My Favorite Texas Sheet Cake

Texas Sheet Cake is pretty much a staple in every home, right?  And, there aren't very many variations to the recipe, that I found at least.  But, the one ingredient that I love paired with any kind of chocolate baked good is in this recipe ... and I love it (hence the title of this post ... "my favorite").  That one ingredient is: Cinnamon!  I just love the little spice it give to normal chocolate.  This recipe is actually a few recipes that I combined to make it just right.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

What you need:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks butter
6 Tbsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so I added 1 tsp. lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk and let it sit for a while ... turned into buttermilk in no time!)
1 tsp. vanilla
Chocolate Glaze

How you do it:

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.  Bring to a boil butter, cocoa and water.  Add to dry mixture and beat well.  Mix together baking soda, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; add to chocolate-flour mixture.  Pour into a greased 10x15 jelly roll pan (cookie sheet).  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.  While it is baking, make the glaze.

Chocolate Glaze

What you need:

1 1/2 sticks butter
4 Tbsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
6 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

Blend together butter, cocoa, milk, and vanilla in saucepan.  Beat in powdered sugar until smooth.  (If there are clumps of powdered sugar, you can add a few pecan pieces to break them up.)

Sour Cream Waffles

These are THE BEST waffles I've ever made.  I will never go back to using Bisquick or Krusteaz pancake mix for waffles.


SOUR CREAM WAFFLES


What you need:


1 3/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
waffle iron


How you do it:


Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; make a well in the center and set aside.  Whisk together butter, milk, sour cream, and eggs; pour into well.  (Don't worry if the butter sets again ... and don't mix it too much.  The butter and sour cream should look like little clumps in the mixture.)  Whisk just until wet; do not over mix.  Pour a scant 1/4 cup of batter onto bottom of waffle iron and close.  Cook until no steam escapes, about 3 minutes.


(The waffles in the photo have peanut butter syrup on them.  Just heat in the microwave 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 cup maple syrup.  Yummy, but I still prefer buttermilk syrup.)