Day 56: How to make your own Southern Comfort Pecan Chocolate Cake

5 cups High Altitude Hungarian Flour
1 cup Ghirardelli Dutch-processed cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 pounds light brown sugar
6 large cage free eggs also at room temperature
1 cup Southern Comfort (Accept no substitutes.)
1 cup Petron Orange Liqueur (Grand Marnier, Harlequin, Triple Sec, or any good orange liqueur will do.)
8 oz. pecans, chopped and lightly toasted
8 oz. Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Put on some Janis Joplin.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Heavily butter and lightly flour your pans.  It takes one 10 inch tube pan and a couple of little foil snack pans.

Sift the first 5 ingredients three times.  Yes, really.  Set these dry ingredients aside for now.

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until the color lightens, and then add the sugar just a little at a time.  When butter and sugar are thoroughly combined, continue to beat for another 5 minutes or so.

Break the eggs into a bowl, and inspect closely for shell bits.  If you find any, of course, remove those.  Add the eggs a little at a time, and beat thoroughly.

Add the dry sifted ingredients to  the butter-sugar-egg mixture gradually, alternating with the liqueurs, continually beating with your electric mixer.

Stir in the pecans and chopped chocolate.  Pour into the pans, and bang them on the counter.

Here's where things get tricky.  It's easy to bake this cake too long and dry it out, so focus and be ready to check frequently!  Use your cake tester or a toothpick.  If it comes out with just a little chocolate stuck, like the perfect brownie - all moist and gooey- then it's ready.  With my ancient oven, I start checking the snack cakes at 10 minutes; usually they are ready after 20 minutes of baking.  When I pull the snack cakes, I throw a flat sheet of aluminum foil over top of the tube cake so the top doesn't burn while the interior bakes.  Check, check, check!  Tube cake usually takes from 35 to even 55 minutes.

Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.  Wrap the snack cakes right in their little pans, but de-pan the larger cake.  Wrap it carefully in plastic wrap to keep it moist.  Probably because of the preservative power of alcohol, this cake keeps well at room temperature for several days.

We like to eat thick slices with whipped cream.

Remember, this is the version for baking at 8,000 feet.  If making this cake at lower altitude, consider a tad more baking soda and baking powder, 2 or 3 more ounces of brown sugar, one less egg, and an oven temp of 350.  I would use cake flour or all purpose flour to bake this closer to sea level.