TRANSCRIPT Episode 22
Welcome to The Simmering Chef.
Cooking with a smidgen of anger, a pinch of crass, a dollop of irreverence, a sprinkling of science, and a handful of spice.
Hello and welcome to all my listeners! A lot has happened in the last few days, mostly technical. The good news is that the new recording studio is up and running. Woohoo! Here’s hoping I can sound a lot more professional, as if I knew what I was doing. The bar’s already super low, so that shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. You see, it’s taken me this long because sometimes I have problems following instructions. More about following instructions later. Please let me know what you think.
We’re getting ready for a mini family reunion of sorts. Family from Washington State arrives shortly, and we’ll have a humdinger of a time together. We always do. There’s nothing quite like my brothers and sisters when they are all in one room. I’ll probably pee my pants from all the laughter.
For this special occasion, I decided to dig into my mother’s recipe cards and retrieve her recipe for chocolate sheet cake. Some of you might know this as Texas Sheet Cake, Texas Funeral Cake, Twenty-Two-Minute Cake, Mexican Sheet Cake, Brownie Sheet Cake, etc. She’d make it for every bridge party because of how quickly it came together. She’d slice it into 48 pieces because, as she said, “a sliver was enough to satisfy any sweet tooth. Two slivers if the poor woman had more than one.”
More than likely this sheet cake got the Texas moniker because of how damn big it is. It’s as big as Texas. If you want a deeper cake, pour the batter into an 8x8 pan and bake it. Just remember that it will take longer to cook.
Interestingly, the sheet cake’s history is murky. The Library of Congress’s Jennifer Harbster wrote in her 2013 article “The Great Sheet Cake Mystery” that chocolate brownies and cakes came into vogue in the early 20th century once the price of chocolate became affordable for anyone to buy and use.
Although many parts of the country claim they invented it, The Galveston Daily News’s May 30, 1935 article “Helping the Homemaker” contains the first printed recipe.
Google “Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake,” and your fingers will get tired from scrolling through page after page of recipes. In the transcript, I’ve included links to examples from The Pioneer Woman, Southern Living, Texas Monthly, and Food and Wine to name a few, so you can look at their versions. You want more options? Google it. Oy! You’ll see an abundance of choices.
Some chocolate sheet cakes are made with milk or buttermilk, while others use sour cream. Some say to add pecans or nuts to the icing, while others say to keep it plain. Some add cinnamon, some don’t. My version is a slight riff on my mother’s. It’s true to her spirit while delivering a deeper, more intense experience because I use Black cocoa.
I love this cake so much! It’s tender, moist, and addictively sweet. It’s so good that it’s hard to say no to eating just one piece. Essentially, what you need to know is that this is probably the easiest cake to make AND one of the best things you will ever taste.
This cake is really sweet, rich, and yummy, so small bites are more than enough, although one of my good friends ate three-quarters of a pan while we sat and talked about life. So, you could do that too.
It’s excellent with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream or served with just a cup of coffee. I can honestly say it’s best when served to family and friends.
You’ll find the recipe in the transcript. But before I sign off, let me tell you my story about following instructions.
When I worked in a culinary school, which shall remain nameless, the Pastry Lead asked the instructors to contribute some family dessert recipes to be reviewed as possible additions to the Baking and Pastry curriculum. I handed in my mother’s recipe for this chocolate sheet cake, emphasizing, “Please follow the instructions exactly as they are written.”
The Pastry Lead met with me a few days later and showed me a photo of a gorgeous, three-tiered concoction with the icing falling off the cake’s sides in drips and drizzles. It looked stunning—a really beautiful piece of pastry art. But once I saw that photo, I knew this wouldn’t end well because this person thought she knew better.
I asked, “So, what did you think?”
