Texas sheet cake

Natalie and I were talking about cake this morning. She hasn't been tempted in the least by having the remains of the ill-fated BD cake from Costco in her fridge. It was a white cake with strawberry mousse filling and I can tell you that would have done more than tempt me -- I would have succumbed!! I love that kind of cake. Not so with Natalie. It has to be chocolate to spur much interest from her. So we got talking about Texas sheet cake, which I made for Sunday dinner about a week ago. It is SO good and that is the one chocolate cake that I simply can't turn down. There are many recipes out there that are similar and probably really good but this is the recipe I use:

Texas Sheet Cake

1 c. butter

1 t. soda

3 heaping T. cocoa

1 c. water

2 eggs, beaten

2 c. flour

dash of salt

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. buttermilk*

Mix butter, cocoa and water in a pan. Bring to a boil, then set aside to cool. Mix sugar, flour, salt, soda, eggs and buttermilk * Stir in cocoa mix. DO NOT GREASE PAN. Pour into 11 x 15 jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Ice while hot.

Icing:

Melt 1 stick butter and 3 heaping T. cocoa. Add:

6 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 box powdered sugar (3 and 3/4 c.)

nuts if desired

Pour over hot cake.

* You can use real buttermilk but mostly I just use Saco Buttermilk blend, the powdered stuff that you add to water and it works the same.