Grandma & the Texas Sheet Cake recipe

My Grandma was such a unique person, she was a pioneer in so many ways! She married my Grandfather in 1929, he was literally a "one arm house painter."

Grandpa lost his left arm when he was 19 from a misfiring shotgun. He was hunting on horseback and was in the woods alone. After the injury he passed out on his horse & the horse took him back home. He always laughed and told me" I survived WWI and blew my own arm off!" He was so funny, loved life & never let his lack of a left arm slow him down.

They lived in rural Central Texas on a farm, raised cattle & cotton. Grandpa was the county Tax Assessor & House Painter.  Grandma was a preacher! What a combination...

Grandma was such a serious soul. It was hard to get her to laugh, she was so intense about everything. She loved her family incredibly and wanted to help everyone around her. She was going to being a school teacher but felt that God wanted her to be a preacher.

She would have made a good teacher but I would have felt so sorry for those students! Grandma was a strict disciplinarian to say the least. So God knew what he was doing when he lead her down the path to preaching. Although it wasn't common in those days for a lady to preach, no one ever called Grandma ordinary!

During the 1940's they pastored a church in Beat Five, Texas. She would always tell me "I left all the dealings to the men, I just preached & prayed!" And a great preacher she was!! She could make me shake in my shoes when she preached, mostly because I was afraid she would use me for an example in her sermons.

She taught me so much about being my best, but mostly she gave me unconditional love. She taught me to cook & show hospitality to everyone who entered my home. My love of cooking & feeding others comes from years of watching my grandmothers lovingly prepare food for their families.

Grandma was a stickler on the rules. I tend to see most things as black & white, I'm sure that came from her too! I appreciate this heritage more than I can say. She shaped me into the strong woman I am today.

Thinking about the holidays always reminds me of those who are no longer with us, but when we cook their recipes they live on in our minds.  My grandma always made a Texas Sheet Cake. She was so funny, she would put pecan halves on top so there would be 20 pieces with a pecan half on each one. We all expected that cake, and as you can see in the picture, even after she was well up in age she still felt like she had to make it. She said it just wasn't a holiday dinner if she didn't!

Holiday cooking is a heritage to pass on to our children & grandchildren. Start traditions with your families now & one day they will just have to have that "Texas Sheet Cake" memory of you for the holiday's.

I am happy to share this recipe with you, it's a common one but Grandma's was just a little better! Think that may be a childlike belief...but hey it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Grandma wouldn't use store bought pecans, they had to come from a friends tree & she had to shell them herself...wonder where I get the set in my ways behavior?

Texas Sheet Cake

CAKE

1 stick margarine

1/2 c. shortening ( these two can be replaced with 2 sticks of butter)

1 cup water

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 c. buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

ICING

1/2 cup butter or margarine

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 lb ( 2 cups) powdered sugar

6 tablespoons milk

1 cup chopped pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For the cake, combine the butter, water and cocoa in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat. In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.  Add the butter mixture all at once, and stir to blend.  Whisk eggs and buttermilk together, add to the batter and mix well.  Pour the batter into a 9x13 pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Just before the cake is done, make the icing: Combine the butter, milk, and cocoa in a large, heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, mix well. Add the icing to the cake while it is still warm & pours easily then add the pecans. Grandma used halves, but I used chopped sometimes, hope she doesn't know!

Granny's Fig Preserves Cake

My Dad's mother was so much fun, that is her sitting on a rock in the middle of the river. Notice the lady in the photo with her, she has a pair of dress shoes in her hand. They were probably at a family reunion, dressed up for it & my sweet grandmother thought a wade in the river would make the day better!  Granny was the kind of grandmother that would get in trouble with our Mom's for letting us play outside in mud puddles in the rain! She was mischievous, laughed all the time & had the best sense of humor ever! She raised three sons who were all gentle, kind & wonderful men. I miss her everyday!

