Light As a Feather Chocolate Sheet Cake

I’m sure you’re like me and you visit food blogs galore and then one post just hits you so hard you have to go to the kitchen right that minute and make whatever it was that hit your hot button?  Surely I’m not the only one.  It happened to me again today.  I was doing the rounds of my favorite bloggers and I visited Add A Pinch and saw her mother’s chocolate sheet cake.  It looked so moist and chocolatey and I knew I had all the ingredients.  I was salivating as I went down the stairs to the kitchen.

Those of you in the US just open the fridge and get out a stick of butter that her recipe calls for and pop it in the pan, right?  Well, I speak American but I live in Australia and our butter comes in 250 or 500 grams.  NOT four ounces.

Robyn’s mother’s cake is so easy and quick to make, I can’t imagine not making it often.  You melt butter and add the cocoa in a heavy bottomed pan.

Then once it’s melted and combined, toss in all the dry ingredients and stir.

Once that’s mixed together add the eggs one at a time.  This gives me an opportunity to beg you, if you aren’t already using free range eggs, please do it.  Do it for the girls who lay these eggs.  Chickens might not be too bright but if you’ve ever owned any you’d never buy caged eggs again. See how yellow the yolk is?  That’s because the girl who laid this egg got fresh green goodies and bugs to eat.

Once the eggs are in add in 1/2 cup of buttermilk and some baking soda.  This was the only bit that took a few minutes.  I kept thinking the buttermilk was never going to incorporate but I was just being impatient.

That’s it, toss it in a 9 x 13 pan. (if you wondered, no, our pans come in metric sizes and 9 x 13 doesn’t exist here.  I did the best I could and extended the cooking time just a bit and the cake was perfect.)

Once the cake comes out of the oven  you pour over the icing onto the warm cake and then you’re supposed to wait until it cools and then cut it and eat it.  I couldn’t wait.  As soon as the icing was just a bit tacky I dived in with a big spoon.  I lost the corners but I’m sure you’ll forgive me.  It was SO good.

 

I made the cake at 10am and by 11am I’d already eaten a piece of it.  I know.. hell in a handbasket day, but I have NO regrets.  Thanks to Robyn’s mother you can get the full recipe for Chocolate Sheet Cake at Add A Pinch.  I don’t post someone else’s recipes on my site — it’s just not the right thing to do.  While you’re at it, follow her on twitter @addapinch.

The only thing I changed from Robyn’s recipe was that I added just a slurp of corn syrup to the icing to keep it shiny, otherwise I followed it exactly.