THE BEST CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE. EVER.
CAKE:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 cup boiling water
- ½ cup buttermilk (Or use this tip to make a buttermilk substitute: Place 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. Add enough regular milk to bring the liquid up to the 1/2 cup line. Let stand for 5 minutes, then use in the recipe.)
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
FROSTING:
- 1 3/4 sticks butter
- 4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
- 6 Tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pound (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar (about 3 to 3 1/4 cups)
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts, optional (Jane did not use nuts in her frosting and it was great…so if you don’t like nuts, leave them out!)
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
Melt butter in a saucepan and 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 13 x 18″ sheet cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (if using a 10 x 15″ jelly roll pan, you may need to bake 22 to 23 minutes). NOTE: I greased my pan, but you’ll note that the Pioneer Woman’s recipe doesn’t say to do that, you be the judge.
While cake is baking, make the icing. If using nuts (I never use nuts in this recipe), chop them 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 nuts, stir together, and pour over warm cake. (NOTE: if you follow these directions, you’ll notice your frosting is still a little lumpy. To make frosting really nice and smooth, just simply cook the frosting several minutes longer over low heat, stirring until the mixture is smooth. Another option if you decide to use nuts is to leave them out of the frosting mixture and sprinkle them on top of the icing instead). If you made your cake in a 13 x 18″ pan, pour on all the frosting–you may need to spread it a little so it covers the entire cake; if your cake is in a 10 x 15″ pan, just pour enough frosting on to cover the surface of the cake without going over the edges of the pan. You’ll probably have about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of frosting left over (save for another desert).
You can let the frosting cool and set before cutting into squares if you want, or cut into squares while it’s still warm and dig in! The frosting will start setting in about a half hour, but it needs between 1 and 2 hours to set more firmly; at 2 hours, it should be nice and firm.
