Gooey Chocolate Sheet Cake

This is the favorite cake for birthdays at my house, and the most requested recipe. It's usually baked in a cookie sheet pan, but I have also made layer cakes with it. It holds together pretty well if you make multiple thin layers. If you cook it in the sheet pan you can slice it and stack it in layered squares on a cake stand to make it pretty. Some folks like a little cinnamon in it, we don't.

This is the cake that we call the "Evil Chocolate Cake". WARNING, there is nothing healthy about it. I told a friend that the only thing you might do to make it better for you would be to use olive oil in the recipe, or substitute some applesauce for some of the oil. ;) Don't say I didn't warn you!

Gooey Chocolate Sheet Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 c. oil (or applesauce)
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch if you have it)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup buttermilk, sour milk, or sour cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs
• Updated!! I used a little almond extract in the cake and substituted hazelnut coffee creamer for the milk in the icing. SUPER AWESOME!!!!!

Grease or spray a large sheet pan and set aside.

In a bowl stir together the sugar, flour, salt and baking soda.

In a large saucepan combine cocoa, oil, butter, and water. Bring mixture almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. With an electric hand-held mixer, or a whisk, beat dry mixture into the chocolate mixture. Combine eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla & beat that into chocolate mixture. Beat for 1 minute (batter will be thin). Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. It's thin, so watch closely, and don;t overcook. Pour the warm icing over the warm cake.

Chocolate Icing:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 unsweetened cocoa
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Heat butter, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan to nearly boiling. Remove from the burner and stir in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and nuts. Spread over the cake and stand back to admire the chocolate ooey-gooeyness. You can make the icing a little thicker, but it's supposed to be somewhat thin. It's not a spreading sort of thing, it's a runny-oozing-down-into-the-cake thing.

Brew some coffee, or get out your favorite milk glass and prop up your feet. That is, if you can shoo the kids away.