Blackberry cake for everyone

Yesterday I went to the State store to buy a bottle of wine. When I walked in I was feeling nostalgic so in addition to the bottle of dark red to be opened after the kiddos went to bed I also bought this:

Mogen David Blackberry "wine" with a side of Bee.

My grandparents used to take a glass of this on the odd nights. When I twisted the top off and poured a glass I couldn't quite place the flavor... sort of grapey but not really... mostly it just tasted like "purple".  Purple popsicles,  purple cough syrup, purple "grape" soda. Which made sense. After my mother got sick I used to help by doing my grandparents' shopping once a week. A typical grocery list would be something like:

1 lb grapes

2 bags barbecue potato chips

2 packages frozen toaster strudels

1 case grape soda

I remember once piling all of the above onto the grocery lane at Aldi and having the cashier ask me if I was throwing a kid's birthday party. Um, no, just shopping for my elderly grandparents.

Don't get me wrong, all of their children brought dinners over every night. The fridge was overflowing.   I was tasked with buying their snack food for watching Judge Judy and Bonanza.

What the hell, I say with a shrug. When I'm that age I'll probably demand gin, Vienna sausages and Velveeta. With age comes certain privalages.

But back to the wine: it was horrid. Nope. Just, no.

 Good thing I have my Great Aunt Faye's Blackberry wine cake recipe in my back pocket.  My grandma's younger sister, a proper southern lady, she got this recipe from a church picnic. Of course.

Aunt Faye was as gentle and gracious a woman as my grandmother.  She lived in North Carolina but only a few miles off the interstate so we tried to visit whenever we went south for vacation.  I copied this recipe sitting at her kitchen table.  She excelled at cross stitch, weaving baskets and cooking.

It does not taste like blackberries.

The batter is baked in a bundt cake pan and then glazed.  If you close your eyes and forget about nutritional value it tastes like heaven. With lots of purple clouds resembling cotton candy.