White Texas Sheet Cake

I had the occasion to make yet another birthday cake recently. My specialty, chocolate cake, was notrequested. The birthday girl wanted a WHITE cake with WHITE frosting. I decided to try yet another new recipe – this time for a White Texas Sheet Cake. I’d tasted something called this back in my working-office days and thought it was moist and scrumptious. I should have known it wouldn’t be great as I had taken it from the same cookbook that had given me the Waldorf Astoria Frosting fiasco not too much before! Alas, while the cake and frosting looked nice, they were too sweet and dense to choke down much of, no matter how small the pieces were. I ended up throwing half of it out. I’ll give you the recipe so that you can compare with any you have and don’t suffer the same fate. DON’T MAKE THIS ONE!

 

White Texas Sheet Cake
1 c butter or margarine
1 c water
2 c flour
2 c sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c sour cream
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Frosting:
1/2 c butter or margarine
1/4 c milk
4 1/2 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 c chopped walnuts (optional – I didn’t use them)

In a large saucepan, bring butter and water to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour into a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 375°F for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown and tests done. (I used a 9×13 pan and baked 35-40 minutes. Was this my downfall?) Cool for 20 minutes. Meanwhile for frosting, combine butter and milk in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, add sugar and extract, mix well. (Optional – stir in walnuts.) Spread over warm cake.

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Funny line at the end of the recipe: “This cake gets better the longer it sits, best made a day ahead.” All of us had a piece of cake the night I made it and it seemed fine. The next day and almost two weeks later (when I tried hard to get someone – anyone – to take another piece), no one (even me) could swallow more than two bites at a sitting. It was dense and super sweet, even without the frosting. Definitely got WORSE with time.

Chocolate Cake + White(?) Frosting

I had a birthday cake to make again and a chocolate one was requested. I tried a new recipe and it worked great. Here’s the recipe, courtesy Gold Medal Flour’s “Alpha Bakery Children’s Cookbook”

Xx is for “Xtra-Special” Celebration Cake
3 c all-purpose flour
2 c sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 t baking sode
1 t salt
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 t vinegar
1 t vanilla
2 c cold water

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two round pans, 9 x 1 1/2 inches; dust with flour.
2. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
3. Mix oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir oil mixutre and water into flour mixture real hard until well blended, about one minute. Immediately pour batter into pans, dividing equally.
4. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes; let cool 10 minutes.
5. Remove from pans; let cake cool completely. Fill and frost cake.

White frosting was also requested, so I found two different (new) recipes. I don’t usually do white frosting. I went ahead and tried the “Waldorf Astoria” one and failed miserably. The flour-milk mix was supposed to be very thick. It was thick, but probably not thick enough. The butter-sugar mix was supposed to be fluffy. But mie wasn’t fluffly enough. When combined, they were supposed to be the “consistency of whipped cream.” Mine was yellow and runny. If you try it, be forewarned, it didn’t ever thicken up for me.

Waldorf Astoria Frosting
3 T flour
1 c milk
1 c granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c butter

Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly. Cool. Cream sugar and butter plus vanilla until very fluffy. Add to the first cooled mixture. Beat until well blended (should be consistency of whipped cream). Frosts a 4-layer cake.

Birthday Cake

My youngest just turned one year old. I usually make a cake for birthdays, so I pulled out my recipe books. I had been wanting to try some of the recipes I saw in the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Fraternally Yours magazine (March 2007 back page). This seemed a perfect opportunity.

Black Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup COLD coffee
1 cup milk
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour sides of 9″ x 13″ cake pan. Mix all ingredients until well blended. Batter will be thin. Pour cake batter into pan and bake for 45 minutes. When cake is completely cooled, spread with peanut butter frosting (below).

Well, I did make a few changes to the recipe. I used softened margarine instead of the vegetable oil. I made the coffee with milk and decreased the total liquid to 1 1/4 cups (instead of 2 cups). I used two 9″ round cake pans, but forgot to flour them after greasing them. Note: This is an important step that caused me some frustration. Definitely don’t forget that step if you try this recipe.)

Looked good. So, then I tried the:

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp. milk, or as needed
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
     Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate the vanilla and milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get light and fluffy.

I can’t ever do something exactly as it is listed. I didn’t soften an extra stick of margarine (didn’t use butter). So, I nuked it in the microwave until it was soft and, well, runny. I wanted to use the same measuring cup for the peanut butter as for the powdered sugar, so I put the powdered sugar in first. Then, I wanted an easier time of getting the peanut butter out of the measuring cup, so I nuked it as well. I think the p.b. microwave action was the killer. The frosting never got “thick.” It got chunky and the butter (from the peanut butter) separated from the rest of the mix. It definitely never got “light and fluffy.”

It wasn’t a total loss. I used it as a middle layer between the other two layers of the cake. The outside of the cake was frosted with my old standby – fudgey frosting. (Recipe not at my fingertips or I would post it, as well.)

Happy Birthday little one!