YUM!!!

and your nickname is......?

Oh...my...must make this the next time we have a lot of people over, otherwise I could probably eat it all myself. I swear, I my butt grew just *reading* it.

A BOX of powdered sugar?!?!?!

Does this go into a 9 x 13 or 8 x 8 inch cake pan?

My nickname is chu, pronounced "choo" ... don't ask. Long story LOL.

Maggie, 9 x13, I think. Like the size of a sheet cake? Let me call my mom, hang on...

OMG! I must order my husband to make that for me! (I am a menace in the kitchen!)

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?

add a teaspoon of cinnamon and this is the same
recipe i have been using for years - oh i use
milk in the icing instead of buttermilk and
usually use more powdered sugar and the mixer at
a fairly high speed.

the cinnamon just adds a little different flavor

i was recently given a recipe that the cake was
cooled in the refrigator and a mix of peanut
butter with a little oil - to help it spread
better and then the icing was made uncooked -
just put in the mixer

spam comments, I hate them. I delete about eleventeen hundreed a day.

How rude can some advertisers get. Geez. Good job wiping it OUT!
A Cake from scratch. I hope Betty Crocker doesn't mind if I skip the box.

Well, if I would have read yesterday's posting first I would have gotten the 9 x 13 info. Sorry!

Maggie... I called my mom to double check (I am NOT the least bit a cook-type person LOL) (or a math type person) so I wasn't sure. She said yes, the bigger cake pan size. I hope you make it and like it! Will you let me know what you think?

Oma is also the Dutch word for Grandma, incidentally. And there's different words for your mum's mum and your dad's mum. Your dad's mum is Omi, and your mum's mum is Oma. Which is weird, but I felt like sharing.

And I've done that cake. It just kills my thighs, so it's for REALLY bad days only. Food for comfort all the way.

Also, the "what the hell was that" comments are about a comment I deleted. It was some annoying comment spam. Why do people do that? Do they even get paid to do it, or ya'll think they do it out of meanness?

Yummy - this is definetly being made this weekend for some guests and leftovers will be going on our Mother's Day picnic. Thanks for the share.

spam/ spammers are spawned from pure evil - and lack of chocolate cake.

Laurie, Doesn't your server allow you to do the secure comment thing where the commentor has to type in some garbled bunch of letters? I know the free blog sites let you set that up.

I can't WAIT to try that cake!!!

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse everyone with my comment! I just didn't understand. Obviously, I am easily confused.

nothin is as good as chocolate! i can't seem to get my husband to understand this. Grandma used to make this yummy coconut cake, and, in the center was some kind of pudding with nuts. So good!

This was my mom's standard potluck dessert cake (and if she didn't bring it there was H*LL to pay!). We call it Texas sheet cake and always baked it in a 13x9 (for thick chunks) or in a 15x1-1/2 "jelly-roll" pan for bigger but flatter pieces. Mmmmm. Haven't made one since my Mom passed away 16 yrs ago. Way past time. Gotta go get some buttermilk, and I guess I'll make some Irish soda bread or raisin bran muffins too so the extra buttermilk doesn't go to waste.

Okay, this is probably really dumb, but by "soda" you mean "baking soda" - right?

Just checking. Because you know, stranger things have been added to cakes than fizzy beverages.

hehehe... yes, baking soda. I will edit it ;)

I should just go to the gym right now!! Sounds yummy :-) Hope the little ones are doing good today!

Imaginarymaggie - I think the box of powdered sugar should be a pound - or 2 cups. Also, is there something about CAP that attracts the Maggie/Mags crowd? Weird, huh?

I was just going to write about the Dutch word! In my family we say "Beppe" (beppuh) for grandma, but that's Frisian. Different from the Dutchies. I've never had a grandpa who was alive when I was around, so I don't know what the Frisian word is for grandfather. Anyway... I'm rambling.

