Sticky Cherry Pudding Cake and My Sister

"Kaylee is constipated...sigh". That is what my sweet younger sisters status update on Facebook read the other day after I hacked it. Well, not really hacked. She left her account up and running on my computer. She had to fly into town last minute from Seattle, where she currently lives to attend a funeral while I was away in Arizona. She stayed in my house. She used Facebook on my computer and never logged out. Oops. I'm mean like that sometimes but I can't help myself because I think it's so dang funny! Plus, I'm nice enough to not put anything too incredibly embarrassing. She had it coming anyway. She was a horrific child.

I grew up kind of ghetto. Not that it has a whole lot to do with it but it lays a backdrop for my defense. I sent Kaylee, a text not too long before the hacking episode from my husbands phone that said "It's Krysta. I'm at the Rio telling everyone what a weird, funny and bitchy little girl you were. We were reliving your Pocahontas 7th birthday party when you didn't let Chantal swim. Also when I spanked you so hard it gave you welts. And when Mom and Dave used to leave us home on Saturdays to clean while they went out and how you got on my nerves so bad that I locked you outside naked when I couldn't spank you anymore. These are my childhood memories" I'm sort of a long winded texter. I have a really great relationship with my sister now and we had a good laugh about it. But, I'm not lying when I say when I say she was a really rude kid. My Aunt Jenny has the video of Kaylee's 7th birthday pool party. It was Pocahontas themed like I previously stated. In one scene of the video Kaylee's friend Chantal is seen sitting in a yard chair, towel wrapped around her body, hair wet, longingly looking out at the pool. She's shivering and her lip is quivering. Not really, I'm just making it more dramatic. Anyway, My Grandpa is shooting the video and says "Why Chantal, why aren't you swimming?" Chantal looks up into the camera with puppy dog eyes and says sweetly "Kaylee won't let me"...cut to Kaylee swimming alone in the huge pool with smug look on her face, staring down the camera as if saying "to hell with you Grandpa, what are you going to say? After all it is MY birthday". Grandpa continues to film Kaylee selfishly swimming alone and mutters "Kaylee, you mean ole thing" or something like that under his breath. It's hysterical. There is another part where she is opening her presents and as she is ripping the paper and spies what the object is she starts snottily bragging "I knew it! I just kneeeeewww it!" in the most annoying I want to smack your face voice ever. Then there's the other part where my other little sister, Brittany who was like 2 at the time is trying to "help" Kaylee open her presents. Kaylee, no joke, turns seemingly into the devil and screams at the very top of her lungs, violently, right into Brittany's face "STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She flips a shiznit. It's scary. And hilarious.

This is me and my punk sister: I look tired and green. I probably am.

Don't worry, I got her back. In that text where I refer to locking her outside naked? Well we lived in an apartment complex that was set up in a circle around a courtyard so everyone could see everyone else. The day I locked Kaylee outside, Nick, her crush for years, was outside playing. He was laughing. It was awesome. She really was a brat, you see. She was supposed to be helping me clean our room and she just refused. Not only refused but sat and taunted me about how she was not helping or going to. This was the only punishment I could think of since I couldn't spank her. And she wasn't really "naked". She had Little Mermaid underwear on. I'm not totally indecent.

I'm not ghetto anymore just in case you were wondering. Neither is Kaylee. But Kaylee does remind me of cherries and in what has to be the worst segway in the history of mankind, I will now talk to you about sticky cherry pudding cake.

This is the stuff of dreams. I had you at the name didn't I? Sticky (always good when describing something sweet) Cherry (cherry desserts are insane) Pudding Cake (needs no explanation). I saw this on the Pioneer Woman website and couldn't stop thinking about it. I might have made it the day I saw it. How could I not? It was very moist, as it should be and very, very sweet in a good way. I topped it with unsweetened whipped cream because between the sweet cake and really sweet, sticky red sauce, it was...well, sweet. The unsweetened cream cut through the sweetness and grounded it. This is really easy to whip up and can easily be doubled for a bigger pan to feed more people. That is, if you don't eat it all yourself. And you could. With this dessert, it's a real danger. (Kaylee, keep reading until the bottom after the recipe)

Sticky Cherry Pudding Cake

adapted from ThePioneerWomanCooks.com, Ree Drummond

Serves 6

• Cake
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ⅛ teaspoons Salt
• ½ cups Whole Milk
• 1 can (15 Ounces) Cherries In Syrup (NOT Cherry Pie Filling) Drained, Juice Reserved
• ½ cups Pecans, Finely Chopped
• Sauce:
• 1 cup Juice From Cherries (add Water To Make 1 Cup If Necessary)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• ½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• Unsweetened Freshly Whipped Cream

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Generously butter a square 9 x 9-inch baking dish.

Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and mix well. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt then add to mixing bowl alternatively with milk. Add cherries and chopped nuts and mix gently. Pour batter into buttered pan and smooth out the surface. Bake for 40 minutes, or until golden brown on the surface and no longer jiggly.

While cake is baking, make the sauce by combining cherry juice, sugar, and flour in a small saucepan. Boil for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thick. Turn off heat and stir in 1 tablespoon butter and vanilla extract.

Drizzle 1/3 of the sauce on the cake as soon as you remove it from the oven. Spread to distribute over the surface and wait ten minutes before serving so the sauce will seep into the top of the cake a bit.

Spoon out pieces of warm, sticky cake and top with unsweetened whipped cream. Your welcome.

Kaylee, I love you and miss you, sister! If you were here I'd give you a big hug and you would sit on my lap while I played with your hair and we would giggle. Actually, that would not happen at all because over the top public displays of affection between sisters make us both uncomfortable. Especially, if it involves hair. Although didn't you dedicate the song "Wind Beneath My Wings" to me once? That's pretty cheesy. And isn't my ring tone when you call, "I'll Stand By You"? It is. Maybe we are just affectionate in a different way. Not the physical way. Definitely NOT the physical way. OK, but seriously, you'll always be my NMKMSD. That's what I wrote in the dedication for her senior year book for all of you who don't know. She used to babysit my kids a lot when she lived with us while in high school. It stands for "Nurse Maid Kaylee, Master Snoop Dogg". Because that's what I called her. Sometimes I'd just shorten it to "Nurse Maid" and would yell things across the house at her. Stuff like "Yo, nurse maid! Jeremiah needs a diaper change. Get on it!" That's more our style. It's how we roll.