January 18th, 2010
Make a wish
My 27th birthday came and went. A Sunday birthday is rarely awesome, unless you get MLK Day off on the Monday after, but that hasn’t happened since I was in college because my places of employment since entering the real world don’t observe MLK Day (in the form of a day off, anyway). At any rate, plans to go out Saturday night coincided with a New Orleans Saints playoff win so I was slightly out of place wearing my super cute new off-the-shoulder sweater shirt since it wasn’t black and gold but we all made the best of it. Huge props to my girls from work who hung in there with me past midnight despite having been celebrating the Saints since 10am that morning. Truly impressive ladies….
I did, however, make a Snackin’ Cake, which was the highlight of my Sunday. I tried to make it Saturday but apparently no stores in Harahan carry powdered sugar. I don’t know what that is all about but I didn’t have time to go on a mission Saturday afternoon so I trekked to Metairie on Sunday and thank goodness Metairie grocery stores had it available.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post. While it was very sweet of my boss’s wife to put candles in a King Cake (read: Official cake of Mardi Gras season) and have her family sing happy birthday to me, no birthday in my world is complete without a Snackin’ Cake. For those of you not familiar with the aforementioned cake, I give you the below story.
Snackin’ Cake (or Snakin’ Cake, as it is sometimes called because someone inadvertently left out the ‘c’ when transcribing the recipe) is also known by other names like Texas Sheet Cake. However, I like to refer to it as Snackin’ Cake because once you have a piece, you continually go back to the pan and cut off a tiny little chunk to satisfy the craving for more, without having to “over-indulge” in a second piece. However, often times, one winds up cutting so many “snack-size” pieces that eventually you have practically eaten 4 pieces. But somehow, eating multiple snack-size pieces (often over the kitchen sink, sans plate, for breakfast the next morning) is totally justifiable as opposed to just cutting yourself another whole piece. Thus, it is a cake on which you snack, being dubbed “Snackin’ Cake.”
My mother (or any other woman in my family, for that matter) may have another story as to the name of this recipe but that’s what I’m telling my kids some day so let’s roll with that for a while. All I know for sure is that it’s chocolate-ly, doesn’t have the thick and heavy (read: disgusting sugary) grocery store frosting and one sheet cake can almost feed my family but two are recommended, which is no problem because, *bonus* it’s really easy and fast to make it from scratch.
Ingredients-
Cake:
3 tablespoons of cocoa
1 cup of water
1 cup of butter
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup of sour cream (or buttermilk)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Frosting:
3 teaspoons of cocoa
1/2 cup of butter
1/3 cup of milk
powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat the over to 350 degrees.
In a saucepan, melt the cocoa, water and butter; bring to a boil. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour and baking soda. Pour the cocoa mix over the sugar/flour and mix well. In a small bowl, mix the (beaten) eggs, sour cream and vanilla. I do this in a smaller, separate bowl because I don’t want the eggs to start cooking because of the heat in the cocoa mix. Once the eggs, sour cream and vanilla are combined, add it to the previous ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a greased sheet pan (18x12x1, roughly). Bake for 20-25 minutes.
While the cake is baking, begin making the frosting. In the same saucepan as used in the cake, combine cocoa, butter and milk and bring to a boil. Add powdered sugar until spreading consistency and mix well. Frost cake immediately after removing it from the oven. Serves 24, but be advised, people are probably going to want more than one piece.
Let the deliciousness ensue. You can thank me later.
