I believe it was my uncle Bob who made Crown Royal a thing for our family gatherings. It could have been Bill. I just know that between the two of them, they managed to get the rest of us to drink it. Since I like to bake, of course I had to pour it into a cake.
Chocolate is our go to flavor for dessert. We like fudge and brownies and hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies and chocolate ice cream and… and…
So here we have combined the two and ended up with
The Billy Bob Pound Cake
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1/2 cup crisco (or an additional stick of butter)
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
6 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate syrup
1/2 cup Crown Royal or Maple Crown Royal
smoked bourbon sugar, if desired*
Preheat oven to 325*F. Butter and flour a bundt pan or two loaf pans and set aside.
Beat the butter and Crisco together. Add the sugar and cocoa. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add vanilla. Add the flour in thirds to the egg mixture and alternate with the chocolate syrup and Crown Royal.
Pour batter into a prepared bundt pan or the two loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto cake plate.
*if you wish to, you may dust the top with smoked bourbon sugar. This can be found at specialty food stores like Southern Seasons in Chapel Hill or a Fresh Market. It can also be purchased at various sites online.