The Cookbook

This is my Chocolate Sheath Cake

a.k.a. Texas Sheath Cake, or when we made it for our school carnival, it was called Tanglewood Brownies. My boys also called it Lake Cake because I always made it for them to take to the lake. It is Mr. Orphie's favorite too.

The secret is to bake it in a shallow, jelly-roll pan.

Melt together and boil one minute:
1/2 c. butter
1 c. water
1/2 c. crisco
4 T cocoa

Combine:
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 eggs
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. each of soda, salt, cinnamon, vanilla.

Pour chocolate mixture into dry ingredients. Beat by hand.
Pour into greased jelly roll pan. Bake @ 350 degrees for 25 min. (check after 20)

Ice while hot with:
1 stick butter
4 T cocoa
6 T milk
boiled together for 1 min.

Then add:
4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. nuts if desired

tennis gal

Kent's Moist Chocolate Cake

3 Cups flour, sifted
2 Cups sugar (I use Vegan)
6 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
3/4 Cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 Cups water


Combine all ingredients, beat well. Bake in 9x13 (greased and cocoa dusted) pan in a 350, preheated oven for 30 minutes or until tester comes out clean. OR fill cup cakes 2/3 full and bake until tester is clean (approx 15-20 minutes).

use whatever icing you wish. For cupcakes, I use Betty Crocker (blue can) Classic White, or Fluffy White, or Vanilla.

Kent

White House Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are the ones baked on an almost daily basis at the White House.

Makes about 70 cookies


Molasses keeps my chocolate chip cookies chewy for more than a day. It also gives them a more intense brown sugar flavor than Toll House-type cookies. I bake these cookies at 400 degrees for a good reason: High heat browns the outside while keeping the inside moist and almost gooey Don't overbake these, or they will overbrown on the outside and dry out the inside.


3 cups plus 3 T all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (one 12 oz. bag) chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts



Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixed fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in the eggs, molasses, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Then stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the dough to chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat pads.

Drop heaping tablespoons or #40 ice cream scoops of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets, flattening them slightly by hand. (Balls of dough may be placed next to each other on parchment-lined baking sheets, frozen, transferred to sipper-lock plastic freezer bags, and stored in the freezer for up to 1 month. Place frozen cookies on prepared sheets as above, and defrost on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.)

Bake until just light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before using a metal spatula to transfer them to wire rack to cool completely. Chocolate Chip Cookies will keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

Jami

Better Than Sex

1 baked devil’s food or German chocolate cake (9x13)
½ jar fudge topping
½ jar caramel topping
½ can condensed milk
4 Heath or Skor candy bars
1 tub of Cool Whip

Do not remove cake from pan. After the cake has cooled, make holes in the entire top of the cake using a large fork or the handle of a wooden spoon. Pour (one at a time) fudge, carmel and condensed milk over the top of the cake and let each flavor soak in before adding the next. Crush 2 of the candy bars and sprinkle on the top. Frost the cake with whipped topping and crush the remaining 2 candy bars to decorate the top.

Jami

Zephyr's German Chocolate Cake

2 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C butter, softened
1 C sour cream
4 large eggs
4 oz sweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 C milk
3/4 t vanilla extract

Topping
3/4 C evaporated milk
1/2 C light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C butter
1 can (3 1/2 oz) flaked coconut, or about 1 1/3 C
1 C chopped pecans

The Steps (Be sure to wear jackboots)

1. Storm the house and occupy the kitchen. Grease and flour two 8" square baking pans.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, butter, sout cream, eggs, chocolate, milk, and vanilla.

3. Beat with mixer at low speed until it talks, or at least becomes blended.

4. If it does not talk, increase mixer to high and beat 2 minutes longer. If this does not work, call in Dr. Doolittle. That sucker can make the ANIMALS talk.

5. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring evaporated milk, brown sugar, and butter to a full boil. You may have to invade Austria for the evaporated milk.

6. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Declare war on neighbors.

7. Bake in a preheated 350* oven for about 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, or until you line up enough customers to turn this operation into a tanning salon.

8. Remove to racks to cool completely. There may be some complaining, but everyone does that on the rack.

9. Make topping. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut and pecans. Set aside to cool to room temperature, or just put into cooler for 30 days.

10. When cake is cool, place one layer on cake platter; spoon half of the coconut mixture onto the layer. Top with remaining cake layer and top with remaining topping.

Goose-step into dining room and present to your, uh... "Guests."

Zephyr