Chocolate Picnic Cake
Saturday’s book giveaway winner is commenter #4, Sheila. Congrats, Sheila!
This recipe is one that my sweet mother-in-law shared with me so many years ago that the paper is yellowing. (How am I old enough to have a recipe that old? Yikes!) In any case, this recipe is the easiest way ever to get a yummy-gooey-wonderful frosted chocolate cake to your table in 40 minutes flat.
Cake Ingredients:
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 2 sticks butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup water
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix sugar and flour in a bowl and set aside.Put butter, cocoa and water in a glass bowl and heat in microwave until butter is melted. Stir to combine, then pour over flour/sugar mix. Add eggs, milk, baking soda, and vanilla. Beat well. Batter will be thin. Pour into greased 12×16 jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 stick of butter
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
5 minutes before cake is to come out of oven, combine butter cocoa and milk in a glass bowl and microwave until butter is melted through. Remove from microwave and add powdered sugar. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla and 1 cup chopped nuts if using. Pour over hot cake. Serve!
Note: This cake stays fresh and wonderful for several days. In fact, I took the picture above of a piece of day-old cake. As you can see, it is still moist and yummy-looking.
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Looks like a real winner to me. I am sure it tastes fantastic!
My grandmother made this when I was a child too. It’s one of my go-to recipes when I need to feed a crowd. It brings back very fond memories and creates new ones each time I taste it.
Everyone needs a good cocoa based chocolate cake recipe -and this recipe is a classic. Yum!
Will pin this so I have it! I print out recipes or bookmark and never seem to get back to them. This looks delicious – thank you!
Hooray! Thank you! My mother-in-law makes something similar, but she calls it Thomas Cake. What a wonderful recipe
In NZ we don’t measure butter in sticks, how much is a stick in oz or grams? Thanks
A stick of butter is 4 ounces. Enjoy!
I pinned it to add to my All Things Chocolate board!
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