The Miracle Maker coming out in full-color illustration has been a dream come true. To celebrate I decided to fill the next few months of posts with gloriously-good food, decorations, and holiday tips. I call it “HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS”. For the first holiday blog post I decided to skip straight to dessert. Those of you who know me aren’t surprised by this, and of course it’s chocolate.

This is one of my family’s go-to desserts with a little extra holiday flourish. If you have a pot luck event, or holiday company this recipe is sure to get oohs and aaahhs.

TURTLE BROWNIE TEXAS SHEETCAKE

When I was young, my brother Russell, (*waves wildly- “Hi, Russ!”) brought this cake recipe back from Missouri. I grew up calling it “Russell Cake”. Until I was married, I didn’t know Texas Sheet Cake was even a thing. By any name you want to call it, it is DELICIOUS. I don’t make it too often, because I will literally eat the entire sheet pan of it by myself. I’ve added a special turtle topping to make it holiday spectacular.

It’s a super easy cake to make, and one of the great things about this cake is that you get to ice it hot- so no waiting around for it to cool. The caramel topping tastes delicious, but it does start to break down the frosting after a day or so. (If it’s even possible to have leftovers.) Just one more reason to eat it quickly.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp soda

½ sticks butter

1c water

2 beaten eggs

½ cups buttermilk (If you don’t have buttermilk use 1/2 tsp vinegar in regular milk)

1 tsp vanilla

4 Tblsp cocoa

Turn oven to 325 degrees.

STEP 1

Sift together flour, sugar, soda, and cinnamon. Set aside.

STEP 2

Bring to low boil butter, cocoa, and water. Add to dry ingredients while it is still hot.

Add eggs and buttermilk and vanilla.

Bake in a greased jellyroll pan at 325 for 20 minutes.

Frosting- (Again frost while the cake is hot.)

1 stick butter

4 Tblsp cocoa

5 Tblsp milk

1 Tblsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

Bring first three ingredients to a slow boil. Add vanilla, then slowly add powdered sugar, beating until smooth. (It can get clumpy if you’re not careful) Frost as soon as cake comes out of oven. For the Turtle version continue to the next step.

Top frosted cake evenly with:

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup caramel sauce (put this on last after everything is cooled.) I prefer a salted caramel variety, but that is purely a taste preference. Squeeze bottle versions are the easiest to use.

Just don’t let it get too gloppy. It’s prettier if you keep circling it lightly.

Happy baking!! Don’t forget, if you haven’t entered the contest for the Miracle Maker Movie, by joining the newsletter list, you can do that at the bottom of this page. The drawing is Dec. 1.