I have been reading this woman's blog recently. I guess I find it interesting because her life is so completely different from mine. Check it out if you have time to kill. I don't, but I seem to end up on her site several times a day.
Anyway, she has tons of recipes, with step-by-step photos. I was drawn to this one, probably because of Mr. Smith's deep, abiding love for all things chocolate. Of course, Mr. Smith does not have a deep abiding love for any type of nuts in his food. Nuts are poison in Mr. Smith's estimation. He feels that they do not belong in his food or anyone's food for that matter. My point is, you can make this cake and leave the nuts out and the cake will still be an absolutely sublime experience. Do yourself a favor, just make it and for a moment, you won't care that your 401k is probably worthless.
Pioneer Woman Chocolate Sheet Cake
Combine in a mixing bowl:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
In a saucepan, melt:
2 sticks butter
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa. Stir together.
Add 1 cup 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 1/2 cup buttermilk.*
Add:
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
While cake is baking, make icing:
Chop 1/2 cup pecans finely.
Melt 1 3/4 sticks butter in a saucepan.
Add 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat.
Add:
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lb minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Stir together.
Add pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.
*There is this really nifty powdered buttermilk you can buy in many stores. You add it to the dry ingredients and then just add water where the recipe tells you to add the buttermilk. Check it out if you have trouble finding actual buttermilk.