PRALINE CAKE l

Praline Cake

30 minutes to make

Serves 24

Ingredients

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 follows). Recipe yields a nine-inch, three-layer cake.

How to make it

For 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.