Sister ‘Ceal’s Pecan Pie

I feel like this is a pretty standard pecan pie recipe, but my mother always credits it to Sister ‘Ceal who, I think, was my mom’s mom’s sister…or cousin.  That grandmother of mine was the youngest of eleven kids (born in 1922, so some of them were born before 1900 which blows my mind) so a lot of her siblings had kids older than her, and I’ve never been able to keep them straight because my grandmother, the youngest, was 70 when I was born, so I was never quite sure who was a great aunt or a cousin or an in-law of some kind. The joke’s on me because I just married the fourth of ten kids so my kids get to deal with all of that confusion too. But that has nothing to do with this pie, which is delicious. My mom baked it for a Georgia game the other weekend, and during half time, we made the wreath pictured below with a wreath frame and ribbon from Michael’s.

Sister ‘Ceal’s Pecan Pie
Ingredients
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup Karo syrup
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup butter
a pinch of salt
1 unbaked pie shell

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Beat eggs and add sugar.  Add syrup and nuts, vanilla, and pinch of salt.  Bake in an unbaked pie shell for one hour.

Aunt Eileen’s Peach Cake

Here is the aforementioned recipe for the cake I made for my friends’ engagement party. It also happens to be Tea and Cake Tuesday! Oh, happy day!

This recipe came from a glorious Junior League cookbook from the 80s, Atlanta Cooknotes. Sadly “Aunt Eileen” is not my Aunt Eileen, but perhaps she is Mrs. Wendling Peacock’s.

I recently inherited my grandmother’s Bundt pan, still in its original box, so I was eager to use it.  I have so many memories of chocolate chip cakes made in that pan…

Sadly, I didn’t get a good picture of the cake in its whole Bundt-y form because some of the peaches sunk to the bottom, so it wasn’t that pretty, flawless image that I was looking for.  It was still very delicious and could almost be coffee cakeish.  It suited very nicely for a party that had fruit and punch and cheesecake squares along side.  It’s not overly sweet, but I would still feel weird about serving it for breakfast…if that makes sense.

Aunt Eileen’s Peach Cake
Ingredients
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups sliced fresh peaches (I would make my slices smaller next time to prevent sinking)
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Optional: Confectioner’s sugar for topping

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat eggs and add sugar and oil, mixing well.  Combine flour, salt, and baking powder; add to egg mixture alternately with orange juice (just an FYI, the orange juice to flour ratio is like 1:12). Add vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, toss peaches with sugar and cinnamon.  Pour one third batter into a greased, lightly floured tube or Bundt pan.  Layer one half peach mixture over it.  Cover with one third batter and the remaining peach mixture.  Spread remaining batter over all.  Bake one hour.  Cool cake ten minutes before turning out onto wire rack.