Texas Chocolate "Sheath" Cake

First Published Here in 2008

How Hershey's Kisses, Hershey's Cocoa,
and Crisco Make my Cakes Perfect

There are a great number of chocoholics in this world! I guess I have loved chocolate ever since I tasted my first Kiss! Hershey's Kisses turned 100 years old in 2007, having first come on the market in 1907. Wow! They are a favorite of so many, too. But Hershey's chocolate can be found in Kit Kats, Ice Breakers, Almond Joy, Mounds, Twizzlers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, York Peppermint Patties and more. Whatever your preference, Hershey's chocolate is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.

For Hershey's Kisses birthday, Hershey created "The World's Largest HERSHEY'S KISSES Chocolate" in Hershey, Pennsylvania, The Sweetest Place on Earth. It weighed 30,540 pounds and was wrapped in silver foil with a giant plume. Guinness World Records weighed the giant Kiss at a private birthday party on July 7, 2007 and it was on display at Hershey's Chocolate World through July 12^th of last year.

Hershey's cocoa powder has been a staple in my grandmother's, mother's, and my kitchen since each of us set up housekeeping. Grandma began her marriage in 1919 with a box of the indispensable cocoa powder in her pantry. My stepmother began cooking for her family in 1942 and I began in 1964. I think it's amazing that that little brown box has been with us through all of these years!

According to their website "HERSHEY'S Cocoa debuted in 1894 when Milton Hershey founded Hershey Chocolate Company. The item was initially sold as a beverage mix. In fact, 'Great for Baking' was added to the can as a reminder that Cocoa could be included in baked goods as well. Today most HERSHEY'S Cocoa is used for baking... and it's still great!"

I want to share my recipe for one of the absolutely best chocolate cakes you have ever tasted. My stepmother used to make it for us often, and it is one that at least one of us kids asked for every time we had a special occasion. The cake found its way into the kitchen of my grandmother and aunt Irene often, as well. You can see Grandma Gailey working in her kitchen west of Mineral Wells in the late 1950s.

The cake is laced with the wonderful taste and aroma of cinnamon. Baked in a "sheath" pan - better known as a rectangular 9x13x2-inch baking dish or sheet pan - it is quick to make and very satisfying.

  

Directions and Ingredients

2 cups granulated sugar

2 cups plain flour

Place the above ingredients into a large mixing bowl.½ cup Crisco solid vegetable shortening

4 tablespoons Hershey's cocoa powder

1 stick margarine or butter

1 cup water

Bring the above 4 ingredients to a rapid boil in a saucepan. After it comes to a rapid boil, pour it over the sugar and flour mixture. Mix together using an electric mixer.

Add:

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup buttermilk

2 eggs

Pour into a prepared oblong baking pan that has been lightly greased with Crisco or butter and lightly floured to prevent sticking. Instead of using Crisco and flour, I sometimes use a no-stick spray such as Pam or Crisco no-stick spray with flour already in it, and then I sprinkle granulated sugar on top of that in the bottom of baking pan.

According to their website, "Crisco® Cooking Spray contains no alcohol and offers 575 servings per can. Also, it combines Crisco 100% Canola Oil with Pillsbury® flour for easier, tastier, and healthier baking."

Bake cake in a 350º oven for 30 minutes, or until it is done. Cake is done when it pulls slightly away from edges of pan and a toothpick placed into center of cake is clean when removed. It can also be tested for doneness when the cake springs back when touched lightly in center.

Icing

4 tablespoons Hershey's cocoa powder

6 tablespoons milk

1 stick butter

1 box confectioner's powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Chopped pecans or walnuts

Place first 3 ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Then add the confectioner's powdered sugar, vanilla, and nuts.

Ice or frost the cake when both are cool.

I've found all kinds of helpful information at Hershey's. They have videos, baking tips, recipes, gifts, the history of Hershey's, a kids' section and more.

If you love chocolate and cinnamon, you'll love, love, love what we call in our kitchens, this Texas "Sheath" Cake!
Also published by Judy Shubert at Associated Content।

Cherry and Chocolate

Cherry Fudge Cake

1 box fudge cake mix
1 can cherry pie filling
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla

Mix by hand. Bake in tube pan at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.


Icing

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
5 tablespoons oleo (margarine)
package chocolate chips

Bring to boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the stove and beat in chocolate chips with mixer. Spread on cake.