This reminds me a lot of a sheet cake recipe my mom used to make. Regardless, it sounds GOOD and I must make it shortly. Like tonight.

Hope things are better with the kittens! Hey - keep adding to the cafe press site! I may have to get a Soba mug. My husband will think I'm a stalker, but we all must bow to the Soba.

Are the cats home, by the way? (Sorry if I missed something obvious).

Throw a little cinnamon into the batter and you've got what I've always known as a "Texas Sheet Cake". It was our traditional birthday cake growing up. I make the Cooking Light (Light means you can have more, right?) version occasionally and freeze the leftovers. So yummy!

My arteries hardened as I was reading. Plus I have two new cavities spawned from the box of powdered sugar.

Weight Watchers has officially given up on me. Screw them. I want cake.

SO happy to see this recipe!

OH MY GAWD!!! This is what my PMS needs! And it is cold and nasty here so it will taste even better. I'm so making this tonight. You are an angel.

Thank you thank you!! i can't wait to go home and cook!

how are the kids?

Holy crap, I have MAJOR cake cravings now.

This was the conversation at my house last night:

Me: you have to pack your lunch this week so I can give to purl's kitty fund.
BF: I have to pack MY lunch so you can give a girl you don't know money?
Me: yes.
BF: ok.

Then I pointed out that I totally know you--we have lunch together every single day! (Sort of). Hope the babies come home soon!

Your cake sounds delicious -- I will have to try it very very soon! But... what is a "box" of powdered sugar? Could you give the measurement please? Here icing sugar comes in bags.

May I suggest one modification to your recipe?

...Poke a few holes in the cake with the thin handle of a wooden spoon. Ice cake while hot, then use the wooden spoon to eat cake directly from the pan.

*drool*

Oh, yum. I will be making this, too!

BTW, in some of your latest posts, you discuss the friendliness and love of food of Southerners (crap...I've forgotten how to spell....).

What's your take on "Yes ma'am" and "No ma'am"?

I was born and raised in SC. I was taught to say both and would be reprimanded (as an adult) if I forgot and didn't say it to my dad before he died.

I've become lax with the kids (14yo girl & 12 yo boy). I let them slide with me, but they better be respectful when speaking to others.

If you worshipped her you could say "Oma-god, that cake is so good.."

clearly a healthy lo-cal dessert offering.

maybe i'll make it for the NH Sheep and Wool festival picnic.

My goodness, I'm with Karen. What good is health without cake?

My niece is nicknamed "Shushu," because her older sister couldn't pronounce the word "sister." Is that similar to how you got your nickname?

LOL Drew!

Thank you for the recipe. I must not mention it to my aunts though. Otherwise they will be begging me to bake it for them. They are already talking about Lane Cake as it is.

I absolutely love your blog and happened to come across a glowing review of it as well here

http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/05/06/crochet_me_a_river.php#comments

Congrats and hope the kitties are doing well....

That cake sounds deadly!

It is cold and rainy here so I think I will make your cake so the boys can have some after school. Your post yesterday had my mouth watering! I was thinking about going home to surprize my mom for Mothers day but now I think I need to go home to get some home cooking ;) Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Hope all the fur kids are getting better and come home soon.

Yow! Whadda recipe! I will most definitely try this one out! BTW, I thought of you this morning while I was munching on a sausage biscuit made with homemade smoked sausage from Virginny. Pigmeat rocks.

Oh yeah, I keep meaning to ask you - when you lived in Nashville, did you ever see a band called the Planet Rockers? Eddie Angel was their lead guitarist. They were playing music in Nashville around 1990 - 1995, I think.

I absolutely love your blog and happened to come across a glowing review of it as well here

http://www.laist.com/archives/2006/05/06/crochet_me_a_river.php#comments

Congrats and hope the kitties are doing well....

You are officially my favorite person for today.

I remember that recipe...we called it Texas Sheet Cake...and made it on a cookie sheet. Also known as Meinder brownies...as the Meinders called them brownies...
How are the kitties????

we just one of our 5 cats spayed yesterday--yikes! How are you doing with all the vet bills? I don't know which is more expensive: kids or pets!

