We have a birthday coming up this next week around our camp, and while birthdays perhaps don’t have the same allure today as they did back at age 10 or 11, there’s still cause for celebration (hells bells, simply being alive during another spring fly fishing season brings ample cause for celebration).
She Who Must Be Obeyed and I took a little stroll down memory lane this past week, thinking back to family birthday celebrations over the years.
For years our kids, sharing the exact same birthday (born a year apart), would have a group party with always what seemed to be an explosion of kids running around the house at full speed and full volume.
It became a tradition back in those days to serve up this South Texas Sheet Cake, though we ended up always having to make two as parents coming and going would always end up begging, bartering, or stealing a piece on the way out.
Southern food historians would no doubt argue this isn’t purely Texan, but somehow the name Texas Sheet Cake has stuck. There are several hundred recipes for this floating around out there, this is one we’ve refined and tweaked over the years, with recent (and damned helpful) input from Chef Libby in Austin.
Don’t be put off by its humble appearance, this one needs to be in your files and will make you a river trip / picnic / birthday / office party hero. The instructions look long – you can stir this one together in under 10 minutes.
2 cups AP flour
4 ounces good unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup salted butter
1 cup strong brewed coffee
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamonFrosting
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, see below
1/2 cup (or more) finely chopped pecans
Preheat the oven to 350.
Pour the flour into a large mixing bowl and set aside. Combine the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda and cinnamon; set aside.
Over medium heat in a large saucepan, combine the chocolate, butter and coffee; stir pretty much constantly until the chocolate and butter are melted.
Now lower the heat and stir in both sugars until dissolved, then remove from heat.
Stir in the buttermilk mixture until well combined, then pour over the flour in the large mixing bowl and combine well.
Pour into an 18×13 sheet cake pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 (or until toothpick inserted comes out clean).
Meanwhile, make the frosting. Melt the stick of unsalted butter in a saucepan then stir in the cocoa; turn off the heat.
Now stir in 1/4 cup coffee, the vanilla and the powdered sugar; it should be thin enough to pour (add more coffee if needed). Stir in the pecans.
As soon as the cake is out of the oven, pour the frosting over it and spread to cover.
Let it cool, cut into squares and go to it.
Enjoy.
