Busy Day Cake

Even though I enjoyed being with Ryan away from home for the last three days, I was excited to see the Christmas tree lights shining brightly as we drove down the lane to our house. I saw some beautiful Christmas decorations while in Nashville but there's just no place like home!


Any day is busy on the farm but tomorrow is going to be extra busy with catchup work, a special choir practice for our church Christmas program and our extended family is getting together late in the afternoon for our traditional extended family Christmas.

Thank goodness for small favors--chocolate cake is one of the items I am to provide for the family dinner! Chocolate Sheath Cake is a family favorite, easy to make and festive when served on a pretty pedestal or holiday cake plate.

Chocolate Sheath Cake

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup Crisco
4 Tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspooon cinnamon
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
2 eggs,slightly beaten

Bring butter,Crisco,cocoa, and water to a rapid boil. Pour over the sugar and flour and beat well. Add buttermilk and soda,vanilla and eggs. Beat, then bake at 400 degrees F. in 18 x 12 in. metal loaf pan for 20 minutes. Cover with the following.

Icing:
1 stick butter
4 tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar,sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans (optional)

Bring butter,cocoa and milk  to boil. Add powdered sugar,vanilla, and pecans. Beat well and pour over cake while hot.

Chocolate Lover's Challenge

As Benton County Farm Bureau Women's Committee members, my friend Tara and I volunteered to serve as two of the eight judges for the county 4-H baking contest last week. Participants of the contest were given recipes for banana bread,biscuits,snicker doodle cookies, and chocolate cake.  Our assignment was to judge the chocolate cake. For two chocolate lovers this seemed like a real treat  but by the twenty-eighth piece of chocolate cake that we had to taste and judge, it became quite a challenge to judge each piece. At the end of the morning, we agreed  that chocolate cake was no longer   our favorite flavor. If we get invited to judge next year, we've already decided to ask to judge the biscuits!

Although I've avoided chocolate of any kind since our judging experience,I do plan to make my family's favorite chocolate cake later this week.

Chocolate Sheath Cake

1 stick butter

1/2 cup Crisco

4 Tablespoons cocoa

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp soda
2 eggs,slightly beaten

Bring butter,Crisco,cocoa,and water to a rapid boil. Pour over the sugar and flour and beat well. Add buttermilk and soda,vanilla,cinnamon and eggs. Beat, then bake at 400 degrees F. in metal loaf pan for 20 minutes. Cover with the following.

Icing:

1 stick butter

4 Tablespoons cocoa

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar,sifted

6 Tablespoons milk

1 cup pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring butter,cocoa, and milk to boil. Add powdered sugar,vanilla and pecans. Beat well and pour over cake while hot.

Options: No nuts needed

For the perfect addition to this recipe, pour a tall glass of cold milk or add a big dip of vanilla ice cream!

Birthday Cake Traditions

As I was mixing birthday cake batter for my oldest son's birthday, I thought about the many birthday cakes my mother-in-law baked for our family and friends during her lifetime. For every birthday in our family, she baked an angel food cake and iced it with seven minute frosting. When my sons were little, she would make miniature angel food cakes, frost them and allow the boys to decorate them with sprinkles and eat them with their fingers. Icing would be from head to toe and anything they touched. As the boys grew older, the angel food cake was an expected part of every birthday. Since the passing of my mother-in-law, I now proudly continue the birthday cake tradition. Cody's requested cake today was Chocolate Sheath Cake. I hope that I don't get the request for the seven minute frosting because although it is beautiful to look at, I'm more of a powdered sugar and cream cheese icing kind of dairymom! Chocolate Sheath Cake is a family favorite and a great cake for any occasion.

Chocolate Sheath Cake

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup Crisco

4 Tbsp cocoa

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

2 eggs slightly beaten

Bring butter,Crisco,cocoa and water to a rapid boil. Pour over the sugar and flour and beat well.

Add buttermilk and soda, vanilla and eggs. Beat, then bake at 400 degrees F. in metal loaf pan for 20 minutes. Cover with icing.

Icing:

1 stick butter

4 Tbsp cocoa

6 Tbsp milk

1 cup pecans (optional)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Bring butter,cocoa, and milk to boil. Add the powdered sugar,vanilla and pecans. Beat well and pour over cake while hot.

Just before serving, add a great big dip of vanilla ice cream!