Blonde Texas Sheet Cake

Brea and Darrell came over for dinner on Sunday so of course I had to make a dessert :) I've been looking at this one for awhile now but knew that I needed to make it sometime when I had more people around than just Mom and I. It came together really easy--not very much work at all! We forgot to add the vanilla and almond extracts to the cake batter :( but it still had some flavor, we ended up adding more flavoring to the icing to compensate (just add till you get the flavor that you like). We really liked how moist the cake was, but we didn't like that the icing took awhile to solidify. I would suggest making it the night before you need the dessert (it tasted even better the next day) or putting it in the fridge for awhile too (Brea and Darrell did that and liked it even better).

Blonde Texas Sheet Cake
Recipe came from Sugar Betty
Blonde Texas Sheet Cake

1 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (sour cream works as well)
1 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

pinch of table salt

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

For the Cake: Preheat oven to 300º. In a small saucepan bring butter and water to a boil. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Add hot butter mixture to dry ingredients and stir. Add buttermilk, eggs, almond and vanilla extracts to the cake mixture, blending well. Pour the cake batter into a greased jelly roll pan and bake for 30 minutes or until done.

Let cake cool for 20 minutes while preparing frosting, but remember to frost the cake while it is warm.

Frosting: In a small saucepan, bring butter and buttermilk to a boil. In a separate bowl, add 3 cups powered sugar and a pinch of salt. Add hot mixture and almond extract over the powdered sugar and whisk until the frosting is smooth. The frosting will thicken as it cools. Add more powdered sugar, if needed, to help make a thicker frosting.

If adding nuts, you can add them too the frosting before pouring over the warm cake or you can sprinkle them over the warm frosting as it cools. Cut into desired squares and serve. This cake stores well for a few days.

*Remember it cools fast and sets up quickly.