Chocolate-Date Cake With Pecan Sauce

What You Need:

• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup dates, chopped
• 1 cup shortening, butter or margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 6-ounce pkg. chocolate bits
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

How to Make It:

Dissolve baking soda in boiling water; pour over dates and cool. Cream shortening with sugar and eggs until fluffy. Sift together flour, cocoa and salt. Add alternately with date mixture. Stir in vanilla, chocolate bits and chopped nuts. Spread in greased and floured 9 x 13-inch pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with Coffee Pecan Sauce.

Did You Know?  Dates are mentioned at least 60 times in the Old Testament of the Bible. They are believed to be one of man’s earliest cultivated foods.

Coffee Pecan Sauce

What You Need:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup half and half or light cream
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

How to Make It:

Beat eggs in heavy saucepan until light and fluffy or lemon colored. Add sugar and continue beating until fluffy and sugar is dissolved. Gradually add scalded half and half. Cook slowly; stir constantly over low heat until mixture thickens. Add coffee and vanilla. Stir until coffee dissolves and mixture thickens. Fold in nuts and serve warm over cake.

Makes 12 servings.

Helpful Baking Tip: Recipes frequently call for scalded milk or cream. To scald is to heat the liquid to just below the boiling point. When scalding milk, a thin skim forming on top indicates sufficient heating.

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“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”
— Harriet Van Horne