From Granny Marilee's Recipe Box

Irene's Funeral Cake

I'm sure most of you have a favorite pound cake. My dear, sweet uncle Raymond loved everything his wife cooked, but this cake was one of his favorites. He liked to call it "Irene's Funeral Cake" because she always baked it when there was a death in the church family.

They both said that the moist center you get when the cake is baked is an indication of a perfectly baked pound cake.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
4 eggs
1 cup Crisco shortening
3 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring
1/2 teaspoon orange flavoring

Directions:
Combine flour, salt, and soda and set aside. Cream sugar and Crisco shortening together; add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each. While continuing to mix, start adding flour mixture, then milk - a little of each at a time - ending with the flour mixture. Add lemon and orange flavoring. Batter will be thicker than a regular cake batter. Pour into a greased and floured tube or bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Enjoy!

My Disaster making Sour Cream Pound Cake

I don't know what happened to my pound cake! I have made Paula Deen's Grandmother's Sour Cream Pound Cake numerous times with success every time, but today something happened either in the oven or at the mixer.

About mid-way through the baking time I started smelling burned sugar - oh, no. I knew what I'd find when I peeked in the oven. Sure enough, the cake batter was spilling out over the sides of the bundt pan and down past the racks to the floor of my oven. A huge mess. But I left it to bake and eventually the timer went off and I removed the poor cake from the oven. It had obviously fallen in on itself. I quickly cleaned out the warm batter from the bottom of the oven and off of the racks while my "cake" cooled a little in the pan on the cutting board. When I finally got to the cake, I turned it out onto a cake plate and there were spots of teflon coating, of all things, in several places on the cake that had come off of my "old" bundt pan! Well, I cut that away - don't won't to poison anyone - and even cut away 1/4 of the cake and dumped that into the trash. I know, you're probably asking why I didn't just throw the whole thing away? Well, I have company coming this afternoon and my husband asked specifically for this cake. Any of you who know him will realize he doesn't do that very often, so I really wanted to please him. And I figure that since I have some sweetened strawberries and Cool Whip in the refrigerator, we can always disguise the cake, right?

Well, it's a poor excuse for a pound cake. I really don't know what happened. Like I said, I've made this very recipe several times. The humidity shouldn't be a problem. There isn't any! The only thing I can think of is the oven temperature was too low. The recipe calls for 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes and I honestly don't know if I've changed that to 350 degrees when I made the other cakes. I may have. I think it wasn't cooking fast enough. Does that sound logical? Also, maybe I beat the cake too much after adding the sour cream.

At any rate, we'll probably eat the cake smothered in strawberries and my husband and I won't say a word about our morning of disaster in the kitchen!

If you'd like a copy of Paula Deen's Sour Cream Pound Cake it is on her website here.
It's really a wonderful cake and I know you'll enjoy it. Maybe I was just having a really bad day. Sometimes we cooks have them, don't we?

Grandma Mildred’s Orange Slice Cake

Christmas and Thanksgiving have always been very popular holidays for the cooks in our family (and those who enjoy eating!), as I'm sure it is with most families. There is always a favorite dessert that someone requests and at our house Mom's Orange Slice Cake was one of those. I don't remember the grandchildren being especially fond of it, but for the adults it was one of those explode-in-your-mouth kind of tastes that you only experienced at that time of year. For one thing it's not something you would want to eat every Sunday afternoon! My goodness, how in the world would we ever get to our desired weight loss goal?

For the cake you will need:

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 lb. Dates, chopped

1 lb. Orange slice candy

2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup shredded coconut

3½ cups plain flour

1½ cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

Cream together 1 cup butter with 2 cups sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each. Mix chopped dates, chopped orange slice candy, pecans, and coconut with ½ cup of the flour; set aside.

Add ½ cup buttermilk to sugar mixture; beat well. Add baking soda to remaining buttermilk. Sift remaining flour and add to sugar mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in date mixture.

Turn into an oiled and floured tube pan. Bake in preheated 250º oven for 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Cool cake on rack for 10 minutes and then turn out of pan.

GLAZE:

1 cup orange juice

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons butter

Mix orange juice, confectioners’ sugar, and 2 tablespoons butter in saucepan. Heat, stirring until sugar and butter are melted. Pour over hot cake. Cool.

Enjoy this moist, delicious, beautiful cake next Thanksgiving or Christmas with Gratitude in your Heart and Praise to God on your lips.

