Ben's Birthday

Ben's birthday was yesterday and since I worked until six p.m. it was a good thing I made a Chocolate Sheet Cake the night before since the family was to arrive for dessert at 7 p.m.

I am a fan of Roxie Kelly's cookbooks and in her recent publication entitled At Our Table, she has a Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe with Fudge Frosting...sounded good to me!!!

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped pecans, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10 x 17 sheet cake pan.

Cream sugar and butter together in a large bowl until light & fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until smooth.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa. Combine the sour cream and buttermilk in a small bowl.

Alternate the addition of the dry ingredients and the sour cream mixture to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Blend well after each addition. If using pecans, add them now by folding them in. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Cool completely on wire rack.

Fudge Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cocoa
1 pound box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

In a mixer bowl, cream the butter, cocoa, and powdered sugar together until light, about two minutes or so. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the milk, beating until smooth and creamy. Spread over the cooled cake. Sprinkle the pecans, over the frosting.

Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream:

I received this recipe from Trudy Herman when we worked together on creating a cookbook at our church many years ago.

1 can Eagle Brand Milk
1 can Hershey's Syrup
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan stir together the milk & syrup completely. Add the butter and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

This sauce will surely become a favorite!

Mom's 89th Birthday

Mom recently celebrated her 89th birthday and our family is blessed to have her with us and she is in good health and a busy, busy lady! We enjoyed a family get-together for her special day but I thought perhaps her friends would enjoy a little treat at their weekly card playing day (they play a card game called golf). The cake I chose to prepare was carrot and that always seems to be a moist and popular cake for most people. The frosting was cream cheese based and the cute little snowman just tickled my fancy! I made a carrot cake cupcake and then built a snowman with two different sized powdered sugar doughnuts and also a donut hole. Frosting was used to attach the pieces to the cupcake and then I topped it off with novelty snowman head. The little fellow needed arms to hold the Happy Birthday Sissy pendant so I treked out in the woods and found just the perfect branches! I built up a little snowdrift around the cupcake when I attached it to the cake to make it look more realistic. To top it off, edible white glitter was sprinkled over all! Mom and her friends enjoyed the surprise and I was honored to create the special treat!