Finally, a dessert that takes the cake... literally...

           We attended a family gathering this past weekend where everybody always brings a side dish or a dessert to share. I’m no different, but my dish usually gets pushed to the back behind the condiments and napkins.

            It’s not like I’m bringing sauerkraut and onions, but my relatives are such fabulous cooks and bakers, my paltry offerings just can’t measure up.

I dream of offering the dish everyone raves about, like my Aunt Claudia’s chocolate sheet cake. When we see that cake, covered with shiny chocolate icing, everybody lines up to make sure they get a square.

The line is just as long for my sister Diane’s scrumptious banana pudding. She shared her recipe with everyone, but nobody comes close to making the dessert the exact way she does. It’s so popular, there’s not even a drop left in the bottom of the bowl.

It’s the same with  my sister-in-law’s desserts. Janet can take chocolate chips, flour, sugar and butter and create cookies Mrs. Fields would envy. Over the years, her desserts have always had center stage and rightly so.

My favorite Janet dessert is her “Striped Delight.” She combines Cool Whip, cream cheese, chocolate pudding and graham crackers together for a dessert I wanted to put into my purse and sneak out the back door with.

She also makes dynamite lemon squares – moist on the top and the crust is flaky and never soggy.

I’ve tried to recreate their desserts so I wouldn’t have to wait for them at Christmas or Easter. My sheet cake looked like Aunt Claudia’s but mine tasted like there was sand in the frosting.

Tried to make the lemon squares, but my crust was like cardboard and I spilled the confectionary sugar all over the floor and counter. That’s when I decided to just wait for Janet’s.

I used the same kind of bowl my sister used for her banana pudding, but all the bananas turned to mush and the vanilla wafers disintegrated. There was plenty left in the bottom of my bowl at the end of the meal. And the next day and the next.

But I saw a recipe for Butterfinger Cake and it looked delicious and easy. Start off by baking a yellow cake in a 13x9-inch pan. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes and then poke holes in the top. Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over the cake, making sure to fill the holes.

Next pour a jar of caramel ice cream topping on top of the cake, saturating the cake with fat and calories. Spread Cool Whip on top of that and then sprinkle the top with crushed Butterfinger candy bars.

What’s not to like?

Apparently  nothing because my cake was the hit of the afternoon.

I stood by my cake with a smile on my face as my cousins came back for seconds and thirds. I proudly declared that dessert to be mine as I watched a young child run his finger along the edges to get every last bit of that cake.

I came home and bragged to my husband that finally something I baked was praised by all.

“Was Janet there?” my husband asked.

Janet caught a stomach virus the night before the party and couldn’t come.

Ego balloon busted.

But the competitor in me says the next time there’s a family gathering and I know Janet and Diane’s desserts will be there, my Butterfinger Cake will take its place at the starting line.

Let the best fat and calorie count win.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.