Baking Friday - Cake # 6

Cake # 6.  Out of 12 planned for this year.  That means we are almost half way through this Baking Friday adventure.  Wow!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I did a couple of bake sales recently.  These were bake sales to raise money for our community garden.  We still need water to the garden, and trust me when I say that the plumber's bill needs a whole LOTTA bake sales!  But that's a story for another day.

One of my faithful readers asked to see pictures from the bake sales.  I only captured pics from the sale last Friday night at a local fish fry.  It was a pretty profitable bake sale, plus the people were very kind and pretty much bought us out!  But for my friend, C, here are the pics!

We had 4 cakes, 1 brownie and 4 pies...

Pineapple upside down cake was one of the first to go.  (That honestly surprised me.)

Berry "shortcake" - not the classic sweet biscuit kind but the kind based on pound cake, garnished with a bit of sweetened whipped cream and a crystal diamond cookie.

Carrot cake - this is Helen Fletcher's recipe that I will feature in the coming weeks. One of my tasters said that it was the best carrot cake he'd ever eaten!  Way to go, Helen!

Dark chocolate cheesecake brownie.  If you are a fan of both, this might have sold you!

Dutch apple pie - simple tasty classic.

Lemon meringue - another classic, that was also quite popular.  I went with my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook standby.  It's pretty much never failed me yet!  I may feature this one here, too...

I didn't catch a picture of the chocolate meringue, but our last pie was a banana cream - vanilla wafer crust, pastry cream, bananas and sweetened whipped cream garnish with a couple of banana slices when serving.

If you were counting, that was only 3 cakes, 1 brownie and 4 pies.  Our 4th cake is our feature for today - a version of what Pioneer Woman calls "Chocolate Devils."

These aren't fancy.  In fact, they are easy enough that kids can help make these for their daddy as a Father's Day treat.  But just because they are easy doesn't mean that they aren't tasty!

I made two versions - one with cherry pie filling above and one with simply a maraschino cherry garnish (on the left below).  Even toddlers could help with the chocolate drizzle or adding the cherries!  Pioneer Woman likes to cut the cake into rounds rather than squares, so if you went that route, your little ones could do that cutting with cookie cutters.

These are based on Texas Sheet Cake.  When I said that to folks at work, I was very surprised by how many folks had never heard of Texas Sheet Cake.  This is a classic from way back.  You can find a number of versions online, but the main cake recipe varies very little.  Here is my copy of the recipe that I've had in my recipe box since shortly after it appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Can you tell it's been around a while and used often?  Here is the other half of this clipping - you can see the date in the upper left-hand corner...way back in 1979....this lady's boys would now be in their 40's...

If you've never heard of Texas Sheet Cake, this is just about one of the simplest chocolate cakes you could ever make!  It is pretty much foolproof, and if you bake with any frequency at all, chances are that you have everything on hand in your pantry and fridge.  If you don't have sour cream on hand, you can substitute some buttermilk or sour milk.  While this lady says to use margarine, I always use butter, but if you use margarine, I won't tell or judge you, I promise!

I confess, I try NOT to make this cake very often, because this is one that calls me name - especially in the sheet pan.  For you see, it is never cut perfectly straight.  And we can't have that now, can we?!  We MUST have a straight cut edge, so when we see that it isn't straight, we have to fix that...and then there is this tiny cut sliver...and what's a girl to do?  Simply throw that away?!  Of course not!

Most of the time it is baked in the sheet pan with the warm icing poured over the warm cake, but it can be baked in two 8" or 9" round cake pans, cooled and frosted with a vanilla or cream cheese frosting.  If we doubled the recipe, it would fit in two 10" round cake pans.  It can also be baked in a 9" x 13" cake pan, but it will take about 5 - 10 minutes longer for it to bake.

I don't have pics of baking the cake.  If you can't read the picture above, here are the ingredients and steps:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 t. salt
1/2 cup sour cream (or buttermilk or sour milk)
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla (or generous splash)
1 cup butter
1 cup water
4 T. unsweetened cocoa (Pioneer Woman calls for "heaping tablespoons")

Combine flour, sugar, eggs, salt, sour cream, baking soda and vanilla in mixing bowl and mix well.  In a saucepan, combine butter, water and cocoa and heat to boiling.  Then add to flour mixture and combine well.  Pour into 10" x 15" jelly roll sheet cake pan that has been sprayed with Pam.  Bake @ 350 for 20 minutes.

If using the icing, while the cake bakes, make the icing.

1/2 cup butter
4 T. unsweetened cocoa
6 T. milk
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla (or generous splash)

Heat butter, cocoa and milk to boiling in a saucepan, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat once boiling, and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.  Pour over warm cake and spread to edges.  Let cake cool as long as you can possibly wait before cutting in!  (This cake is just as good, if not better, the next day or two, depending upon your crowd.  Plus this stuff is wonderful with ice cream and hot fudge, too!)

But I wasn't using the icing for our version of Chocolate Devils or Red Devils.  I simply used a bit of leftover cream cheese frosting with the cherry pie filling and chocolate drizzle.  Just watch!  Kid stuff, I tell ya!

But any daddy who enjoys chocolate and treats made by the hand of their little ones will enjoy these!

Thanks again for stopping by!  I appreciate anyone's sticking with me as I explore this blog thing!