Texas Sheet Cake

While cruising around some blogs, I kept seeing recipes for Texas Sheet Cake popping up. I've heard of the cake, but that's it. Now I was curious. What's the big deal about this cake? Oh boy, did I ever find out! I decided to not use any of the recipes I came across but instead found one under Southern Food on About.com- one of my favorite sites. As I made it, I kept thinking that the recipe was too simple to be anything spectacular. But the cake that came out of my oven was out of this world good! And Texas-sized huge, too! I reserved some for my family then sent the rest with the hubby to work. Both places had no more cake by the end of the day. You gotta try this one!

Texas Sheet Cake

1 cup butter

1 cup water

1/4 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1/8 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine butter, water and cocoa in a saucepan over med. heat. Heat until butter melts. Add sugar, flour, salt, eggs, soda, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into a 15 x 10 x 1- inch jelly roll pan (it really does fit!). Bake for 20 minutes.

Frosting

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup cocoa

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk

1 box confectioner's sugar (1 pound), sifted (4 1/4 cups, sifted)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Combine butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan. Bring to boil. Add remaining ingredients and mix well with electric mixer. Spread over the hot sheet cake. Sprinkle with chopped pecans, if desired.

"I thought I knew Texas pretty well, but I had no notion of its size until I campaigned it."
-Ann Richards