Sunday, January 13, 2008

Spiced Chocolate Sheet Cake

I have a no-fail Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe that came to me from my Aunt Kay, who had an over-the-top personality and could make a mean Texas Sheet Cake. I took her recipe and added in cardamom and cinnamon to warm it up a bit. This cake can be made several days in advance and continues to get better each day. It freezes well, too. It really is the best chocolate cake recipe ever, I think.

Spiced Chocolate Sheet Cake
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
4 T Dutch-processed cocoa (regular is fine if you're in a pinch)
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (Use a strongly spiced one like Vietnamese Cassia)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Butter and flour a sheet pan.

Melt butter, shortening, cocoa and water in saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Cool slightly off heat. Sift remaining dry ingredients in a bowl. In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk and vanilla. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients until just combined. Batter will be thin. Pour into prepared sheet pan and bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. While cake is warm ice with:

Chocolate icing
4 T Dutch-process cocoa
1/4 cup cream
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 box powdered sugar

Sift powdered sugar into a large bowl. Melt cocoa, cream and butter in saucepan, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over sugar and beat to smooth consistency. Let cool slightly and beat again. Pour over cake with both are still warm.

Chris Freeland
cfreeland27 (at) gmail.com

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