I guess some months are for crafting and some are for cooking/baking - funny . . .
Anyway, I baked a cake called Texas Sheet Cake for Enrichment - I've never made one before and I don't recall ever eaten a piece either - so my impression was it must not be that tasty ;)
The recipe was:
Mix 2 cups flour and 2 cups sugar in a bowl
Boil together:
1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup water & 4 tbsp cocoa
Then add:
1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon
I altered it to:
2 cups cake flour - sifted
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl.
1 cup butter
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Bring the butter, milk and chips to a boil. Remove from heat. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Combine above 4 ingredients and add to cooled butter mixture. Whisk together until batter is
creamy.
Add to dry ingredients. Add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and then to greased jelly roll pan.
Bake 350 degrees on convection oven for 20-25 minutes.
Then of course I had to make my own frosting too:
Frosting was:
1/2 cup butter, 2 tbsp cocoa, 1/3 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 4 oz cream cheese.
Mine:
1/2 cup butter
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups powdered sugar
6 oz cream cheese
I melted the butter, chips, cream and 3 oz of the cream cheese together until chips were melted and mixture was smooth. Then I added the vanilla. I let it cool for 10 minutes or so and transferred it from a pot to my mixer. I beat in the powdered sugar and remaining 3 oz cream cheese.
And it's finger lickin' good - forget using that saying for fried chicken ;) Oh yeah, I guess frosting isn't typically a 'finger food' - haha
I decided to decorate the top with some fun layers - chocolate curls, cocoa and roasted pecans (I baked a bag of chopped pecans naked and then added 2 tbsp butter to them, then added 2 tbsp sugar - I know most people add those 2 ingredients to nuts before baking them - but it is super yum this way too).
The chocolate curls photo could be a stock photo ;) I like it! Best tool was indeed the potato peeler.
I measured out some lines and used dental floss as my guide since it's pretty sterile - I use floss in the kitchen quite often actually:
Here's when I had 3 toppings on the frosting:
So, it probably doesn't look anything like a Texas Sheet Cake - but I had fun ;) And I tasted the frosting and it's SO yummy - so I'm really hoping the cake part is good too!
Are you noticing my lines aren't straight? Well, let's move past that - can't wait to taste it at Enrichment on Thursday! I have to remember and save a piece to bring home to Jonathan =)
Now to try and find something to keep it covered without lifting the frosting or toppings off later . . .