“Well…” The Pastry Lead always started sentences that way. She was such a snippy, little… That “well…” was her way of winding up before pitching her spitballs. “It does look good, doesn’t it? I really like how it looks. I did a good job on that one, didn’t I? Now, don’t be upset, but we're not using your mother’s recipe. Frankly, it was dry and really disgusting tasting. Awful really. You poor thing. You’re obviously not a pastry chef; you’re just a cook. So don’t contribute any more baking recipes because we’re just gonna throw them directly into the trash.”
Without missing a beat, I responded, “And you obviously don’t know how to follow instructions, so I don’t plan to.” Yeah, that’s one of the many reasons I no longer work there.
SO, please, let me emphasize the moral of this story. You don’t have to always follow instructions. You can assume you know better, but if you want THIS recipe to come out tasting better than anything you have ever made, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! You’ll be happy that you did. You’re welcome.
As always, fail brilliantly and eat well. Thank you for listening.
This is Janet, The Simmering Chef
Today’s podcast is brought to you from the Atelier Rorschach Culinary Studios in beautiful College Park. Music is “Chocolate” by The 1975. Content is all my fault. Feel free to complain to the management.
POSTSCRIPT
When I called one of my sisters to confirm something about the recipe, she immediately said, “REMEMBER! The hot icing needs to be poured directly onto the hot cake!”
Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know.
MOMMA’S CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE
PART 1
240 grams/2 cups all-purpose flour
400 grams/2 cups white granulated sugar
2 grams/1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 grams/1 teaspoon kosher salt
PART 2
227 grams/1 cup unsalted butter
10 grams/2 Tablespoons regular cocoa powder (I use King Arthur’s Triple Cocoa Blend)
10 grams/2 Tablespoons black cocoa powder (I use King Arthur’s Black Cocoa Powder)
1 gram/ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
237 grams/1 cup H2O
PART 3
118 grams/½ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
5 grams/1 teaspoon baking soda
5 grams/1 teaspoon vanilla
INGREDIENTS FOR THE ICING
(Note: Begin making this 5 minutes before the cake is done, around the 10-minute mark on the timer.)
113 grams/½ cup unsalted butter
10 grams/2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (see cake ingredients)
10 grams/2 Tablespoons black cocoa powder (see cake ingredients)
89 grams/6 Tablespoons H2O
2 grams/1 teaspoon sea salt
454 grams/1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
110 grams/1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts or pecans
Flakey sea salt for garnish (completely optional)
METHOD FOR THE CAKE
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Grease a jelly roll or sheet pan.
PART 1
Sift all of PART 1’s ingredients together into a large bowl.
PART 2
Add PART 2’s ingredients into a pan, place the pan on the stove, and bring the ingredients to a rapid boil.
Add the hot liquid to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
PART 3
Whip PART 3’s ingredients in a blender.
Pour the ingredients over the hot flour mixture.
Stir with a rubber spatula until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared sheet pan/jelly roll pan.
If you need to, use a spatula to level the batter out.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven for approximately 15 minutes. (Every oven is different. Yours may take less time or need more. It’s done when the edges just start to pull away from the pan. Use a toothpick to check for doneness. If it comes out mostly clean, the cake is ready to be removed from the oven.)
Place the cake on a cooling rack by the stove.
METHOD FOR THE ICING
HERE’S THE IMPORTANT BIT! You pour the hot icing over the hot sheet cake!
While the cake is baking, measure out the icing’s ingredients and sift the powdered sugar.
Five minutes before the cake is done, add the butter, cocoa, H2O, and salt to a pan and bring everything to a boil.
Stir in the powdered sugar.
Stir in nuts.
Pour the delicious liquid cocoa lava over the entire hot cake and sprinkle the flakey sea salt all over the top.
Allow the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.
I suggest tightly covering the sheet cake with plastic wrap and refrigerating it to help preserve its moisture.
You can try freezing it, but we devoured the entire pan, meaning there was never any leftover to freeze.
If you choose to bake this in an 8x8 pan, halve the recipe. It will take about 25 minutes to bake. Keep an eye on it.
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