Funeral Cake

How can it be that I've been doing this blog for awhile and, yet, I've not written up funeral cake yet?

You might read this recipe and say, "hey, that's a texas sheet cake!" or "that's the pioneer woman's recipe"....this is a cake that's been around the block - and country - a few times. I've eaten very close facsimiles of funeral cake made by Donita K. and Candice R. When I served funeral cake this weekend for a Sunday School group, my friend Pam immediately recognized what she was eating as Texas Sheet Cake. Whatever name it goes by, this cake comes with a bit of family lore.

My aunt Janet (of fruit dip and cheetos fame) used to make this cake alot and she's the one who gave it the somewhat unusual name used in our household. Because it's a quick, easy cake to make and because it uses ingredients you're likely to have on hand, my aunt would often whip it up for grieving families. Word came of a death in the community and within minutes Janet could, conceivably, have a tasty chocolate cake delivered to ease the pain of some family's terrible loss. My aunt has lived in St. Albans all her life and probably knows just about everyone living (and dying) in that small town - that's a lot of funeral cakes, over the years.

One summer when we were visiting, Aunt Janet served us up a fine West Virginia style dinner, capped off with...what else but a funeral cake. I didn't think a thing about how it sounded when everyone raved about our dessert until Emily, who was about 5 at the time, turned to me with a worried look and wanted to know who had died. To this day, when my kids see a funeral cake at the house they'll still ask, in jest, "who died?"

This is a great cake to make - even when no one has died.

Funeral Cake
(When my aunt had this published in her Lower Falls Baptist Church cookbook she titled it "Quick, Moist Chocolate Cake")

2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 stick margarine (I use unsalted butter)
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
4 T. cocoa
1 c. water
1/2 c. buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp soda

Mix the flour and sugar together in a large bowl. Place the butter, shortening, cocoa and water in a saucepan and bring to a rapid boil, stirring constantly. Pour into the flour mixture. Mix well. (At this point the mixture seems so wet and gloppy that you can't imagine it will possibly hold together in a pan, much less cook up to something of cake consistency.) Add the remaining ingredients (WHAT!!! More liquidy buttermilk, eggs and vanilla???? How is this ever going to turn into a solid form cake????). Reserve the soda until last. Mix well. The sooner you get the cake into the oven after adding the soda, the better the cake. (This part of the directions always puzzled me. Really? That amorphous blob of ingredients is so finely tuned that it knows when you put the baking soda in and demands that you then get it cooking right away? I used to be paranoid about throwing that last ingredient in, maniacally mixing, and then throwing the pan into the oven in record time but, in my old age, I'm a skeptic. I bet I've let good...seconds go by between baking soda and baking cake. And guess what? All the cakes taste the same.) Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

ICING
1 stick unsalted butter
4 T. cocoa
6 T. milk
1 lb. confectioners sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 c. pecans or walnuts
1 c. flaked coconut (I sometimes omit the coconut if I'm worried about whether guests will like it. The cake is better with it.)

Five minutes before the cake is done (I know, another careful timing element. For such an easy cake this one sure demands a lot of your abilities to do things at a certain moment!) place butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients. Beat well. Spread on the hot cake. (My aunt Janet writes that she usually has to add a bit more than a pound of confectioner's sugar. She says to use your own judgement to make it spreading consistency.)