This giveaway is closed. The winner is Lisa R. who commented, “We love our homemade strawberry cheesecake.” Thanks to everyone who entered!

Be sure to read the end of this post; I’m giving away a $50 Visa gift card just in time for the holidays!

Once we flip our calendar to December (yes I still have an old school wall calendar just for the girls and their social diva in training activities like bowling), we are pretty well booked every weekend. One of my favorite things about the holidays is visiting with family and friends we don’t get to see often.

Let’s face it, though, the patience level of kids falls off the face of the planet during the holidays. Even just a half-hour drive across town to have lunch with friends quickly disintegrates into “Are we there yet?” And that’s just as you’re pulling out of your driveway.

That’s when you crank the Christmas music and hand out bribes, I mean cookies. This is all, of course, just intended to raise your sweet darlings’ blood sugar. I would never condone parenting via bribery! (Ahem.) A few crumbs in your back seat is worth the silence.

It’s always good to arrive with a little housewarming gift and what better way to say you care about someone than to bring chocolate?

Here’s my mother’s famous fudge cake recipe, a holiday favorite that goes back to 1967 for my family!

Mama’s Famous Fudge Cake

Beat 4 eggs, add 2 cups sugar, 1 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 4 squares of melted baking chocolate, 1 tsp. vanilla – add 2 cups of flour with 1 tsp baking powder and 1/1/2 tsp salt and 1 cup of chopped nuts.

Line a large greased pan with two pieces of paper towel – then two pieces of wax paper on top of that.   The cake would burn if you did not do this!!

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes – turn oven off and leave in oven 5 minutes. Cool slightly before turning out on counter (I turn mine out on a chop block).

Icing

Melt 1 stick margarine, 3 squares chocolate and 12 marshmallows

Add 3 tsp of milk  and 1 tsp vanilla. When melted and warm add 1 box of confectionary sugar – blend well.   You may need a little more milk.

Spread on cake.  For thicker icing you can add 2 cups miniature marshmallows to the icing (my mom says she never does this, though.)

Cool and cut into squares and keep well covered.

Enjoy!

Would you like to be entered in a drawing for a Visa $50 gift card? Simply leave a comment on this post about one of your family’s favorite holiday desserts. For an extra comment, post about this giveaway to Twitter (but do leave a comment here telling me you’ve done so.) A random winner will be drawn from all eligible comments (U.S. addresses only) by midnight Wednesday, December 16. I’ll get this in the mail to you ASAP for last-minute holiday shopping!

This post was sponsored by Viva Towels. For fun, fork-free recipes – including videos – and snappy entertaining ideas, get over to the VIVA® Diva Café.)