I received a text from my pretend daughter Allie, asking if I had ever made a Cream Sherry Bundt Cake. Not only had I never made one, I’d never heard of such a thing. She went on to explain that it was one of her grandmother’s favorite holiday desserts, and she’d love to bake one. The problem was that grandma’s recipe, as well as anything Allie could find on the internet, required a boxed cake mix and an instant pudding mix. Allie figured a baked from scratch recipe would be even better than the one she remembered. She described the cake as one that was super moist and when it baked, filled the house with the scent of nutmeg and warm spices. This sounded like it might be fun so I asked if she would like me to try and create grandma’s recipe from scratch, which she thought was a fine idea.
Um…. this turned out to be quite the challenge because as far as I could see nobody had ever attempted to make a ‘pudding cake’ from scratch before, so we were in murky and uncharted territory. In addition to all that, waving a baking magic wand and turning boxed mixes into something homemade required utilization of my often-ridiculed lack of mathematical prowess, but we were on a mission and charged forward. Allie was assigned to taste and critique each effort, and after a few tries, I think we might finally be there. Grandma’s recipe called either for Crème Sherry (which is wine fortified with Brandy) or Brandy. I’ve tried it both ways and personally prefer the Brandy version, but Crème Sherry is also good for a more subdued boozy flavor).This cake is delicious on its own, but a few extra easy minutes of effort will reward you with a warm and gooey butterscotch sauce that takes this whole thing right over the top. If you opt out of the sauce idea, your cake can be dusted with powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, or cinnamon sugar before serving.
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Here we have the ultimate late summer dessert. The one where you hide pieces of it in various places around the house, then excuse yourself for some lame reason, seek it out and go dig in. There are currently two pieces in our refrigerator and they will soon mysteriously disappear. That’s just the way it is with this dessert. You take a bite. Then another. Then add a scoop of ice cream, and another. With that warning in place, I say let’s get moving on making some just for you.
I have fond childhood memories of hot summer days, awaiting the neighborhood ice cream truck. I don’t remember the driver’s name, but I thought he was ancient (but since I was 8, he could have been 25), wore a white jacket and hat, and drove a little red convertible around the neighborhood, blaring out some musical tune that could be heard for blocks, drove our parents crazy, and hypnotized all of us into running toward it at full speed. He arrived with a cooler that was fully loaded with as many ice cream treats a kid could imagine, which made it hard to decide what to choose. I’m sure many an ice cream bar was melted with all us hanging over the side of his car, staring into the cooler, and mired in indecision. One year, I was fully entrenched in my Drumstick phase, but when I discovered the Creamsicle the following summer, everything else fell away. I still can’t resist that combination of creamy vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet, so dreamt up this super easy cremesicle pie. It can stay happy as a clam in your freezer for a couple of weeks or more, waiting for you to get the urge for a treat, and is nice to have for drop-in company. The crust is crumbled waffle cones, held together with melted butter and a little sugar. Then all that’s left to do is grab a couple of containers of ice cream and start layering. The crust is not baked in advance, so the whole thing comes together in a few minutes. I swear I can hear that little ice cream truck tune every time I grab a slice.
