The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

Today must have been Birthday day :) It was my mom's birthday, and also my good friend Charlotte's Dad's birthday. I made my mom a lemon meringue pie... still trying to perfect my pie crust. I was having pretty good luck with Barefoot Contessa's pie crust, but the last couple of times not so much. I'm positive it's me, not the recipe... so my search/ technique continues. Anyway I have been wanting to make The Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. for sometime, and when Charlotte asked me to make a chocolate cake for her Dad I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I have used the cake portion of this recipe for cupcakes before, and they were delicious, but had not tried the frosting portion of the recipe yet. Lets just say you have to make this cake... even if it's just to justify the frosting haha! And an added bonus, it has to be one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. Good thing because it looks like I'm making another one this weekend ;) The only alteration I made to the cake was adding instant espresso coffee powder to the frosting mixture, yum!

The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

The Pioneer Woman

For the Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons (heaping) cocoa

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 whole beaten eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

For the Frosting:

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter

4 Tablespoons (heaping) cocoa

6 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 lb (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon instant espresso coffee powder (optional)

In mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, salt. Set aside.

In a saucepan melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together. Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture and stir lightly to cool. In measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda , and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into ungreased sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.

while the cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, powdered sugar and espresso powder if using. Add the pecans, stir together, and poor over warm cake.