Grandma Hiers' Butternut Cake

Y'all stick around 15 more minutes because I got to share this cake with her

I want to see it. Show me. Your granddaddy, my daddy, used to refer to his mother as an angel, a talking, walking angel

And I have to say she was. And every time we'd come down to Florida to visit, she would have this cake on the counter waiting for us

So we're going to start with two sticks of butter. Do you want me to cream that? Yes

And we're going to add two cups of sugar. and we're going to cream that well, son

And our actual cake part is like your standard one, two, three, four cake

It's a cup of milk, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs

One, two, three, four. Now, I'm going to take our cake pans, and I'm just going to spray these real good

Plus, I'm going to dust them with a little flour, so that'll make sure they come out good

We're going to add one egg at a time. Break them into another bowl and make sure each egg is fine

And turn it up as high as it'll go, son, to do your cream

There you go. Egg number two. All righty

So we're going to measure out one cup of milk, and we're going to alternately add our flour and our milk to our cake batter

You always want to start with flour and end with flour. It makes the creamier batter

I can't believe there's a cake in the family I've never eaten. I know Look what it gonna look like when we add the flour

There we go. All right, the last of the flour. So now I want to talk to you about butternut flavoring

Grandmama would always have this in her cabinet, And there was a certain brand that she would buy, but this is the closest that I've been able to find

This one is called a vanilla butter and nut flavor. Grandma's butternut flavoring always made her cakes orange

I bet you this will make it orange. Yes, that will. So that's three tablespoons

All right. Back home. Yummy. Mm-hmm. Isn't that delicious, son

I think I'm going to add just a wee little bit more. More? All right, now, son, our cake pans are ready

Here comes the worst part of making cakes for Mom. I just like to make sure, son, my cakes are nice

Let's try to eyeball it. You want to? Let's go outside your comfort zone. No. One time. No

Oops, you know what? Grandma put nuts in her cake. Here's the pecans right here

You want to chop them? Yes. So let me just chop them real quick like..

I can't believe we used to pick up pecans and sell them. Yes, to take y'all to the fair

And I would go out there and pick up pecans and take them to the nut house and sell them

Not our house. Nut house. The other nut house. The pecan nut house What would we get a pound I don remember son Maybe 39 cents a pound something like that 29 cents a pound Bags after bags

But it was enough money to get us to the fair. I did not like doing it

I knew that. Yes, but you loved going to that fair. I did

And there was no fair money. This cake is beautiful. Isn't it beautiful

It brings back the fondest memories. I'm a stickler about my cakes being the same size, so I try to..

That's an understatement. I try to measure out the same amount, and as the cake batter goes down, then my amount goes down

Okay, now we've knocked them about to just get the air bubbles out, y'all, and level them out

We're going to put these in the oven, 350-degree preheated oven, and we're going to bake them for about 30 or 35 minutes

I'll be keeping a close eye on them, and when I see them pulling away from their pan

or if I touch the top and it springs back, we'll know that they're ready

We've got our icing made, y'all. It's four cups of confectionate sugar, an eight-ounce block of cream cheese

Oh, and a stick of butter. And I'm going to flavor it with our vanilla, butter, and nut flavor

And I'm not going to measure it. I'm just going to pour until I get it the color that I like it

You put more of that orange stuff in there? Yes, that's what gives it the flavor, Jamie

You want to fold it or beat it? Well, I would love to beat it. Okay, and then I'll just fold in the nuts

Yum. Do you like that color sun It beautiful I not even going to chop those nuts up anymore That smells awesome

I'm going to put down just a little bit of that, Jamie. That's just so my cake won't move

Okay. Yum. Yeah, I love the pecans in it. It looks awesome

Yes. You want some more sticks? Yes. Sticks that fit, though. Jamie Dean

Look, it fits. Oh, okay. One more right there, please. Okay, here we go

All right, now, this is when you start making me nervous. No, I'm not going to make you nervous. Wait, wait, wait now

Not in the middle. You want me to help you? No. You want me to do the sides

Look at this, Grandma. Hers. Jamie, you are going to send me straight to hell

while I'm trying to talk to an angel. Mama! See how I do it, son

Look, give me some on this side. I put it right there on the edge. No, Jamie

Yeah, we're starting a new tradition, Mom. No, we are not. Yes, we are. Jamie, I will knock the breath out of you

Mama, it's a celebration of fathers. Your favorite father, remember? That's me

You know I'm a baker by trade. You have never baked. Give me a chance

You make me so nervous, son. Well, what do you think I'm going to do

Calm down, Paula. We almost there. Yum. Wow, that was good. I know

Mm-hmm. The big reveal. Wow. That's a cake right there

Isn't that a beautiful cake? Cheers, Mama. Cheers, son