Texas Sheet Cake

While my family was still living in Georgia, my good friend Christine made a Texas Sheet Cake for her son's birthday.  It was the first time I had ever had Texas Sheet Cake.  It was sooooo good.  Then just last month, when my Dad gave me Ann Romney's cookbook I couldn't wait to flip through it and as I was looking through all her recipes I was so excited to see a Texas Sheet Cake recipe.  It had never dawned on me to look up a recipe online, and I'm glad I didn't because her version of this cake is ah-mazing.  

The frosting is also so easy and so good.

My kids didn't mind licking the bowl clean.

Now the trick is to frosting the cake while it's still hot.  You need to be careful because it will start to pull the cake up if you press down too hard since it's still hot, but by icing it hot it allows the icing to seep down into the teeny-tiny holes in the cake.  Oh so yummy.

 Then you cut it up and serve these little beauties and I promise, people will be coming back for more.  It was dangerous having the whole thing sitting on my counter because I kept going back to even it up.  A bad problem to have?  Some say yes, I say no!

Texas Sheet Cake

Yield: One 10x15-inch jelly roll pan

Ingredients

Cake

1 cup butter, softened

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup water

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten

pinch of salt

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter

6 tablespoons milk

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease a 10x15-inch jelly roll pan with cooking spray.

In a saucepan, over medium-heat, combine the butter, cocoa and water.  Bring to a boil and then remove from heat.  Sift together the flour and sugar over a bowl.  Pour into a stand mixer then pour the butter mixture on top.  Mix well.  Add buttermilk, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, eggs, and salt. Beat well.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes.  Five minutes before the cake is done start to prepare the Chocolate Frosting.

For the frosting:

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the milk, cocoa, and vanilla.  Bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and gradually add the powdered sugar.  Mix well.  Frost the cake while the cake is still hot.

Recipe Source: The Romney Family Table Cookbook