Fire Cake

I got this recipe from "America's Test Kitchen" and it is fabulous. I have never made anything bad out of this recipe book. I made it for Grandma Larsen's Birthday/Sunday dinner and because I used dark cocoa powder the cake came out looking very dark. My little cousin started eating it and made the comment that he called it fire cake because it looked burnt, but it tasted really good. It's actually a Texas Sheet Cake that is the best one I've ever had. Yum, yum!

Ingredients:

Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used special dark which gave it the dark color)
4 T unsalted butter

Icing
8 T unsalted butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 T light corn syrup
3 cups powdered sugar
1 T vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 18 by 13 baking sheet (mine was 17 by 12 and it worked fine). Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. In another bowl whisk the sour cream, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla together. Melt the chocolate, oil, water cocoa and butter together in a large saucepan until smooth. Pour over the flour mixture and whisk together. Then whisk in the egg mixture. Pour into the baking sheet and bake the cake for about 18 to 20 minutes (this was pretty exact for my oven--use the toothpick method to be sure--you don't want to overbake it). About halfway through the baking time, start making the icing. Heat the butter, cream, cocoa and corn syrup in a saucepan over medium heat until smooth. Take the icing off the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until combined. Pour/spread over the warm cake as it comes out of the oven. I think this cake tastes better when it's cooled. The book recommended letting it cool an hour and then putting it in the fridge for another hour. I didn't do this step and it turned out great.

All in all, this is a fabulous recipe and one that I will be making for events in the future! So yummy and rich. Most Texas Sheet Cakes are moist but missing a lot of chocolate flavor (I love chocolate). This one really packs the "punch" of chocolate. It's really awesome and I highly recommend making it!