Hannah’s 2nd Note: This cake rises about an inch and a half, so make sure the sides of your cake pan are tall enough.

Pour the cake batter into the pan. Then sprinkle the following on the top, in this order, BEFORE baking:

Cake Topping:

12 ounces milk chocolate chips (2 cups)

1 cup white (granulated) sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (you can use any nuts you like—Norman prefers walnuts—I prefer pecans)

Bake your cake at 325 degrees F. for 80 minutes, or until you test it and it’s done.

Testing Your Cake for Doneness:

Use a long toothpick or a cake tester to tell if your cake is done. If you insert it one inch from the center of the cake, it should come out clean without batter sticking to it. If it doesn’t, bake your cake in additional 5-minute increments until your tester comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven.

Hannah’s 3rd Note: If you happen to stick the toothpick in and hit a chocolate chip, it’ll come out covered with melted chocolate—just wipe it off and stick it in again to test the actual cake batter.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack or a cold stove burner. It can be served slightly warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Hannah’s 4th Note: If you want to be fancy, cut this cake into pieces, put it on dessert plates, and top each piece with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream. Then garnish the whipped cream with chocolate shavings or chocolate curls scraped from a milk chocolate candy bar. Alternatively, if you don’t want to use chocolate, you can top each slice with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream and put a red maraschino cherry on top.

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Hannah wasn’t sure what had awakened her. Perhaps it was the bluish-white light that had begun to glow at the foot of her bed, turning the dark night into something foreign, something unknown.

“Dad?” she asked, sitting up in bed.

“I’m here, Honey-bear. Or at least I’m almost here. Give me a minute to pull myself together, okay?”

Hannah wanted to laugh, but she was too amazed to do anything but stare. Her father was pulling himself together, right before her very eyes. The bluish-white cloud was forming itself into an oval. Once the oval was roughly her father’s height, appendages began to grow, four of them in the proper places for arms and legs. The head was next, popping up from the top of the oval like a balloon on a string being jerked from above.

“Almost there,” the head said in her father’s voice. “They let me come to visit you again. I’m playing the Ghost of Christmas Present tonight. And all I have to do for the favor is to barbecue for the AITs next week.”

“The AITs?”