This recipe was passed down through my wife’s family and ended up in my hands and now is a staple for birthdays at our home. I received a photo copy of the hand written recipe with the name Texas Sheath Cake on it. I’m not sure if “sheath” was supposed to be “sheet” and I kept the name as it was given because I’m a stickler for authenticity and uniqueness of the past. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
Cake:
- 2 C Flour
- 2 C Sugar
- 1 Stick Butter
- 1/2 C Crisco
- 1 C Water
- 4 Tbsp Cocoa
- 1/2 C Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
Icing:
- 1 Stick Butter
- 4 Tbsp Cocoa
- 6 Tbsp Milk
- 1 box (1 pound) confectioners (aka powdered) sugar (about 4 1/2 C)
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 3/4 C Chopped Pecans
Make the magic happen:
- Combine flour and sugar, set aside.
- Place in saucepan butter, Crisco, water and cocoa. Bring to a boil, mix then pour into ingredients from step #1.
- To above, add buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Mix then pour into greased 9X13 pan (I always use glass for this recipe).
- Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes (turns out like soft brownies!)
- Five minutes before the cake is finished, make the icing. This will be poured while hot over the cake.
- Bring butter, cocoa, milk, confectioners (powdered) sugar and vanilla to a boil and mix well.
- Turn off heat and stir in pecans.
- Pour over cake and let cool.
- (the hard part) Try not to eat too much!