Quick Chocolate Sheet Cake

It's difficult to make cake sometimes during the week night, but I wanted some chocolate cake.

This is probably one of the quickest chocolate cakes you'll ever make!

Chocolate Sheet Dense Cake

Preheat oven to 400

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Icing
1 stick butter
1/4 cup (heaping) cocoa powder
6 Tbsp. milk
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)


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1. Grease a sheet or pan (you can use a sheet pan, it just depends on how thick you want your cake to be. I used a 9x13 dish.  Just remember, the thinner your cake the faster it'll bake!)
For the cake:  Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
In a saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and water. Make sure you stir it occasionally to ensure that the cocoa mixture doesn't burn on the bottom.  Bring the mixture to a boil and pour the cocoa mixture into the flour mixture. Mix it enough to cool the chocolate because we're going to put the eggs in! We want the chocolate to cool so it doesn't cook the eggs!
Grabbed your measuring cup, measure the buttermilk, and just put the eggs in there.  Beat the eggs with the buttermilk, then add the baking soda and vanilla into the measuring cup.

Pour the buttermilk mixture in with the cocoa mixture.
Mix well.

Pour batter into pan, and bake for about 20 - 22 minutes (this is for 9x13), if you're using 11x15 - bake about 18 - 20 minutes. Of course, always check with a toothpick.


While the cake is baking....... icing time!!!!

About 10 minutes before the cake is done, start the icing! If you have lots of helpers, like I do, you might want to start a bit sooner. :)
Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and pecans (optional) in a large bowl.
In a saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and milk. Bring it to a boil. Since this does not have water in it, you'll need to stir it more often. it gets a bit thick and coats the bottom of the saucepan.
Pour over the sugar mixture.
Whisk to mix!

Pour the icing over the cake while it's still hot! Since both icing and cake are hot, it should help spread it over the cake pretty well. You probably won't do much work on the spreading, but if you must... please make sure the icing is covering the cake, because all cake needs icing love.

We started to eat it about an hour after everything. It was still warm, and it was delicious.
Cut your cake, and eat it too... with milk, because this is one rich chocolate cake!

You should totally make this for your sweetheart, and it doesn't have to be valentine's day either! ;)  Any day of the year is a perfect day for chocolate cake!  And then impress your sweetheart with these awesome chocolate facts.

- Chocolate is made from the kernels of fermented and roasted cocoa beans.
- Chocolate was sweetened with cinnamon and vanilla by the Spanish in 1500's.
- About 1700 the English improved chocolate by the addition of milk.


Oh yeah, so hawt. You know chocolate facts and made an awesome cake. 

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I omitted the pecans because D (child #1) has a nut allergy, so we don't make anything with nuts. And pecan is the only nut that I'm not allergic to.