Mom’s Birthday Cake…Amazing Woman, Amazing Cake

Let’s get the most important thing of the year out of the way first…..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE MOST AMAZING MOTHER THIS REDHEAD COULD HAVE EVER ASKED FOR! I love you with all my heart, and I can’t wait to see what and where 2012 is going to bring you and I!

Today is my wonderful Mom’s birthday, and I was tapped to make the cake for her this year. The cake has been the same cake for as long as I can remember. A Bishop Bread. It was between Maw-Maw and I to make the cake, but Maw-Maw remembered Mom saying something about the way she made the cake one year, and Maw-Maw wasn’t touching it with a ten-foot poll this year because of the comment. Hey, when it’s someone’s birthday, you want everything to be perfect. Can’t blame Maw-Maw for passing that one up, because I wouldn’t want to be responsible for a cake the birthday girl didn’t love love love. But, crap…now I was the one responsible for making it perfectly to Mom’s specifications. *sigh*

Maw-Maw prepared me with all of the ingredients already measured out, pecans looked over, and the wonderfully hand written recipe from her cookbook. She gave me tips and pointers to make sure it came out the way Mom likes it. Heck, even Mom threw in a few pointers on it. *smiles*

So yesterday it began, oh who am I kidding…this was an easy cake to make. Especially with having Nyxie my KitchenAid mixer by my side. I certainly can’t imagine making it by hand like Maw-Maw has been for all these years. I bet her hands were exhausted afterwards. It’s a chunky cake, but a “worth-it” cake. The hub assisted with a big portion of it, the candied cherries were sliced in half, and before you knew it a cake was in the oven.

Even though there are candied cherries in it, I don’t want you thinking it’s a “fruit cake”….because there’s CHOCOLATE in it!!!

It’s unbelievably amazing, and it’s an easy cake to slice and freeze when you’re trying not to eat the whole damn cake in one sitting. Trust me, that’s a hard thing to do with this cake! *big smiles* Afterall, it is New Years Day, and we all know that resolutions are made, so a few slices end up in the freezer inevitably. But, it makes future days all the more sweeter when you’re having a bad day and pummeling through the freezer for something good to eat…then you stumble across Bishop Bread. It’s like the heavens opened up and smiled upon you. *big smiles*

Bottom line, you should try this cake at least once in this year. We only have it once a year…on New Years Day. Of course, it is a very special woman’s very special birthday cake. *smiles*

Bishop Bread

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips (by all means, I used about 1 cup…maybe a little more. The more the better in Mom’s opinion, and I agree!)
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (Mom prefers Pecans, so we use Pecans)
• 1 cup snipped/chopped dates
• 1 cup halved candied cherries (buy the container of candied cherries, and slice them in half. Not in quarters, not chopped, sliced by hand in half)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Beat the eggs, add the sugar, nuts, and fruit. Mix together until everything is coated well in the beaten eggs.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well.
3. If putting in a loaf pan, grease the pan and line it with wax paper before putting batter in it. Makes it easier to pull out.
4. If putting in a Bundt pan (preferred method for us), grease the pan well.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour if in the loaf pan. If in the Bundt pan, it takes less time. I baked mine for about 40 to 45 minutes in the Bundt pan. I baked it until the edges were brown and the inside of the ring was still light colored.
6. Once baked, cool on a wire rack.

***Maw-Maw’s notes say that if it is wrapped well, it will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks. Her hand-written notes also say “Very Good”, and if you remember previously, when Maw-Maw’s notes say “Very Good”, that’s when you know it is a really good recipe.

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