Chess Cake Squares from Marilee

Yesterday my sister-in-law in Nashville, Tennessee, called to ask if I had her Mom's recipe for Chess Cake Squares. It was her son's 37th birthday on June 4th and that is the cake he requested for his celebration dinner last night. I didn't remember the recipe or the cake but I have a lot of Mom's recipe cards in a box that I brought home from Nashville after she died on January 11, 2000. My intention then (and now) was to somehow devise a way to make copies of all of them for the grandchildren in the family. There are 8 of them and I would love to surprise them with a group of recipes in their grandmother's handwriting that they can use and cherish. My sis-in-law's request has placed this on the fore-burner of "my list of things to get done SOON!" If anyone out there has any good ideas I'd really, really like to hear from you.

I found the recipe in the first handful of cards I picked up and read it to her on the phone. I'm sure she made a delicious version of this cake and it was enjoyed by all of the family there last night. Sure wish Shubert and I could have been there to enjoy it, too, and wish our nephew a "Happy Birthday".

In case you'd like to try this easy cake I've copied the recipe here for you. Bon Appétit!

CHESS CAKE SQUARES

1 box Butter Cake Mix (Duncan Hines)
1 egg
1 stick oleo (I'd substitute butter)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Mix the above ingredients. Pat the fairly dry mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. (Do not melt butter.)

8 ounces cream cheese
3 eggs
1 box powdered confectioners' sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Place the above 4 ingredients in the same bowl, mixing well. Pour over top of dry mixture in pan.

Bake 38-40 minutes at 350 degrees for metal pan, 325 degrees for glass pan.

Don't over cook!

And, yes, I DO plan to give that box of original recipes to my sister-in-law as SOON as I get them scanned into my computer!

My Favorite German Chocolate Cake

German Chocolate Cake is one of my family's favorite desserts for special occasions. I always thought it a little tricky to make because of the use of three layers. But as I've gotten older and more experienced in the kitchen I've found it's not difficult at all. There are a few tricks that will help you in the construction of this beautiful 3-layer German Chocolate Cake.

I found this written up in the Dallas Morning News twelve or fifteen years ago and added it to our Family Cookbook. You can find my article here on the pitfalls and successes of publishing our Family cookbook entitled "How to Put Your Family's Recipes Into a Cookbook Using WordPerfect."

I use this particular version of German Chocolate Cake when making cakes for a birthday party, a Christmas get-together, a reunion, or other special occasions.

The ingredients are as follows:

1 (4-ounce) package Baker's German's sweet baking chocolate

½ cup water

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

4 egg whites

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Line the bottoms of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with wax paper and set them aside. In a microwave, heat the chocolate and water in a large bowl on high for 1½-2 minutes or until the chocolate is almost melted, stirring halfway through heating time. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt and set the mixture aside. Beat margarine and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating after each until smooth.

Beat egg whites in another large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir egg whites into batter. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake 30 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched in the center. Immediately run a spatula between cakes and sides of pans. Cool 15 minutes; remove from the pans. Remove wax paper. Cool completely on wire racks. Spread coconut-pecan filling between layers and over top of cake.

Coconut-Pecan Filling and Frosting:

In a large saucepan, mix 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk, 1½ cups sugar, ¾ cup (1½ sticks) margarine or butter, 4 egg yolks (slightly beaten) and 1½ teaspoons vanilla. Cook and stir over medium heat about 12 minutes or until the mixture is thickened and golden brown. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 (7-ounce) package shredded sweetened coconut (about 2⅔ cups) and 1½ cups chopped pecans. Cool to room temperature.

The Bad News:

The Dallas Morning News reports that each serving has about 848 calories, 51 grams fat and 152 mg cholesterol. But, it sure is gooooood!

Helpful Hints:

If you freeze the layers for 30 minutes or an hour after they cool on the counter it will be easier to spread frosting on them. Lightly brush off any crumbs from the frozen layers and place them on wax paper as you're working on the frosting.

Place one of the cake layers in the middle of a cake plate, frost with about 1 cup of icing and top with a second cake layer. Frost the second layer and place the third cake layer on top. Frost the third layer with the rest of the icing. This cake typically does not have icing around the edges so if you want to frost the edges you will have to make more icing.

To make perfect egg whites use perfectly clean utensils. Place bowl (preferably glass or metal), electric mixer wire whip, and egg whites in refrigerator to get completely cold before beating.

Buttermilk Substitution

If you don't have buttermilk, mix up some soured milk to use as a substitute.

To make 1 cup of soured milk, place 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in a 1‑cup glass measuring cup. Add enough low‑fat (1% milkfat) milk to measure 1 cup; stir until mixed. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes in the refrigerator before using.

Hope you try this recipe and use it often!