Yay, cake!

I hope the patients are improving. My two Yorkies made a small donation to the Kitty fund yesterday. We are thinking good thoughts for you and hoping you have all four of your friends home very soon.

I have a similar recipe only mine is for lemon cake...make the lemon cake (I just make one from a box) and then mix lemon jello mix, powdered sugar and the juice from one lemon and pour it over the cake. It is pucker-licious!

I called my grandfather "Bakka" for years when I was little (sort of an approximation of "grampa". I found out in high school from a Japanese friend that "Bakka" means "fool" in Japanese. I told my grandfather I'd been calling him "fool" all that time. Good thing he had a sense of humor about it!

O. M. G. I have a cookbook called "The All-Butter, Fresh-Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book." It doesn't have your recipe in it, but it should.

If you will excuse me, I have to go to the grocery store...

YUM!

Ever since I posted the funeral potato recipe yesterday I have been dying for it and yummy spiral cut ham.

My parents are Oma and Opa to my kids too. They are coming in this weekend...now I have a reason to make all of that and your cake too.

Although the death by chocolate cake posted in yesterday's comments looks awesome too!

BTW, did you know that if you take a box mix and use your mixer on it for about 10 minutes you will get the lightest fluffiest cake ever! (The cheaper the box mix the better!)

Also, 7UP in pie crust makes it super flaky!

I told my aunt last night about the mention of hashbrown casserole. She said, "They make it at Cracker Barrel and our cousin has their recipe for it."

Oh. My. God.

This cake is a chocoholic's DREAM!!! I MUST try this recipe right away!! :-)

Thanks for sharing, Laurie!

Okay, a friend of mine has a curious problem, and I think maybe you, the loyal readers of Auntie Purl, and mebbe even Purl herself, might be able to help her. Of course y'all will definitely think I am quite mad, but here goes. My friend owns a farm, and she works with the local animal control folks to foster the large animals that they pick up (strays, abuse cases etc). Well, she knows what to do with horses, sheep, goats, cattle, even emus, but she is a bit flummoxed about the pig she just received. Due to pasture restrictions, she can't really turn him out to forage in her pastures (which is what she would normally do). So, can pigs eat sweet feed? She knows she can go to the feed store and get pig food, but she isn't sure how long she is going to have Piggie. So she thought maybe just regular horse sweet feed could do the trick. Any thoughts out there? I know there are a buncha former/current farmgirls who read this blog. On behalf of my friend, and Piggie, Thanks!

My cake is almost finished. I used the recipe and even took photos as I went along. I'll send them to you at your crazytourist email as soon as I finish up.

It SMELLS heavenly!!

pigs can eat just about anything. we used to slop the hogs with mash (ground corn mixed with water, table scraps, leftover milk, stale bread etc). they like beer too, not that i'm advocating sharing your heifewiezen.

they like to root around and eat stuff they find in the ground. i once saw them eat a chicken that wandered into their pen. the savagery of the attack gave me new respect for their size and teeth.

OMG! That's my Mamaw's (a.k.a grandma's) recipe except we use regular mik and add pecans to the frosting!!! whoa!! must be 'cause we're southeners and have a germa heritage!!! crazy!

Any world on when Frankie and Bob plan to stage the big prison break?

Thanks for posting that recipe. It sounds divine!

Hope your little fur children are home with you soon! I have four cats, too, and I know it's agonizing when they get sick.

Love your blog. Can't wait to bake the cake! I donated some funds in honor of the cake and in memory of "Puddles", our 20-year-old kittie who left us last week. Take care of the fur babies.

Sweet Mary's Mother in the Morning woman, I think I just had a heart attack reading that recipe.

I am, of course, grabbing my keys right now to go to the store and buy all the ingredients. I am, you know, not stupid. :)

Mmmmm...cake...

