Cookin' It Up In Texas: Almond Joy Texas Sheet Cake

We're big chocolate fans. Add in some coconut and boy, we're in pure bliss! Here's a recipe for a sheet cake i came up with this weekend after hubby bought me a lovely bouquet of flowers, for no certain reason, just because. I had to return the sweet gesture = Happy Marriage!

This recipe was inspired by one from the Pioneer Woman, she really has some nice recipes! A link to the original can be found here- The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever It really is the best chocolate sheet cake ever! Kicking it up a notch here with a sweet coconut layer and sliced almonds to top it all off. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
4 Heaping Tablespoons Cocoa
2 Sticks of Butter
1 Cup Boiling Water
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs Beaten
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

For the coconut layer:

2 Tablespoons Butter Room Temperature
2/3 Cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
2 1/4 Cups Coconut Flakes

For the icing:

1 3/4 Sticks of Butter
4 Heaping Tablespoons Cocoa
6 Tablespoons of Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Generous Cups of Powdered Sugar

For the topping:

1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds

First off set out all of the ingredients, it will make the process much easier.

For the cake you'll need a jelly roll pan, i'm not sure what the measurements of my pan are but on the original recipe she uses a 18 x 13 pan. I did have to increase my bake time by about a few minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour your jelly roll pan or spray with a cooking spray thats made for baking.

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar and salt. Stir and set aside.

In a small sauce pan melt butter on medium heat. Add cocoa and stir well. Add boiling water, allow to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mix and stir lightly to cool.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl or cup measure out buttermilk, if you don't have buttermilk on hand you can fill a measuring cup to just under 1/2 cup and add vinegar to make it a half cup.

To the buttermilk, add beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla extract. Stir well and add to chocolate mixture. Stirring until well incorporated. Pour into prepared jelly roll pan and bake 20-25 minutes.

While your cake is baking, prepare coconut layer and icing.

For the coconut layer, in a medium size bowl combine butter, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract. Stir. Add in powdered sugar stirring until well combined. Add coconut. Stir well and set aside, do not refrigerate.

For the icing, melt butter in medium size saucepan on medium heat.
Add cocoa stir well, remove from heat. Add milk and vanilla. Stir until well incorporated. Add powdered sugar and stir until combined. Set aside.

Cake is done when toothpick inserted into middle is clean. Once cake is done remove from oven and immediately pour the coconut mix over the top of cake spreading gently covering the whole cake. Pour icing as evenly as you can over the top of cake. Top with sliced almonds. Let cool and serve.