The Vintage Chocolate Cake That Was Once One Of The South's Most Comforting Desserts

In Texas, food isn't just a gesture; it's a ritual. A way of honoring life and comforting the living, and guests often bring food to funerals to honor the dead and support the grieving family. You may find fried chicken, banana pudding, sweet tea, and squash casserole on a funeral spread, as well as chocolate cake. 

Texas Funeral Cake is a larger-than-life chocolate sheet cake that's perfect for sharing. The cake includes either buttermilk or sour cream, and it's slathered in fudge icing and decorated with chopped pecans, sort of like a German chocolate cake.

The sweet treat's origins can be traced back to northern Europe, where seed cakes, often wrapped in skull-clad paper, are often gifted to mourners as keepsakes. Some thank First Lady Lady Bird Johnson for introducing chocolate cake to the American South, but experts have found little concrete evidence for this. Others trace the baked good's roots back to a German Chocolate Cake that went viral after being published in a Dallas newspaper in 1957. But wherever it came from, the tray cake seriously cemented itself into the Lone Star State's culinary culture.

How to make Texas funeral cake

Texan chocolate sheet cake is an iconic food from the state you must try at least once, and the good thing is it's a tasty, low effort recipe. Just whisk together butter, cocoa powder, and boiling water, before combining in sugars, oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Then, add flour, salt, and baking sugar to the wet ingredients and bake for around 20 minutes. And the frosting? It's simple: butter, cocoa powder, sugar, and milk. Spread the icing over the cake when its still warm, and then sprinkle over your pecans for a crunchy bite.

To take your cake to the next level, don't dust the pan with flour, but use cocoa powder instead for an added layer of richness. Stirring in a tablespoon of instant coffee to the mix can also help bring flavors to life, and so can adding in melted unsweetened chocolate to the batter. And you can also take advice from the experts to revamp your sheet cake recipe: Mayonnaise can transform a dry cake into a tender delight, and adding extra egg yolks can make for an extra velvety texture.

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