Hannah's Birthday Cake

Here is Hannah's 'self decorated' birthday "Texas Sheet" cake.

Thank you to two of my favorite New Yorker's for these recipes.  I miss you ladies!!

Hannah's favorite cake is "Mrs. Williamson's Texas Sheet Cake".  She fell in love with this cake when we had supper with the Williamson's one evening.  Well, we ALL fell in love with this cake.

Hannah has been decorating her own birthday cakes for the past few years.  This year, she drew out her birthday cake plans about one month beforehand.  I was thinking I could just color some icing and squirt all of these things on this cake.

Then, one of friends posted some pictures on Facebook of a "Veggie Tales" cake she made.  She kept talking about fondant.  I have never heard of fondant.  But, how could she make Larry out of icing?  I was VERY curious.

She send me her recipe.  I changed it just a bit (since I despise shortening...) and I wanted my fondant to taste like vanilla.

Here are the recipes (changed just a bit to omit the shortening - I LOVE butter... real butter.)  Also, any time I write 'butter' I am referring to 'salted butter'.  If I use unsalted, I will specify.

"Mrs. Williamson's Texas Sheet Cake"
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
2 sticks of melted butter
1 cup of water
3 1/2 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together.
Smear a little butter up on the sides of a jelly roll style pan (I used a Pampered Chef Bar Pan.)
Bake for 20 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean)

While the cake is hot... I used a kabob stick to poke holes all over the cake.  The cake rises so much and my oven is tilted slightly to the back, so my cake always turns out a tiny bit higher on the back side.  Poking the holes in the cake allow this icing to sink down in the cake some and not run off of the sides.

Make his frosting and pour over the cake while it is still hot.

Frosting:
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup of buttermilk
2 teaspoons of cocoa
1 - 1 lb. box of 10X sugar

Boil the first four ingredients in a pot on the stove top.  Remove from heat, wisk in the box of 10X sugar.  Pour over the cake.

Allow to cool.  Foil sticks to this icing.  Cover with plastic wrap and then foil or whatever works best for you.

Now... on to the FONDANT!!! 

This fondant is just like edible play-doh!!!  It makes a TON of fondant.  I used about 1/8 of the recipe.  The rest if wrapped up in four chunks in my freezer waiting to be unthawed and 'tested'.

For the fondant you will need:
2 lbs. of 10X sugar - sifted
1 stick of butter
1 - 16oz. bag of mini marshmallows
2 - 5 Tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Food Coloring (bleck....  I despise food coloring too... but, white fondant is a little BORING.)

Melt apx. 3 Tablespoons of butter, 2 Tablespoons of water and all of the marshmallows on the stove top using a double boiler.

When melted, add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Mix well.

In a HUGE bowl, add in about 3/4 of the 10X sugar to the marshmallow mixture.
Using the rest of the stick of butter, melt in your hands by rubbing them together to 'grease' them well. 
Put your hands in the bowl and mix mix mix. 
You will eventually turn out onto the counter top and knead the rest of the 10X sugar in.  You will continue to knead.  You want the results to be smooth and elastic.  If it is tearing too much, add a little water - 1/2 Tablespoon at a time.  (I ended up using the entire 5 Tablespoons of water in my recipe.)

Wrap it up in some plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge over night.  The next day, set out the fondant ball and pinch off pieces to color.  Work the food coloring in to the small pieces.

Now go get creative and make a FUN cake!


A HUGE 'THANK YOU' to Melissa Williamson and Amy Wallenwine!!!