Texas Sheet Cake. With a Kick.

So for Valentine’s Day I wanted to do something special for the office.  I thought of making iced sugar cookies.  Or rice crispy treats cut into heart shapes and dipped in chocolate.  Both of those ideas sounded so good, but alas, I don’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter.  And I don’t have any rice crispies on hand.  In an effort to use only ingredients I already had, I started brainstorming about what decadent treat I could make.  Brownies?  Too common.  Truffles?  Too labor intensive.  Texas Sheet Cake?  Perfect.  We’ve been making various versions of Texas Sheet Cake pretty much my whole life.  This recipe is halved from the original and slightly spiced up.  To say the very least, it was a hit with everyone at the office… gone before lunch. :)

 

Texas Sheet Cake

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1/2 cup of coffee
1 egg lightly beaten
1/4 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Stir the sugar and flour together with a whisk in a bowl.  Melt the butter on low in a saucepan, and when melted add cocoa and coffee and heat until boiling.  Pour cocoa mix over sugar and flour and mix well with a spoon.  Add egg, buttermilk, vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda and cayenne, and mix well with a spoon.  Pour batter into greased 8x8 inch pan (or a heart-shaped pan!), and bake for about 30 minutes, checking it at 20 minutes.  Pour icing (recipe to follow) over cake when you take it out of the oven.

Icing
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons of cocoa
3 tablespoons of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup of chopped pecans (optional)
2+ cups powdered sugar

Right before cake is done, bring the butter, cocoa and milk to a boil .  Remove from heat and mix in sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nuts (if using).  Mix well, and then spread over cake while both are still warm.