooth, then whisk this mixture into the saucepan with the sugar mixture. 
• Return saucepan to a medium heat setting and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick, shiny and caramel-like, about fifteen to twenty minutes. 
• Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract and pecans. 
• Cool icing to a good spreading consistency (about thirty minutes), then spread evenly between cooled cake layers and over the top and sides of the cake. 
• Recipe yields icing for a nine-inch, three-layer cake.