To celebrate Young Author’s Day, my son and I decided to create a unique recipe based on one of our favorite books,  Sweet Dream Pie, by Audrey Wood. Her husband illustrates most of her books and together they are an amazing team. Our favorite party of the story is when Ma Brindle bakes the Sweet Dream Pie for her husband. Everything sweet that you can imagine is mixed into the pie – candy corn, licorice, candy bars, red hots and more. Just the smell of the pie puts all of the neighbors basically in a trance waiting for their slice of pie.

My son is not a fan of pie, so he decided we’d concoct our own version in the form of a cake. I used a basic cake batter recipe, but  had NO idea if this was going to be what we he had envisioned.  Suprisingly, the recipe evolved into a coffee cake that was good enough for Willy Wonka to serve at his holiday brunch. It was very moist and the bits of melted chocolate and carmel made it a yummy treat.

Sweet Dream Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup finely chopped candy bars *
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:The first direction is to make it your own. Stick with the basic ingredients and measurements, but experiment with different candies and cake pans. Preheat oven to 350° F. Combine flour, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in medium bowl; blend softened butter with paddle attachment on your mixer, or use two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Transfer 1/2 cup flour mixture to medium bowl; stir in 1/2 cup of the chopped candy bars and set aside (this will be the crumb topping for the top of the cake). 

Stir the remaining ingredients (except for the left over 1/2 c of chocolate bars) into remaining flour mixture. Mix until just blended. Pour 1/2 of the batter into greased pan; sprinkle the remaining chocolate pieces on top; Pour the rest of the batter on top of the chocolate bits. Sprinkle evenly with candy bar flour mixture for the topping. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in a cake pan (about 20 minutes if you use mini cake pans) or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack.

* We used Snickers, Twix, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.