Week 24: Texas Sheet Cake!!

"Schoooooollll's out for summer!"

Sean's new song he walks around the house singing.  I guess he was ready for more mommy and daddy time and less daycare.  Weren't we all, Sean?

Last Wednesday started my first day home with the boys, but unfortunately Scott had to work.  I took the boys to the library to meet up with Nana, Sydney, and AJ.  We got our summer reading packets for the boys and they got to decorate paper cut outs of worms with their names to kick off the program.  Love the library out here!

Thursday, we all officially celebrated our first day of the summer together!  Scott and Sean went swimming at the rec center and I took Evan to the mall to do some shopping at all those semi-annual clearances.  We met up at the mall for lunch at Olga's.  Yum!

Friday, I had a play date in the morning with some high school friends and their kids.  It was such a beautiful morning!

It's so much fun now that all my friends are having or have had kids to be able to all get together and do fun kid-oriented things.

Saturday started the Father's Day festivities!  Saturday was Scott's day.  I brought him lunch from The Bread Basket so he could finally try the best Reuben ever (according to everyone I work with).  I think he was impressed.  I also set up a twilight tee-time for him and his two buddies.  The wives and kids all stayed at our house for a pool party.  We ordered pizza, let the kids go in the kiddie pool in our backyard, and tried to keep these 3 kids happy and entertained.  It was a great night!  I just wish the boys weren't little stinkers about going to bed...

The boys made Scott a golf footprint card I saw on Pinterest.  We bought him a Detroit Tiger's fabric cooler filled with an 18 pack of cold beer for the golf course, golf balls, tees with a cute tag that says, "You are a tee-rrific dad!", a gift card for golf, and snacks like beef jerky and sunflower seeds.  I figured he'd appreciate the time away to golf and the cooler can be used for the Tiger's games we go to.  A win-win!

Sunday I made blueberry pancakes and bacon and let Scott sleep in.  He picked a good day to get to sleep in since Evan decided to start the day at 6:30am!  We headed over to Troy in the afternoon to celebrate Father's Day with my dad.  My mom set up their kiddie pool and it was another afternoon of swimming and BBQ ribs and chicken she made!  Yum!  Evan loved all of it...the chicken, corn, watermelon, and green beans.  Sean held out for the Oreo ice cream cake!

We had the kids paint a birdfeeder we bought at the Farmer's Market a few weekends ago and had their handprints on each side.  We also made him a canvas print with the 3 generations on my Dad's side of the family with some Scrabble stickers that spelled out Son, Dad, Grandpa.

It was another gorgeous day!  We could barely get Sean out of the pool long enough to eat.  My parent's neighbors behind us have two children that are 7 and 12 and they have cousins who are 3 and 5.  They happened to be outside running through a sprinkler, so Sean had to join in.  It's the second time he's played with them outside this summer and it's so funny to me to see him playing with kids that live in that house considering my best friend grew up behind me until we moved away to college.  Now Sean has friends that live there!  How weird!

Our Father's Day celebrations came to a close last night as we drove out to Troy again to celebrate with Scott's dad and family.  Nana also had her kiddie pool set up so we let the kids swim in their undies/diapers since we didn't bring their suits.  It's so fun to watch Sean play with his cousins and I can't wait for Evan to be old enough to join in.  We knew we wanted them to have a close relationship with their cousins and they really do!

I spent the night at my mom's house and Scott took the boys home for the night.  I had an appointment with a general surgeon today to schedule my surgery to have my umbilical hernia removed.  It was fun getting a night away to visit with my best friend, Trisha, who now lives in the same subdivision as my parents.  I also got a chance to catch up and talk to my mom while we soaked in the hot tub!  Poor Scott and Evan had a rough night.  I think little guy is cutting his top teeth.  Luckily, the boys went to daycare today for their one day to hold their spot for the fall, so Scott was able to go back to bed and catch up on sleep.

Anyway, my recipe for this past week was a cake I made for the last day of school.  We always have an ice cream social in the cafeteria to end the school year with staff and this year a few of us decided to bring in some baked goods too since we all love to cook/bake!  I decided on a Chocolate Coca-Cola cake that's similar to a Texas Sheet Cake.  This was my first time baking something called a cake that had more of a consistency of a fudge, but it turned out delicious and I only had a few small pieces left.

preheat oven to 350, and grease up (I like Crisco) a 9×13 (or so) pan.

mix:

2cups flour
2cups sugar
1/2tsp salt
1tsp baking soda**
1/2tsp cinnamon

** note: I have made this with baking powder or soda – Either way works. “powder” is what was listed in the recipe I got it from, but soda is slightly better results.

in a saucepan over medium high heat stir this up good until it boils:

1 cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup coca-cola (from bottle is my preference!)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/2cup butter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup coca cola

Now take off heat and add that to the flour mix & whisk until combined.  Mix, put in pan, bake it for about 30minutes. 

When cake is nearly done make the glaze by mixing in saucepan:

once that boils, remove and slowly stir in 4cups of confectioners’ sugar until nice and smooth. Then add in about a cup of chopped pecans, and give it a stir.

once cake is done and out of oven (toothpick should come out clean), pour this warm glaze right over the top of the hot cake!

let it set… let it cool for a few minutes at least…

enjoy warm or cold. (next day/etc. feel free to microwave for a few seconds to warm it up… so good)!

I was a little stressed about this recipe because of the debate between baking powder or baking soda.  I ended up following the directions of this particular recipe and mine came out perfect.

I didn't have any issues like a lot of people commented on with the frosting pouring over the sides of the cake and it being a mess.  I put mine in the fridge overnight and brought it to work the next day letting it side out until lunch time when we served it.

Yum!

Time to go get the boys from daycare...