Question about Texas Sheet Cake

[Paris M]

I am planning to make the Texas Sheet Cake for Mother's Day so I've been reading the back threads on it.

Several people have mentioned the cake being very sweet. What have people's experiences been with that? I know it calls for 2 cups of sugar, could that be cut down? By how much? I like sweet, but not a LOT of sweet, especially with a super sweet icing.

Also, a few people complained that it was dry. I was thinking of adding a bit of natural applesauce if that's the case (could also help with the sweet issue). Any thoughts?

Any other comments or special touches from those who've made it before would be greatly appreciated. FWIW, I am going to serve it with honey-pistachio ice cream. :)

[golden1225]

If we're talking about the same cake (it's chocolate with cinnamon, right?) then I would leave as-is! I didn't find it too sweet, and there were never any leftovers when I would take it into the office.
And mine was super-moist! I always watch my cakes and take them out when I think they're done, not when the set time has expired. Just really watch closely.
Honey Pistachio ice cream? That sounds like a really odd combination to go with this chocolate cinnamon cake...which makes me wonder if you're making the white Texas Sheet Cake? :confused:

[KelLeg]

I think the Texas Sheet Cake is fabulous as-is! I guess you could leave a tad of the sugar, but really this is one of the best cakes I have ever made just the way it is.

[Beth]

I would not change the cake -- the frosting is very sweet and there tends to be a lot of it, especially if you make it in a 13x9 pan instead of a 10x15. It might be easier to just not use all the icing than to try to cut it back and get the proportions wrong. Also, I think the CL version is even sweeter because it has reduced the butter and thrown the balance further towards sweet. In fact, I can take the cake either way, but I'd rather have the original frosting, even if I had less of it.

[yasicat]

I will admit it -- I am in the very, very small minority of CL faithful who doesn't like the Texas Sheet Cake -- I made it in 1999 or 2000 when the modified recipe first came out, and I've never made it again, because I found it to be way too sweet, and the frosting (which I realize kind of "makes" the cake) to be overpowering (I'm also not much of a frosting person to begin with).

If I were to modify it, I would probably cut back on the amount of frosting / the amount of sugar in the frosting.

Since this is the first time you are making it, I would go ahead and follow the recipe exactly -- the cake as is certainly has wide appeal. Making the original recipe will give you a better idea for how you may or may not want to tinker with it in the future.

Good luck.

[valchemist]

I have to agree with everyone here. make it as is.

[Paris M]

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the input. I will go with the recipe - no tweaks. :)

[ttubbs]

An aside: I brought Toasted Coconut Ice-cream (from Fine Cooking) to a food day at work, and someone else brought in a Sheet Cake (one which included cinnamon but no nuts). A few people mentioned how they thought the cake and ice-cream really went well together. To me, there was defiantly a synergistic thing going on with them.

Anywho, I don’t know if it was the CL version, but I’d guess it was not. I don’t know if any chocolate sheet cake would work, or it must have cinnamon in it, or if there was something else special about that cake that did the trick. All I know is that I found it very exciting to see food come together like. A marriage made in heaven as they say. It’s the only time I’ve personally had something to do with pairing food and finding a perfect match. Although the paring was accidental, I did make the ice-cream so that counts, right? I still think it’s really cool!

My nephew wants to visit this summer so we can do some cooking together. I’ve been thinking this week that we might try making the CL version with the coconut ice-cream to see if they pair as well together.

[granolagirl]

I think it is good as-is. That said, I do make changes. :) I cut back on the sugar in the frosting and cut out a bit of the cinnamon in the cake.

[Paris M]

I've yet to follow a recipe as written... :rolleyes:

I made the cake this morning as written except I added 1/2 tsp cayenne because my grandmother LOVES spicy chocolate. So far, so good. It looks wonderful, the icing set up very well.

I'll be back later to let y'all know how it tasted.

[valchemist]

oh wow. a half tsp of cayenne is a lot!

I am interested to hear how that worked out for you.

[Beth]

I bet some chili with it would be good. Half a tsp. of cayenne is a lot, but I've noticed that it seems to take a bit more to have impact with the chocolate and sweet than with a savory dish. Still, I think I would add some ancho or something like that for flavor and maybe 1/4 tsp of cayanne.

[valchemist]

interesting, beth. the spicy/chocolate thing has never been appealing to me, so I have never attempted it in my baking. but it is interesting to hear that you need more of it to make an impact in baking as opposed to cooking. the ancho idea sounds interesting, too. (if you like that kind of thing)

[Beth]

I've only done the chili/chocolate combination once with truffles (by a recipe) and once with the mocha truffle cookies (subbing for the coffee). I started so small and kept adding. I would still play with the seasoning, but it was more than I expected.

[Paris M]

The cayenne worked out great! It was not at all spicy, but it added some interesting complexity to the chocolate and cinnamon. Everyone really liked the cake and my mother asked for the recipe (very high praise). :)

[valchemist]

cool! thanks for the report. glad it was a hit.

[starlight]

It's funny reading this thread. I just read an article in the Houston Chronicle on the Texas Sheet Cake. They were talking about how there are thousands of recipes for this cake. They liked the recipe from the "All New, All Purpose Joy of Cooking", by Marion Rombauer Becker, Irma S . Rombauer and Ethan Becker (Simon & Schuster, $35) They also like a Chocolate Buttercream Icing on it.
Here's the recipe:

2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup veg. oil
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened nonalkalized cocoa
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

-Grease and flour the pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-Sift sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt together into a med. bowl. Combine water, oil, butter and cocoa in a med. saucepan and bring to a boil. Pour the hot cocoa mixture over the dry ingredients and stir together just until smooth. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk and vanilla. Stir into the batter, then scrape the batter into the greased pan. If you are using a jelly-roll pan, bake about 20 min; otherwise, allow another five minutes or so, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or with just a crumb or two sticking to it. While the cake is still warm, spread with Chocolate Buttercream Icing.

*You can substitute 1 cup of water with 1 cup of strong, cold coffee.
*You can bake the cake in a 10x15 jelly-roll pan, a 9x13 pan, or 2 9" round pans. For layer cake more icing may be needed.


Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup cocoa, sifted
1/3 cup milk
1 pound confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans

-In a mixing bowl, cream butter and cocoa. Add the milk. Beat until smooth. Add confectioners sugar in three additions, then the vanilla. Beat well. Ice the cake while warm. Sprinkle with pecans. If you are making a layer cake, wait until the cake has cooled to ice it.

[Beth]

I like the cinnamon in the cake and the frosting in what I consider the traditional recipe --to me, the new Joy recipe is just a chocolate buttermilk cake with the usual icing. I like the fact that the other one is different form my basic cake and frosting, and I think the fact that you pour the icing on warm is part of what makes that cake so moist -- almost fudgy. I would think a major Texas newspaper would go for one that is what's known here as Texas Sheet Cake. But there are so many variations, and they are probably all pretty good.

Paris, I'm glad to hear the pepper worked. I was surprised that my son liked the truffle cookies made with chili and pepper, so maybe we'll try this too.

[newcook]

I made Texas Sheet Cake (the CL version) for the very first time and I really liked it. I made it exactly as is and wouldn't change a thing. I had not previously read this particular thread where someone added cayenne. One of these days I'll have to give that a try.