Tree trunk Texas sheet cake!

I'm back! I unintentionally took a brief hiatus from blogging due to a super busy schedule. There are multiple cakes I've made and events I have assisted with in the past month, too many to throw in to one post so I'll pick my all-time favorite! The chocolate Texas Sheet Cake (some know it as Mississippi mud cake). One of my girlfriends at work got married May 4th and the week before we had a nice little gathering at a local restaurant for her bridal shower ( nothing wild or inappropriate). I wanted to make a cake that looked like a tree trunk as her wedding theme was rustic. I thought it'd be cute to have she and her fiance's name look like they carved it into the stump. I really wanted this cake to be rich and chocolaty so I went for my grandmas Texas Sheet Cake Recipe (scroll for recipe). For those of you who don't know Texas sheet cake is usually made in a jellyroll pan, which is similar to a cookie sheet in size but a little deeper in depth. You prepare the batter and bake the cake, then pour warm icing over top and refrigerate. It's not a decorative cake by any means... that's where the challenge began. 

I figured out that one recipe makes 3, 8 inch round cakes. I was afraid the cakes would stick to the pan because this is usually a cake you eat out of the pan you baked it in. I put some foil in the bottom center of each pan and that seemed to help when I flipped them to cool. I made the icing and refrigerated it for 10 minutes so it would be easier to spread without running all over the cake box. Make sure you decorate the cake on a rectangular board or a much larger diameter circle because some icing will pool at the bottom until you can fix it ( I'll get to that part). I poured one circle of icing onto the top very center of the bottom layer and started small and waited until the circle spread until it almost reached the edges, then stacked layer two repeated this step ( there will be some that oozes out the sides, that's okay). For the top I poured enough that covered the top and oozed over the sides ( save just a little icing for the stump top). I took a rubber spatula and scooped, then ran the oozing icing up the sides until it had the smallest amount of icing puddling at the bottom ( This took about 4-8 rotations of constantly bringing up the icing with the spatula). I promptly refrigerated the cake. 

Due to the texture of the icing I could still see the divisions between layers. I remembered I had some baking chocolate on hand and began shaving little bits of chocolate into a bowl. I put on a pair of gloves ( but you don't have to if you like getting messy more power to ya!). I took handfuls of the shaved chocolate and smacked them onto the sides of the cake to give it the tree bark texture, then promptly returned the cake to the refrigerator. I used icing lightener to get a lighter shade of brown for the top of the trunk and then spread that and made circles with the spatula on top to spread it around. For the names and heart written on the cake I used cold caramel dessert topping, put it in a icing bag and snipped a tiny hole. Last, but not least, I used some green butter cream icing and a grass tip to pipe grass around the base of the cake. For setup I used dried flowers to try and cover the base of the cake board. Keep it refrigerated as long as you can until you need it and even if you have to transport it 45 miles away it'll hold up, trust me! Here's the recipe........

Cake Ingredients

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup oil 

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

Cake Directions

1- Preheat oven to 400, DO NOT GREASE PAN

2- Mix dry stuff in a large bowl, set aside

3- Bring to boil; water, margarine, and oil

5- Pour over dry mixture, beat well

5- Add eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk, beat well

6- Pour into 10.5 x 15.5 ungreased pan and bake for 20 minutes only

Icing ingredients and directions

1- In a bowl, Melt 1 stick of margarine

2- Combine margarine with 1/3 cup buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla

3- In a separate larger bowl combine 1 pound of powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons cocoa

4- Pour liquid mixture over dry mixture and beat until smooth

5- Spread it over warm cake, then immediately refrigerate

**Side notes**

All ovens differ. I use a 10 inch round to make this in the traditional way but bake it for 35-40 minutes. The 20 minute rule is for a large jellyroll pan, adjust time as you see fit with any other size pans. The 3, 8 inch rounds for the tree trunk cake only took 20 minutes! Thank you as always for checking out my blog!