Milky Way Cake

For my first anniversary a very good friend of my mother's gave me a church cookbook. For those of you familiar with these kind of publications, you are nodding, you probably have one somewhere among your cookbooks. For the uninitiated, a church cookbook is a spiral bound affair filled with recipe contributions from the church's womens groups. Women's church groups usually sell them as a way to fund a retreat, or missionary, or community outreach. The proceeds from the little book I have sent care boxes to overseas missionary families, full of humble comforts like Dole fruit cups, gummi bears, and new toothbrushes.

Church cookbooks are a cornucopia of recipes that snapshot not only the diverse origins of the average US citizen, but the Americanization of traditional recipes. A brief perusal of the Main Dish selections includes: Chicken with Sauerkraut, Pulgogi, Moussaka, Tamales, and yes, Tuna Noodle Casserole.

In the nearly 11 years I will have had the book there are some recipes I have been too chicken to try, like Hot Sauce Jello Salad. Some recipes I have never gotten around to but meant to, like this next one.

Milky Way Cake

2 cups sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
8 Milky Way bars (3/4 oz size)
1 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Beat eggs and sugar together and set aside. Melt candy and butter over low heat (candy will not completely melt). Add to eggs and sugar and thoroughly combine. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with buttermilk and vanilla to above mixture. pour into a greased bundt pan. Bake 1 hour at 300 degrees. Cool then remove from pan.

Sounds wicked. The kids liked the idea of candy bars in cake.