Blond Texas Sheet Cake (Minus the Mustard)

  I have always loved a traditional Texas Sheet Cake and have had this recipe for Southern Living's Blond Texas Sheet Cake for years but have never made it.  Every year the school where I serve as one of the librarians has a fantastic back to school picnic for the staff and faculty families.  Last year I took a traditional Texas Sheet Cake with chocolate cake and chocolate pecan icing.  This year I decided I should finally attempt this recipe that had been sitting in my Dessert/Breads notebook (where I add recipes pulled out of magazines or copied from somewhere else into a binder with sheet protectors).  I made it and WOW, was it a hit!  There was not a single scrap left at the end of the night and I had multiple requests for the recipe.

  Both the cake and the frosting call for buttermilk so I knew right away when I first made it that I had to have Cruze Dairy buttermilk.  Cruze is a local dairy that makes absolutely amazing dairy products.  Their buttermilk has transformed every recipe I have that calls for this ingredient.  My biscuits and pancakes (which I must say, were pretty good to begin with) are absolutely amazing with this buttermilk.  If you are fortunate enough to live close enough to Knoxville, TN, and can get their products, you should definitely pay the little bit of extra cost and purchase them!

   I hosted a dinner party last Friday night and knew that I would have to make this again as my dessert. I began preparing for the dinner party on Thursday night knowing I would like to have much of my cooking and baking done before I came home on Friday afternoon.  Unfortunately, I couldn't begin until after our school's Open House that night which ended around 8:15.  Beginning these projects at 9 pm was probably not my best idea ever as was evidenced by my epic fail in the kitchen.

   I am usually fairly good at multi-tasking and thought I could handle making the cake and a homemade salad dressing both at the same time.  I kept telling myself to make sure I paid attention to what I was doing and not to make any stupid mistakes.  As the cake was cooling I began to cook the frosting on the stove and while it was cooking I started measuring ingredients for my Pecan Vinaigrette.  All was fine until I added the browned butter mixture to my mixer and then threw in a teaspoon of whole-grain mustard that was meant for the salad dressing!  I will admit, I did try it just to see if anyone would notice and although it wasn't horrible, I just couldn't in good conscience serve it to my guests.  I told my principal this story and she thought I should have just added some more mustard and served it up on a cracker!  I ended up throwing it out and starting all over again.  My suggestion to you, dear readers, is to NOT add the mustard in the first place!

Here is the original recipe from Southern Living:

  Blond Texas Sheet Cake (click for printable version)

1 package white cake mix (I ALWAYS use Duncan Hines for cakes)
1 C. full-fat buttermilk (again, Cruze is best if you can get it)
1/3 C. butter, melted
4 egg whites
1/4 t. almond extract (I love the kind I get from King Arthur Flour)

Caramel-Pecan Frosting
1 C. toasted and chopped pecans
1/2 C. butter
1 C. packed light brown sugar
1/3 C. buttermilk (Yep.  Cruze is best)
2 C. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. almond extract

   For the cake, begin by preheating the oven to 350 degrees and greasing a large pan (15X10 inch is the recommended pan size).

  Mix together all of the cake ingredients on medium speed for about 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides a couple of times.  Pour into the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Cool completely before attempting to frost.

   For the frosting, begin by placing the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Be sure to stir the entire time.  Take it off the heat and then very slowly stir in the buttermilk.  Place the pot back on to the heat and quickly bring it to a boil.  Remove from heat again and then pour it into a mixer bowl.  Slowly add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until it is smooth. This will only take a minute or so.  Add in the pecans and pour it over the cake that has cooled.