Chocolate-Coconut Sheet Cake

I love chocolate just as much as the next girl, or more, so when I saw this recipe for an easy chocolate sheet cake that also had coconut in it?  I had to try it.  Even though I really do love the chocolate cake I made for the boys' birthday.

This cake is super easy to make, you don't even need a mixer!  There is also no struggle to decorate it beautifully because the icing is really more of a "topping" that you just pour over the cake and smooth out with a spatula while the cake is still in the pan.

Not only easy but the gooey melty topping seems to ensure that this cake is going to be really moist along with chocolatey and delicious.  Hmm, I don't think melty and chocolatey are actual words....oh well.  This cake is good.

Chocolate-Coconut Sheet Cake, found and adapted from in the February issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine

Cake
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (plus some for the pan)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
3/4 cup warm, strong, brewed coffee
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups finely shredded, dried, unsweetened coconut
2/3 cup warm, strong, brewed coffee
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

To begin the cake, preheat the oven to 350 F.  Butter a 9 x 13 cake pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and leave an overhang on each side if you intend to remove the cake from the pan before serving.  ( I served this to my family straight from the pan and no one seemed to mind. :))  Butter the parchment paper and dust with cocoa powder.

Whisk together the dry cake ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour in all the wet ingredients before whisking it all together until smooth.  (I told you it was easy!)

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and then bake it for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

While the cake is baking prepare the topping.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add the coffee and extract.  Combine the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, and coconut in a large bowl.  Pour over the melted butter mixture and stir to combine.

When the cake comes out of the oven pour the topping over the cake and allow the whole thing to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Serve and Enjoy!  This cake stores well in the refrigerator.  I know because I just ate another slice while typing this post! :)

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Party Menu (Chocolate Cake!)

Since this blog is/used to be? primarily about food I feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't give you a quick recap of our birthday party menu along with the all-important cake recipe review.

As I've said, this was a small event and considering the guests of honor were 2 year-olds and that we had several house guests, we really wanted to keep the menu simple and easy to prepare.

The only munchies we set out before dinner were chips and fruit salad.  My little guys love fruit!  Last year, they chose watermelon over cake.  Not this year!

For dinner we made Mr Pear's amazing Pulled Pork which was amazing as usual.  We don't usually eat it with bbq sauce but we did provide a couple of different kinds for our guests along with some small soft rolls in case anyone wanted a sandwich.

The boys both love pulled pork but I wanted to make sure there was something super kid-friendly for our other small guests.  I decided to try this beefy mac and cheese and it was a huge hit!  I doubled the recipe and I'm so glad I did. This stuff was so good' we will definitely be making it around here often.

image from foodnetwork.com

The only other side we served was a simple coleslaw similar to this one.  Instead of  using all green cabbage I always use one green and one purple.  I also like to grate my veggies in the food processor along with half of a sweet onion.

Dessert was cake of course!  As I mentioned the other day, I decided to go with Pioneer Woman's Big Chocolate Birthday Cake recipe.  The recipe looked good and the cake looked very easy to make.  Another plus was that it was "Big" (she bakes hers in 4 nine inch round pans) which was great because I was going to be making an 11 x 15 inch sheet cake.

The cake was super simple to make and the instructions were very clear.  The only change I made was to stir 1 tablespoon of instant coffee granules into the chocolate after it had been melted in with the butter.  I think instant coffee really helps deepen the chocolate flavor and I promise you can't taste coffee in the cake!

I greased my cake pan with vegetable shortening instead of my usual butter, and floured it, and despite my huge fear of this big cake getting stuck in its big pan, it came right out!

I dyed a double batch of Wilton buttercream frosting light blue (though I didn't use nearly the amount of icing sugar called for in the recipe) and decorated the frosted cake with cherry flavored decorating candy string (also by Wilton, found in Target of all places) to make a railroad track in the shape of a 2.  A few train set props and we had our train cake!

Unfortunately I made one mistake.  I kept the cake in the refrigerator during the party (since it was still 100 degrees out) and the cake was cold.  Instead of being light and fluffy it felt a bit dense.  The flavor was still really good and the cake was more than edible, but it tasted even better the next day when I put the left overs on a covered cake plate on the kitchen counter.  Delicious and light and fluffy.  Arg.  Lesson learned, but thankfully, not the end of the world either.

So that is it!  The birthday is over, now on to a third great year with two great little boys.  :)