Cake For A Crowd

I'm scheduling this recipe to post in advance since we're in DC this weekend. Well I hope anyway, as long as they don't cancel our flights because of the snow! Cross your fingers for us and have a great weekend :-)

This is the first Pioneer Woman recipe I've ever made. Who's Pioneer Woman? Well unless you live under a rock then you probably know who she is. I think everyone and their momma in food blog land had made this cake. Am I right? It's been on my "to bake" list for a while but it makes a lot of cake so I had to wait til we had a large family gathering to make this. That just happened to be a couple weeks ago. And while there were 12 of us there, I still had cake leftover!

Let me start by saying that I liked this cake. But was it the "Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever."? My answer is simply no. Don't get me wrong, this cake was very good but I would make a few changes next time. I would grease the pan (the recipe says not to) and the cake stuck a little bit. I would also bake it in a deeper pan like a 9x13. I guess then it wouldn't be called a sheet cake, would it?

The cake was very thin and once you add the frosting on top it starts to soak in a bit. As it cools it gets almost fudgey. It reminded me of a Little Debbie frosted brownie. Seriously how many people did I just offend by that statement?! I didn't mind the texture but I wish there was more cake to icing ratio. Speaking of icing, I opted to leave the nuts out since my cousin is allergic to them, but I made a smaller version in a mini loaf pan for Mr. H that had nuts in the frosting.

I make a Texas sheet cake every year for Mr. H's birthday that is very similar to this except that I add cinnamon to the frosting, so I did that here as well. Because if you haven't tried cinnamon and chocolate together then you are really missing out. Granted my version involves a cake mix and some of you may not like that but my husband much prefers it over this cake. But I think it was because of the texture and density of this cake not flavor. There are a ton of people out there that love this cake so make it this weekend for your football loving friends and see for yourself.

Chocolate Sheet Cake from PW

FOR THE CAKE:

• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Boiling Water
• ½ cups Buttermilk
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla

FOR FROSTING:

• ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
• 1-¾ stick Butter
• 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon (my addition)

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together. Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing: Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.

Allow to cool before slicing into squares.