Day 9: 12 Days of #HopeforHeidiAllen

Today's memory is another one focusing on family, fellowship, and good food. Each year the entire family went to my Aunt Kay and Uncle Buss' for Christmas dinner with our extended family: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts and uncles, second and third cousins, and significant others. It was so much fun!

The ladies would congregate in the kitchen, around the very table you see in this first photo. The laughter coming from the kitchen filled the house and I looked forward to the day I'd be sitting in the kitchen alongside them.

Today's recipe is a Chocolate Sheet cake and this is one reason I like our Epicure Sheet pans so much - wait until you see how easy it is to make, and clean up!

The men enjoyed whatever sport was on the television. Us kids, well, we were everywhere. The boys typically hung with the men and the girls, we kept busy.

​My aunt and uncle's home was a two bedroom with a full basement. I tried to decide my favorite place to play but can't.

The bedrooms were great because my cousin Mark's childhood bedroom was "so cool". I remember we jumped on the bed a little too much one year and broke it, lol. Oh goodness, the adults just laughed and fixed the bed. It was a joy-filled time and no one was upset.

When we were old enough, we were allowed to play in the basement. My Uncle Buss had bolts of upholstery from his business and work tables. In today's verbage, some would say he had a "man cave" down there on the other half of the room. We'd play hide-n-seek downstairs and Heidi was so little, she'd hide between the bolts and we never found her.

The years with snow on the ground, we arrived in our best Christmas outfit with a bag filled with our "outdoor clothes" and after we ate, we'd play outside until our snow pants soaked through or our lips were blue. The boys would play football in the snow some years, they didn't like to let us play. No matter what we were doing, we were all together and making memories.

We didn't have the luxury of a telephone/camera/computer in our purse or back pocket so the photos aren't in surplus yet the memories in my brain overflow. 

What memories of your childhood holidays do you have? When you compare Christmas of today to yester-year, what makes  you smile and why?

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Chocolate Sheet Cake

Page 62 in Heidi Allen Cookbook
Submitted by Marion Patchen, Watertown New York

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 stick margarine/butter
4 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
(topping)

Directions

1. Stir sugar & flour together, set aside
2. Bring margarine, cocoa, oil & water to a rapid boil (I used my Round Steamer)
3. Mix with sugar & flour
4. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, & vanilla to mixture

Bake at 375 degrees at 425 degrees for 20 minutes in an 15 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 1 inch sheet pan

I recommend the Epicure Sheet Pan.

Chocolate Sheet Cake Topping

Ingredients

1 stick margarine/butter
4 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1 box confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
nuts (optional)

Directions

1. Five minutes before cake is done - bring margarine/butter, cocoa and milk to a rapid boil (again, I use my steamer)
2. Remove from heat
3. Add confectioners sugar & vanilla
4. Mix well
5. Ice cake as soon as you take it out of the oven
6. Walnuts, pecans or almonds may be added to the frosting or sprinkled on top of the cake after it's frosted

Here is my YouTube video to share this recipe being made

What is your favorite sheet cake recipe?