TOFFEE & PECAN Topped CAKE Squares

TOFFEE & PECAN-TOPPED CAKE Squares

Wow, is the slightly crunchy toffee-pecan topping heavenly?

To make it easier to break the toffee bars, freeze them; but this it is not a “must do”.

4 T. butter or margarine, softened to room temperature

2 cups plain flour

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

1 large egg, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla extract

6 regular-size individual toffee candy bars (Skor or Heath Bars) or 20 miniature bars

¾ cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with Baker’s Joy.

In a large electric mixer bowl, cream the butter or margarine,  & both sugars; then add the flour & slowly beat to mix.  Remove ½ cup of this mixture to use later in the topping.

Put buttermilk into a small bowl; then sprinkle the baking soda on top & stir to blend.  Add the beaten egg & vanilla.  Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture & beat in the electric mixer until well blended, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Break the frozen toffee bars into smaller pieces; then put the pieces into a food processor to cut into finer pieces for sprinkling on the cake.  Process the toffee pieces finer than the pecan pieces. Add the reserved flour mixture to the toffee pieces & pulse the food processor a

couple of times to blend.  Stir the pecans in by hand.  Evenly sprinkle this topping mixture over the cake batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes; then turn oven off & allow cake to remain in the closed oven for another 2 to 3 minutes.  Cool the cake before cutting into squares.  Yield: 16 squares.

I don’t know why this story popped into my feeble mind, perhaps it was the mention of the candy bars?  This really is one of Joe’s stories.  As some of you know, before he retired, Joe was a corporate pilot for 30 years. He was flying an overnight trip to Chicago & got in very late at night.  He trudged to his hotel & collapsed into bed for a few hours sleep before flying again the next morning.  He had been asleep for about 4 hours when all of a sudden the noise in his room sounded like the world was coming to an end!  Bright lights illuminated the hotel room drapes as the engines of many 18 wheeler trucks throbbed to life and began “dieseling”!  He jumped out of bed, ripped open the drapes to find that his hotel was almost in the parking lot of the Tootsie Roll Factory!  It seems that the candy had been made, wrapped, & loaded on the trucks & the trucks were ready to roll!  Not much more sleep that night…..

Joe has never met a toffee bar either homemade or bought that he didn’t like!  Almost always his sister, Mary, makes homemade toffee for our Christmas and for his birthday.
This is definitely a labor of love.  She gave me her recipe and if anyone requests it, I will publish it on this blog.  So just leave me a comment if you want it.

More from “The Good Old Days”
From the WHITEHOUSE COOKBOOK, 1910, PAGE 494

September Sunday Menu

Breakfast
Musk Melon
Corn Meal Mush
Fried Smelts
Veal Hash on Toast
Potatoes a La Crème
Graham Gems
Wheat Bread
Coffee

Dinner
Beef Soup with Croutons
Boiled Fresh Mackerel
Hollandaise Sauce
Roast Partridges
Mashed Potatoes
Stewed Corn
Stuffed Egg Plant
Tomato Salad
Lobster Croquettes
Peach Meringue Pie
Tutti Frutti Ice Cream
Rochester Jelly Cake
Cheese
Coffee

Supper
Potted Ham
Small Oyster Pies
Rice Omelet
Cold Slaw
French Bread
Cream Cake
Sliced Peaches
Tea

This menu served at the White House on a Sunday really brings home the great differences in the foods available & served today compared to what was served 101 years ago.  It it’s all right with you, I’ll have a square of the Toffee & Pecan Topped Cake that YOU made, rather than the potted ham and corn meal mush!