The Best Chocolate Cake Ever!

From The Pioneer Woman!

Ingredients
CAKE Ingredients
2 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
2 sticks Butter
1 cup Boiling Water
½ cups Buttermilk
2 whole Beaten Eggs
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
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FOR FROSTING:
½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
1-¾ stick Butter
4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
6 Tablespoons Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar

Preparation Instructions
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.
Cut into squares, eat, and totally wig out over the fact that you’ve just made the best chocolate sheet cake. Ever.

Great Pumpkin Cake

I made this a few years ago for a cake contest at an office halloween party and won!

Ingredients:

1 pkg. (2-layer) cake mix, any flavor
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
Few drops each: green, red and yellow food coloring
1 COMET Cup

Directions:

Prepare cake batter and bake in 12-cup fluted tube pan as directed on package. Cool in pan 10 min. Invert cake onto wire rack; remove pan. Cool cake completely.

Meanwhile, beat cream cheese and butter in medium bowl with mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended after each addition. Remove 1/2 cup of the frosting; place in small bowl. Add green food coloring; stir until well blended. Spread half of the green frosting onto outside of ice cream cone; set aside. Cover and reserve remaining green frosting for later use.

Add red and yellow food colorings to remaining white frosting to tint it orange. Spread onto cake to resemble pumpkin. Invert ice cream cone in hole in top of cake for the pumpkin's stem. Pipe the reserved green frosting in vertical lines down side of cake.

Tips:
For a more rounded Great Pumpkin Cake, use a tall 12-cup fluted tube pan. As the cake bakes, it rises and forms a rounded top. When cake is unmolded (upside-down), the bottom of the cake will be rounded. If the cake is baked in a shorter 12-cup fluted tube pan, the resulting cake will be flatter.

Fun Idea - Place black gumdrops on sheet of waxed paper sprinkled with additional granulated sugar. Use a rolling pin to flatten each gumdrop, turning frequently to coat both sides with sugar. Cut into desired shapes with a sharp knife. Use to decorate frosted cake to resemble a jack-o'-lantern.

How to Pipe Frosting - Turn a resealable plastic bag into a handy piping bag for professional-looking decorated cakes. Simply spoon the frosting into the bag and seal the bag. Cut off a tiny piece from one of the bottom corners of the bag. Twist the bag at the top and holding the bag with one hand, guide the tip with the other. When you're done, the whole bag goes right into the garbage for easy cleanup!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick regular (salted) butter
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 pound sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash of salt to taste

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until smooth. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Buttercream Icing

Serves/Yields: 3-4 cups
Prep. Time: 15 mins

This buttercream crusts beautifullly. I use it to cover the cake because it tastes so much better than the Wilton recipe. I use the Wilton version for the actual decorations.

1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick of real unsalted butter)
1 1/2 cup Crisco Shortening
2 tablespoons of Clear Vanilla
2 lbs of Powdered Sugar
1/8 cup milk

Cream the butter, shortening and vanilla together in a mixer on 6 speed for 10 - 15 mins or until it is beautifully white and creamy smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar to the mixture, do this on slow speed. Then add milk to mixture until incorporated. Do not over beat or beat at high speed at this time due to adding air bubbles to buttercream. You may need to adjust the amount of milk for the consistance of your buttercream. You may want a little more for a thiner buttercream or a little less for a stiffer buttercream.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Cake
1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 c. cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
pecans, chopped

Heat oven to 350 (325 if using a glass baking dish). Grease and flour a 13x9 pan. Mix together butter, sugar and eggs till blended well. Fold in sour cream and vanilla, mix well till creamy. Fold in flour, baking powder and salt, mix well. Layer half of cake mixture into pan, sprink half of topping mix - pat lightly. Add remaining cake mixture, top with remaining topping, pat lightly. Bake for 25 minutes. When cake cools you can sprinkle top with powdered sugar.