Chocolate Sheet Cake

So when I was growing up my grandma used to make the best chocolate sheet cake ever. It was a staple at everyone's birthday's. She doesn't bake quite as much anymore but my aunt still makes it all the time. I have wanted to get the recipe from her forever and just always forget! Anyways so I was playing around the other day and see Pioneer Women's Chocolate Sheet Cake Recipe and it looked really similar to the one I remembered.

I decided last night I would try it out. It looked really pretty but I was so tired I didn't even taste it! I brought it to work today for all my favorite work friends to try. After checking with my aunt I think the recipe is for the most part the same but the one I remember has a small amount of cinnamon in it! Dang...that would have be good to add! So this one is really good but I hope I can make the family recipe soon...cause it's amazing!

I did have a few mishaps I ran into last night as I was baking. First the recipe calls for buttermilk, which I don't ever have in the fridge and secondly I knew I was going to be cutting it close on the cocoa powder. I decided it was too late for a store run and I would just improvise. For buttermilk, I added 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the milk and waited and few minutes and voila you have buttermilk! For the extra cocoa powder, I was right I was about 3 tablespoons short. So I added 1 ounce (1 bar) of unsweetened chocolate to the butter mixture for the icing.

I think the cake turned out great even with all the changes I had to make! I will say that I think I prefer the one my family makes but this one was great too! I never even had to break the mixer out!

Pioneer Woman Chocolate Sheet Cake

Combine in a mixing bowl:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a saucepan, melt:

2 sticks butter (use the salted butter, if using unsalted make sure to add more salt to the flour mixture)

Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa. Stir together.

Add 1 cup boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In measuring cup, pour 1/2 cup buttermilk.

Add:

2 beaten eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon 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 icing:

Chop 1/2 cup pecans finely. (I omitted these)

Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter in a saucepan.

Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. (I had to improvise and use unsweetened chocolate bars cause I ran out of cocoa powder)

Add:

6 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 lb minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Stir together and pour over warm cake. (Make sure to stir until powdered sugar is completely disolved.)

Cut and enjoy!

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