Quick & easy baking dessert

It sounds similar to a recipe I make for a chocolate pudding cake. I can't remember the exact name but I found it in one of those plastic boxes with the cards that you had to subscribe to. The recipes were from the 70s. You make a batter which goes in first and then a cocoa concoction which you then pour boiling water over. When it comes out of the oven, you have this awesome chocolate pudding-like sauce on bottom and the batter has miraculously made a cake on top.

I will definitely have to try yours! I like chocolate but prefer caramel.

googling this I found out ...

"Somewhere over time it became "Grand-pere" when someone substituted maple syrup for the brown sugar/water mix."

Thanks Luc, I love recipes like that. And I am a chomeur, so I really should try it.:lol: (don't know how to get the little "sir corn flakes" on the o, sorry about the sp)

Thanks Risque for the maple syrup tip too.

Luc, does it have to be made right before serving, or will it sit ok? As in can I make it early in the day, nosh on it all day, then have it still be decent for dinner with the hubby. Or does it need to be served right after, and should I have enough people here to devour the whole thing warm out of the oven.

Thanks for your little bit of Quebecois culture Luc. I miss my times in Quebec, you've conjured very fond memories.

Thanks Luc, sounds like we'll have no problem finishing it the two of us!

We were needing to do a bit of a tour through Quebec to get some artisan cheeses. We have gone all through the cheese route in Vermont, but only recently became aware of the spectrum of small farmstead cheeses in Quebec. Is the syrup season about in late February or later there? I know it depends on the weather and when the sap starts to run. I'm thinking we should time it at the same time. don't mean to hijack your thread with cheese and maple syrup. Will probably make the cake tonight if nothing comes up.

BTW I think Quebecers have the best Christmas eve. I would love to do that one year, but have no more friends there!

Thanks Luc!

yo ho ho and a bottle of rhum...

Hi Luc, made it last night!

I love the little crust on the top of the cake where the remnants of the sugar syrup meets the cake!

It was even more delicious for breakfast soaked in a good Rhum, with a strong coffee. Did the chomeurs have a little hootch around?

(BTW, sorry about the sir corn flakes nonsense... that's how they taught us anglos in school, but I realized I have the wrong accent, the circonflex is the one on the c in ca va? no? I must figure out how to get the accents when I type.)

To me, next time I would bake it nearer the bottom of the oven. I thought maybe I put it in too small a pan (didn't have a 8x8 square, used a round) then I thought that pan was too small so I put that pan inside another pan to catch any drips. The bottom where the caramel met the cake was a little soggy, probably it is always moist, but I think the double pan contributed more. I would also let it stand a little longer before serving, we got into it right away. :p

I think it would be fun for kids too, it was really cool to watch the cake float up through the caramel-water, there's a physics lesson right there. We had Jello 1-2-3 when we were kids, which floated into three layers. Then there were the B-52s in high school, but that's another story...

An interesting recipe, thanks for posting! We didn't have ice cream, just ate it plain comme les chomeurs, I was craving a little something to balance it. The rhum was really good with it, or I have a freezer full of raspberries, maybe something tart like that, unless it is blasphemous to change from it. The quantity of caramel was generous, which is nice for your ice cream. I could see developing a citrusy version of it too as a completely different dessert but with the same fun technique.

BTW, would I be a chomeuse, not a chomeur?

Also BTW, do you do it without greasing the pan too? And is the butter in the cake part at room temp or melted or doesn't matter.

Thanks Luc, and thanks for the recipe, I will definitely make it again. I thought that I bet you don't even have to grease the pan, how cool is that. I took a pic of mine (but I am too technically challenged to post), it looked pretty good, a really nice top surface, so I think I got it right except for the business of the double pan and the bottom.

I was thinking it's also nice that it has only 3 T of butter in the whole cake.