I have been craving this cake since Saturday night. We had an impromptu picnic in the front yard with our neighbors and somewhere the topic of chocolate sheet cake came up. The kids played basketball. We ordered pizza. The parents had a glass of wine. OK, Stella and I had the wine. I have no idea why I feel guilty about this, a girl can drink some wine. It must be the Catholic guilt thing. I am constantly confessing my sins.
Some people have a huge box, bulging with recipes they have collected over the years. I have some that are paper clipped together. I hate to cook, but I will share with you the recipe for the cake that I cook when on that rare occasion I feel inspired. This cake is so darn good. It makes me weep. Every woman should have a chocolate cake recipe in her repertoire that makes her weep. I have no idea where the recipe came from. It has been around forever. Every Southern woman makes it. I am only doing my duty as a Texan to make sure you have it too! Here it is:
Texas Sheet Cake
Batter
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter
1 c. water
3 tbsp. cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
Sift together flour, sugar, and salt. In a saucepan, combine butter, water, and cocoa. Bring to a boil and pour over the flour and sugar mixture. In another bowl, mix eggs, soda, buttermilk and vanilla. Add to above mixture and mix well. Bake in a greased and floured shallow pan. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
Icing
1 stick butter
3 tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. milk
1 box powdered sugar
1 c. nuts, chopped (pecans finely chopped)
1 tsp. vanilla
Start icing the last 5 minutes cake is baking. Mix butter, cocoa and milk in saucepan. Heat over low heat. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add sugar, nuts, and vanilla. Mix well. Frost cake as soon as removed from oven. The warm icing and cake will perfectly blend together for ooey-gooey goodness (that isn’t part of the original recipe, I added it)
Makes 24 servings or 48 party size squares. (oh,what a party!)
Stella, I will send my boy down tomorrow with some cake. If you aren’t home, he’ll leave it on the front porch!
Enjoy!
Well someone couldn’t even wait for it to cool off before they took a nimble!
This is soooo much more convenient than digging thru my mom’s bulging box of recipes!! Thanks Laura! 🙂