Lulu's Recipe Box

PW's Chocolate Sheet Cake

Yesterday, we celebrated my husband's 28th birthday! It was an absolute perfect day outside, sunny and low 70's, and we had fun perusing Ikea, Best Buy and Lowe's together. We bought some herbs and flowers to plant outside on our patio. We had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant on Friday night, so TC wanted to grill brats for dinner, and I made our favorite pasta salad and this chocolate sheet cake for dessert, while TC watched the Milwaukee Brewers win their game. After dinner TC opened his presents which included baseball cards, a Brewers jersey, an Iowa Hawkeye polo and Mad Men seasons on Blu-ray. He was a very spoiled boy this year, but he deserved it all. : ) It was onto the chocolate cake next, which was rich, but very delicious. I cut the recipe in half because there was no way I wanted a huge sheet cake pan of this around all week for us to eat!  I made it ahead of time, so we ended up zapping our pieces in the microwave, but I would definitely recommend serving it right out of the oven. It tastes even better warm if that's possible!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4 T. (heaping) cocoa

2 sticks butter

1 cup boiling water

1/2 buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk, pour just under 1/2 cup regular milk into a measuring cup and add enough regular vinegar to bring the quantity to 1/2 cup, let it sit a minute)

2 whole beaten eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

For the frosting:

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

1 3/4 sticks butter

4 T. (heaping) cocoa

6 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pound (minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar)

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter (for the cake). Add the cocoa and stir together. Add the boiling water and allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds before removing from the heat. Pour the mixture over the flour, and stir lightly to cool the chocolate.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add the beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into the flour/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan (approximately an 18 x 13 pan) and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the frosting/icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa and stir to combine. Turn off the heat. Add the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Stir until smooth. Add the pecans and stir together. Pour the frosting over the warm cake. It's best when warm so serve right away or if you are making this ahead of time, warm it up in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.

***recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Dutch Baby Pancake

A Dutch Baby Pancake, sometimes called a German pancake, is an oven baked pancake that is delicious and so simple to make. It's made with ingredients that you always have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator. You put the thin batter into a skillet and bake in the oven until it browns and puffs up. You can serve it with your usual pancake topping, syrup, or make it a little more fancy with powdered sugar, berries, or better yet, all three of them like we did this morning. Try this for your next weekend brunch!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 T. melted butter

1/4 tsp. salt

Berries, Syrup, Powdered sugar, for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch (I used a 10 inch which worked fine) oven safe skillet with butter or a baking spray and set aside.

2. Gradually add the flour to the beaten eggs with a whisk. Whisk in milk, vanilla extract, melted butter, and salt. Pour batter into the prepared skillet.

3. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. It will puff up while baking, but become flat again when you remove it from the oven. Cut into wedges and serve warm with berries, syrup, and/or powdered sugar.

***recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod