Happy birthday to Ellen (and a cake recipe)

Last week was my oldest daughter's 16th birthday! I'm always one for a party, but she wanted a small, family celebration without a lot of fuss. So I'll just share some highlights for those who didn't get to come. (and I'll add pictures as soon as I can.)

My parents, my sister, and her son, Xander all came. Xander, who will be 4 soon, was all set to help Ellen open her presents, but we persuaded him to just hand her the next one. She got all sorts of good stuff - clothes, a CD, books (what's a birthday without books?), some website related swag, jewelry, and best of all, a new phone. She actually got the phone a little early, and it is a soooo cool. It has a camera and a MP3 player. Plus we went out for Mexican food on her birthday and her Aunt Mandy took her out for Italian food the next night!

But I promised a recipe, so here it is. It's called Texas Sheet Cake. I have this every year for my birthday and it is monumentally good. Ellen wanted her own, so this is what I made. The recipe comes from an old cookbook from the 60s of recipes from home economics teachers.

Texas Sheet Cake

2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1/2 ts. salt
2 sticks butter
1 c. water
3 Tb. cocoa
2 eggs, beaten
1 ts. soda
1/2 c. buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 Tb. vinegar plus milk to equal 1/2 c, let sit for 5 minutes before adding to recipe)
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. In a saucepan, heat butter, water and cocoa to boiling. Pour over dry ingredients. In another bowl combine eggs, soda, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to batter and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured jelly roll pan (15x10x1 - must have an edge). Bake for 20 minutes at 350. Start the icing the last 10 minutes while cake is baking.

Icing:

1 stick butter
3 Tb. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
about 2 c. powdered sugar (the recipe calls for "1 box confectioners' sugar", so I always have to guess - and thanks Keri, for letting me borrow some sugar)
1 ts. vanilla
1/2 c. chopped pecans (optional)

Mix butter, cocoa, and milk in saucepan. (I always reuse the saucepan I used for the cake.) Heat just until butter melts. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar, pecans, and vanilla. Mix well. AS SOON AS THE CAKE COMES OUT OF THE OVEN frost with icing. This will cause the icing to soak into the cake, creating a fudge-like cake that's almost like a candy.

This cake tastes best warm, but is still yummy at room temperature. You can serve it with good vanilla ice cream to make it even better. It is BY FAR my favorite chocolate cake. Ever.