Love & positive energy to the furballs!

I think you should bake two of these cakes.

And take 'em to SnB - to make up for missing Darci's cupcakes. :)

Of course, I won't be there this week, so it works out well for me!

My husband's mother makes this. Yummy!!! But she doesn't poke holes and ice it while it's hot!! Now that sounds good to do on every cake all the time!!!!!

I hope things are better for you today.
Thanks for the cake recipe!!

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!! I just went to your cafe press page. THANK THE GODS you don't have UniKitty on a t-shirt, b/c then I would be spending WAAAAAAY too much money (hint, hint). But it's all for a good cause, right?

Thanks smokeyJoe! My friend will slop accordingly. And she has already said she will not be sharing her beer with Piggie... :-)

Gotta love chocolate sheet cake. This was a favorite in my house growing up too!!

Oh MY GOD. Diet, Schmiet, I think i know what i want for my next cheat day. Do you spose i could make it in cupcake form and freeze a bunch for "emergencies"? Maybe i'll make it for the memorial day cook out.

Thanks Purl. Now I have to go out and buy shortening, butter, cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking soda, vanilla, buttermilk AND a cake pan because I don't bake or keep any of those things in the house, but I simply must make this cake.

I only have eggs and water. You'd think I'd be thinner.

Okay this is totally unrealated to cake and I don't mean to offend anyone.
Mom and Dad once had a pig named Purla. My cousin would give us the fruits and veggies that were thrown out from the store where he worked. But there were 12 kids in my family that also need to be fed. So we would pick through and eat the not so bad fruits and veggies before we gave it to Purla. We were always hungry and would eat almost anything. We found Purla dead one morning and weren't sure how she died. Dad didn't want to eat her for fear she had died of some disease but my Mom didn't allow anything to go to waste so we ate her and nobody got sick. The bucher found a bullet hole where somebody had shot her. She was tasty.

OMG what is that pig story? You are right - it's not related to cake at all.

Sounds great, though, I don't know what is 'shortening' and 'butter milk'... Have to check from dictionary. I really like to try new recipes from different countries!!

Cake cake cake cake. Ice cream. cake cake cake.

And I agree with Jenny's post -
Me: Purl's cats are sick.
CatMan: All of them?
Me: Yeah. Frankie and Bob in the hospital. Fluids.
CatMan: That totally sucks.
Me: She needs wine. Yarn. Vet bills. I'm sending $.
CatMan: Make sure she buys wine first.

Oh, I had an Oma as well (German on my mother's side). Not known for her cakes, though. Probably because you can *buy* such fantastic cakes there.
Your Oma's recipe sounds fabulous, though. Must try it! Thanks for sharing.

Hope the fur-babies get better quick and come home to you soon! xx

Thanks for sharing the recipe! I hope that the kitties are doing better. My 3 cats send them meow-meow thoughts and are chittering at the birds for them. (As an aside, and totally off-topic...I had to pull fishing line out of the black cat's butt yesterday. That was a first...and not particularly entertaining.)

I've been reading through your archives, and aside from making an idiot of myself crying over your blog at my desk, I had to go buy wine on the way home! Honey, I need to say thanks for bringing me back to the fold. We used to buy a case at a time, but lately we haven't had the funds to make such a purchase all at once. The problem is then we just didn't buy any at all. And that was sad, sad, sad. (Don't worry- the gin helped)

So, cheers to you, you crazy thing, you!

We had this as Texas Sheet Cake when I was a kid -- but there were walnuts in the frosting, and it was always made in a jelly roll pan (what I called a "cookie sheet" for years, and only in the last couple of years found out its real name -- and I bake all the time!).

My folks are coming to town next week. I think I have a dessert possibility....

Computer spam = bad.

Vet bills = bad.

Cake = good. Very, very good.

Thank you for sharing the recipe! I adore cake and can't wait to try this one out.