I was very blessed to have Grandmothers who were incredible Southern cooks. They were young brides during the Great Depression & sometimes ingredients were not always available. Going through a box of photos that belonged to my Granny, I found a hand written recipe on a yellowed scrap of paper. It was titled "Fig Cake", that got my attention right away, I love figs & if Granny thought it was worth saving..it had to be good!

Granny's Fig Preserves Cake

1 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp white vinegar

2 cups fig preserves

1 cup chopped nuts

Bake in a tube pan or bundt pan. Rub pan with solid shortening & dust with flour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a mixing bowl combine oil & sugar, beat at medium speed until well blended.

Add the 3 eggs to the oil & sugar mixture & beat till foamy, about 2 minutes.

In a separate large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon & baking soda.

Slowly add to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl with mixer on low speed. After all the dry ingredients are mixed in , add the vinegar , fig preserves, & nuts.

Mix at low speed until all ingredients are blended, about 1 minute should do it, don't over beat.

Pour into the prepared pan, batter is thick so will have to be spread in pan.

Bake for 1 hour, let cook & remove from pan

Cinnamon Vanilla Glaze

1/4 cup half & half or milk

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 to 1 cup of powdered sugar

Heat half & half over low heat, add the cinnamon & vanilla. Mix well & turn off heat.

Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, mixing well. 

Add more powdered sugar to create the thickness of glaze that you like.

Drizzle over warm baked cake, It will harden as it cools.

Granny didn't use the glaze, that's my recipe but I think she would have approved!

This is a delicious cake that brings back such great memories of warm toast with fig preserves spread on top. It's easy & quick, I hope you try it & let me know what you think.

John & Paula's Whipped Pies...oh my!

Okay, to start this blog post I will confess, I love sweets & hate to cook them. I just don't follow rules very well & baking is just full of those pesky directions. I can do it, I will do it, but I don't enjoy it as much as savory dishes. When a person who doesn't like to be pushed into a mold is told to measure 1/16th tsp of something we get a little crazy...what will 1/16th of a teaspoon really do to a dish? So when I see a dessert recipe that makes my life easier & is fun to make then I really like it! When it tastes incredible & you want to hide it from others..then you really love it!

Robert Medina's new cookbook "If You Can't Stand The Heat,A New Orleans Firefighter's Cookbook" is coming out on July 12, 2011. This great cookbook can be ordered at Barnes & Nobles or Amazon online. If you only get one cookbook this year, then this is the book to get.

The recipes are easy & they are pure Southern style, with a true Cajun flare that makes you hear Zydeco music in your head! Well, maybe I'm listening to it on You-Tube right now, but....you get the point!

Cajun & Creole food are two individual styles of cooking, although they both share many of the same foods. Creole foods are strongly influenced by the French settlers that tend to be more refined & celebrated. Cajun food is rustic, real & can accommodate changes to what is available.

Robert's cookbook includes many different foods; Enchilada's, Venison Tenderloin Marsala, Smoky Barbeque Pork Ribs, Cedar-Smoke Salmon, & Lasagna a la Lori just to start... It's not all about Cajun & Creole, just about good food cooked for those you love! That's what makes a true cook happy & that's what we like to do in the South...feed people & see them smile!

Robert's recipe for John & Paula's Whipped Pies on page 327 is my new favorite sweet addiction. It is so easy to make & looks like you worked all day making it. It's only 5 ingredients, stirs up in one bowl & pours into a graham cracker pie shell. Chill it while you sleep & it's ready to go! You will look like you worked all day on it. If you're nice, tell others how you made it, if you're not so nice...tell them it takes more than a few hours to make & let them be in awe of you! That isn't lying, it has to chill overnight doesn't it?

The recipe is for a pineapple pie, but you can make it with lots of different canned fruits or pie fillings. I am dreaming of a Chocolate Blueberry Whipped Pie in my future soon. I will resist the urge to hide it from my family...hope it works!