Awhile back, Mystic’s daughter came over to help me out in the kitchen. I had a long list of things to make, and she likes to cook and is a willing sous chef for the right price. She asked if she could bring a friend with her.
“I always learn more from cooking with you than we do in Home Ec class, and she wants to learn too.”
That statement was both flattering and shocking.
Shocking because I’m not a chef. By any stretch of the imagination. I use cups instead of rolling pins. Measure liquid and mass in the same types of measuring cups (ask Joanne, I’m a work in progress). Cut tomatoes in a completely different manner than my Mom does. And do way more through intuition and winging it than any right way of doing things.
Which is to say that I have my own way. I’m ok with that.
It mostly works for me. And while it may not always be the correct way, I do have my own little cache of tips and tricks that Taylor (and now her friend) pick up on.
It’s all good.
When we made this giant Chocolate Sheet Cake two weeks ago, days later Taylor was asking when we could make it again. High praise from someone who is a work in progress in terms of palate expanding.
This new-to-me recipe is from The Pioneer Woman. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a love/hate relationship with her recipes. I’ve made tons of them, and most have been meh. I think I have two that went into our semi-regular rotation. The rest have been average and left us wanting more.
This chocolate sheet cake? An utter success. We were having company for dinner. The kind that trade a good meal and a six-pack of Bud for installing a new toilet. My kind of people. I made the cake the night before, crossing one thing off the menu in under 45 minutes. Super simple to make. The cake on its own is ordinary. The frosting on top? Extraordinary. And in another surprise turn of events, my girlfriend brought another Pioneer Woman dessert recipe, which is also a hit. Go figure. And that’s a story for another day, like when I make it myself so I can take proper pictures of it. Because I may or may not have eaten all the pieces she left without getting a good picture.
This chocolate sheet cake is a perfect simple dessert for when you need such a thing. For when you have to bring a dessert to a potluck. Or have an 18-year-old in your kitchen who wants to learn how to cook. Or you have a houseful of people with a chocolate sweet tooth. For when your kids are home from school and you need a sweet surprise for them. And better still? For when you have buttermilk to use up. And that, sometimes, is the most important reason of all.
This is that recipe, and you can find it right here.
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I cook the same way… and I improvised her recipe a bit… used pistachios and almonds AND her phyllo layering instructions were too fiddly for me- I slapped a ton of butter in between each layer :-) Glad you liked it!
I’ve found her recipes hit or miss as well. Her photos make me WANT to love them, but sometimes they just don’t work for us. This one looks like it would HAVE to be a winner!
I used to follow the Pioneer Woman but not so much anymore. With her currently embroiled in a plagiarism scandal stemming from a home school post on Valentine’s Day and the fact that rumors have been swirling for years that her recipes are ripped off from church cookbooks, I think I’ll stick with Smitten Kitchen. She credits her sources. For more info on Ree’s plagiarism, see http://bit.ly/zPeeV4
Every time I see that recipe, I want to make it. Looks good. Glad it turned out.
Just because we bake DIFFERENTLY doesn’t mean that one of us bakes BETTER than the other :P We just have different styles. And I’ve never had anything you made that I didn’t love…so it obviously works for you!
What I’ve found with PW is that her savory stuff is eh and her desserts are super delicious. This definitely holds with that motto.