May 2009 Archives

I'm not sure what got into me. In my defense, I haven't had anything chocolate around the house for quite a while.

The minute I saw this recipe in my feed reader I knew I would be making it in the near future. It took everything I had not to make it right then. All the necessary ingredients were already waiting patiently in the kitchen for their next chance to take the spotlight.

The thing is, I've had a version of this recipe for my entire life. My mom would make it occasionally when she needed something easy that could go a long way, and it did just that because it was made in a (11x15-inch) jelly roll pan (hence, the "sheet cake"). It's for that reason that I've never made it for myself - I don't own a jelly roll pan, and even if I did, I don't know what I would do with all that cake. (Well, I DO know, and that's precisely the point.)

Before I saw Kristin's pictures, it hadn't even occurred to me to scale it down and make it in a smaller pan. It was just ingrained in my head: Texas Sheet Cake = HUGE. I'm glad I had this epiphany, because this cake is a perfect and easy solution to a killer chocolate craving.

This is the second year in a row that my parents have gone away for Mother's Day. Last year it was Wales, this year it's Italy. If I didn't know better I would think they didn't like us.

So, instead of seeing my mom I tagged along for a lovely brunch at Matt's sister's house. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to return a 10-inch pie plate of hers (that has been sitting on my kitchen table for about 4 months now). Of course, I didn't want to return it empty - what's the fun in that?

I grew up eating rhubarb because my parents grew it in their garden. My mom would make rhubarb pies, cakes, and sauce (or compote), and she would send me out to the garden to break off the biggest stalks. Naturally, rhubarb makes me think of Mom, so making it for Mother's day was my way of honoring her, even if I wasn't going to see her.