Welcome to Between the Layers! I’m glad you’re here for the weekly recipe and conversation! An Ode to the Ooey-Gooey Chocolate Cake of SummerAnd Some Secrets to the Best Texas Sheet Cake and Summer IcingsThis week I unveiled my long awaited book cover. It was just what I was hoping for - chocolate icing dripping down a drop-dead gorgeous but insanely easy chocolate cake. That box mix cake perched high on the marble stand garnished with sugared berries and kumquats is unapologetic and meaningful as my follow-up to the Cake Mix Doctor releases this November. It says - if a cake could talk! - I am delicious and inexpensive and easy and accessible, so everyone just get over the fact that I’m made with a mix. And that frosting, icing, whatever you call the velvety chocolate fudge goo cascading down the cake, it is simply ganache. The icing on the cake. It is simple and from-scratch, poured casually, not perfectly or planned, letting the unscripted drips and dribbles fall as they may. Which I find beautiful. A magical chocolate saucepan icing holds up to the heatCakes and icings and baking are what I am known for, and I have written everything from a cake mix book to one diving into the history of American scratch cake. But on a deeper level this chocolate cover cake reminds me of myself and how I bake now. My kids are grown so I no longer have to use a cake mix to save time, but I am still looking for good shortcuts, beautiful ways to present, and maximum flavor in minimum time. Use a cake mix if you like but always make your frosting from scratch. Let me tell you about another frosting that takes ordinary cake to extraordinary places. My mom’s chocolate fudge icing. It’s magical. My mother was a wonderful cook and simply cooked what she liked to eat. Chocolate fudge icing was a favorite. The memory of her stirring milk, sugar, butter, and cocoa in a pan on the stove is imprinted in my mind. She stirred with her right hand, and placed her left hand on her hip for some reason. I guess it balances if you to stir this way? And it’s funny because her sisters did the same, and I have found myself stirring sauces with hand on hip… Her icing recipe used to be made with granulated sugar. It had to be stirred gently and brought up to a soft ball stage - where a teaspoon of hot icing is dropped into a cold glass of water and forms a ball when the icing is ready to pour. We didn’t use candy thermometers like we do today. We used our eyes. Shortcut the icing with powdered sugarBut when we went off to college, my mother took off her apron. She no longer fried chicken. She turned the den into the dining room and then turned it back into a den, things mothers do when they finally have the house to themselves. And she shortcut the icing prep by switching the white sugar to confectioners’. No longer did she have to stir that icing long enough for the sugar to dissolve. No longer did we have to be warned to not scrape the sides of the pan because it will make the icing grainy. Powdered sugar came into the picture and everyone softly exhaled. Caramel icing and fudge icing could still be made from scratch, but effortlessly. With your eyes closed. Texas sheet cake is a summer classicOne reason cakes enrobed with caramel or fudge icing are so popular in states like Tennessee and Mississippi and Texas is the heat and humidity. Just try to take a buttercream-frosted cake to a picnic in Jackson or Houston in the summertime. That icing will roll off the cake before you serve the first slice. So good cooks learned the secret to serving cakes in the summer was frosting them with a pan icing like my mother made. The icing was spread onto the cake warm and set up so hard that cake didn’t budge. Pan icings and hair spray have saved many a Southern woman! Once such well-known chocolate cake with poured icing is the Texas Sheet or “Sheath” Cake. Researching my book American Cake, I interviewed Texas chef Sarah Hooton who grew up in Fort Worth on her grandmother Mary Hooton’s Texas Sheath Cake. It was a scratch buttermilk chocolate cake with a pinch of cinnamon, named because it was poured into a sheet (13-by 9-inch) pan to bake. It’s still a Texas favorite and loved because it’s moist and decadent thanks to the cake and the chocolate fudge icing packed with pecans.
Why is this a Texas cake? Texas is a big pecan-producing state. Cinnamon is a Mexican flavoring that creeps deliciously over the border into Texas sweets. And from what I hear, this is the birthday cake of choice in Texas. Any Texas cooks want to weigh in about this? “It may be the most unattractive cake you've ever seen,” Sarah told me, “but it is delicious and nostalgic and everyone in Texas loves it.” What I failed to tell Sarah is that I find this cake one of the most beautiful I’ve seen and eaten. It is and forever will be my summer cake of choice. Bake it for crowds, for picnics, for reunions, for parties. Serve it up right from the pan. Store the leftovers in the pan on the kitchen counter, covered with foil for several days. Or, even better, freeze them to enjoy a taste of summer in the fall. What’s Your Favorite Thing to Buy at Trader Joe’s?I’ll share my favorite if you do! Those irresistible dried mandarins? Onion salt? Do tell! And now, the recipe for Texas Sheet (or Sheath) CakeWith the help of Sarah, I’ve uncovered the secrets to making really good Texas sheet cake! Sarah's family uses Hershey's regular baking cocoa. But you can use whatever cocoa you have on hand. This cake needs a bit of salt, so that is why lightly salted butter is called for in the recipe. If you are baking with unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon salt to the cake, and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the icing. And be sure to toast the pecans first in a 350-degree oven for a few minutes before adding to the icing. Sarah said, "That is a must." Place the pecans in a small baking pan in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes while the oven preheats, watching to make sure they turn golden brown and do not burn. Makes: 16 servings Prep: 30 to 35 minutes Bake: 20 to 25 minutes Cake: Butter and flour for prepping the pan 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups granulated sugar 1 cup (2 sticks) lightly salted butter 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (see Cake Notes) 1 cup water 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 large eggs, slightly beaten 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Fudge Icing: 1/2 cup (1 stick) lightly salted butter (see Cake Notes) 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 1/3 cup whole milk 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 to 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (see Cake Notes) 1. For the cake, place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan. Shake out the excess flour, and set the pan aside. 2. Place the flour and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and stir to combine. Set aside. 3. Place the butter, cocoa, and water in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat, and stir until the butter melts and the mixture comes just to a boil, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour into the bowl with the flour and sugar. Stir to combine. Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk, and stir into the batter along with the eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and place the pan in the oven. 4. Bake the cake until the top springs back when lightly pressed, about 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven to cool on a wire rack. 5. About 5 minutes before the cake is done, start preparing the fudge icing. Place the butter, cocoa, and milk into a large saucepan over medium heat, stir to combine, and bring to a boil, about 2 to 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the powdered sugar until smooth. Fold in the vanilla and pecans until well combined. Pour the icing over the warm cake. Let the cake cool at least 1 hour before slicing. Coming this Friday for SubscribersChocolate ganache and ways to use it in summer baking… plus a Trader Joe’s shopping list. Don’t miss it! Join us as a Subscriber! You’re on the free list for Anne Byrn: Between the Layers. For the full experience, become a paying subscriber. |
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