Finally, if you created some faux Prison Break poster with the cats, I would love you forever. Hee.

Uhoava, shortening is just a term for solid fat used for cooking (as opposed to say, my thighs or my butt which are also solid fat but not used for cooking. I hope.). My understanding is that it usually refers to something like Crisco (hydrogenated vegetable shortening), lard (especially in the SOUTH where there is great fondness for deliciously flaky piecrusts and all things porcine), butter, margarine (aka oleo). I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean liquid fat such as vegetable oil.
Buttermilk is a by-product of butter manufacture. Supposedly it's more mostly used for cooking, not drinking outright (although you can) and gives a slight sharpness to your baked goods. I doubt I could find it in a regular supermarket here in the Boston area, but a specialty market here might have it. According to the Fannie Farmer cookbook you can also use "soured" milk as a substitute for buttermilk (pasteurized milk will spoil rather than sour acc to FF) which is no more than plain milk and a small amount of vinegar (1 tablespoonful or 15ml of white vinegar to 1 cup (about 240ml) of milk. So there is a reasonable substitute to the buttermilk if you can't find it.
Hope this helps; I'm no cook or baker but would Fannie Farmer lie to me? If wrong PLEASE correct me!

Yep, to me it's a Texas sheet cake and oh my, are they good!!! What do you know, I have buttermilk in the fridge:)

Ohhhh... that is MY oma's recipe too! But we called her Rannie (short for Miranda, and I am her namesake, us being good Southerners too, we are also a nickname family, boy that is an awkward little aside)... might just have to go and make me one...mmm...thanks for sharing!!

I am so sorry for so many of you! While reading yesterday, my thought was, "well that's Texas sheet cake"! I've assumed this was on everyone's "comfort food" list. If not you must make it as soon as possible. It is the BEST and easiest chocolate cake in the world (NOTE: you MUST spread the icing on the warm/hot cake). With or without nuts--either way is fabulous.

Not too sweet but will cure ALL chocolate attacks and will erase most emotional upsets. Trust me, you won't even notice all the butter and powdered sugar. . . while you're eating it.

My MIL is Dutch and the grandchildren call her Oma. She has a recipe for chocolate cake very similar to this and it's beyond yummy and incredibly rich. I think it's the buttermilk that gives it the extra kick.

My mouth is watering just reading this!
Mia

What I miss by not being Southern.

Another Cafepress suggestion: Mary Poppins Gang t-shirts, perhaps with the "I'm from LA and I'll bust your ass" (think I got that more or less right).

I would also really like a mug with that cartoon that heads the ad: "It's good. It's not coffee. But it's good."

oh, yum!!!

Sue, that sounds about right -- the buttermilk substitute that is. There is also a powder that can be purchased in grocery stores that turns regular milk into buttermilk.

try just a little coffee in your icing, boy is that good!

OK.. so want to make the cake.. but..
What is a stick of butter? 1 cup? 1/2 cup? 1/4?
and how much is box of powdered sugar???

Help !

my mother in law makes something similar, she pokes holes (big holes) in the cake and then melts HOT FUDGE and pours into holes and then frosts with whippy cream and crumbled butterfinger candy bars and then refridgerated... i also work with a mormon woman who has made "funeral potatoes" which sounds the same as the hashbrown casserole. i'm mexican and a meal isn't complete in our house that isn't deep fried, covered in cheese and mothered in chile... long live comfort food!!!!

make that Smothered...not Mothered in chile...although mexican moms do mother their children in chile...freudian slip.

Thank you so much for the recipe! My grandmother used to make something similar, but she didn't measure. None of us were able to figure out how to make it before she died. I'll be making this tonight to find out if it's the same!

Oh.My.God. This cake is fantastic!!! I made it yesterday - soooo easy, too - and it's just heaven. Thank you thank you thank you for sharing xxxxx

OH MY GOD! Goddess of knitting, cat wrangler AND a cake baker! I am not worthy! Love your site.