White Texas Sheet Cake

Seems like "Texas Sheet Cakes" are all the rage on the internet these days. Almost every cooking blog has one and they're all over Pinterest. There are about a million versions, I'm not kidding, a million. There's chocolate, white, pumpkin, peanut butter, red velvet, lemon, and even a "turtle" version. Seriously, if you can think up a flavor combination, there's a Texas Sheet Cake recipe out there for it. One thing all these cakes seem to have in common is that they are big and flat (baked in a jelly roll pan) and all have some sort of icing. They also all use a melted butter method which is foreign to me as I've always made cakes by creaming the butter first. Hmmmm? Well, I like cake. I like icing. And, my Moms is from Texas so I figured I'd find out what all the fuss is about.

Chocolate Sheet Cake with fudge icing seems to be the most popular recipe out there. And, I've heard raves about Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Sheet Cake, it has pecans! But, believe it or not, I wasn't really in the mood to make a chocolate cake. I know, cray cray, you say. But as much as I love chocolate I also love all things vanilla. So I decided to go with this White Texas Sheet Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting. Check it out. . .

Nazook

A couple of weeks ago, I was perusing the bakery department at my local grocery store when I came across "Nazook". What the heck is "Nazook"? I'd never heard of it, but it looked good. Anytime the bakery department has some sort of rolled filled goodie, I can't resist. They looked a lot like Rugelach, which BTW, I love, so I assumed I'd like these as well. Did I buy them, no, of course not, I immediately ran home and Googled Nazook. Seriously, if store bought is good, home made HAS to be better. 

What I learned is that Nazook is a traditional Armenian pastry. A buttery yeast dough filled with more butter and sugar and sometimes almonds. Butter and sugar and almonds? I'm in! So I Googled a bit more, read a handful of recipes (because I don't have an Armenian Nana to show me how), watched a couple of videos and decided to give it a go. . .

Almond Horns (Mandelhoernchen)

If you've been with this blog for a while, you may have read my "Mandelhoernchen Melancholy" post. It was a disaster and let's leave it at that. After my Almond Paste post a couple of weeks ago and the success of both almond paste recipes I was ready to give Mandelhoernchen another go. I used to get "Almond Horns" from the Freeport Bakery in Sacramento when I worked down town. They were a real treat. So almondy, so crispy and just slightly sweet. The perfect mid-morning pick me up. They were more than a cookie but not quite a pastry, existing on a culinary plane all their own. For many years I erroneously searched for "Almond Crescent" recipes but only turned up a variety of almond shortbread cookies. That wasn't it. I had forgotten that they were called "Almond Horns". Who wudda thunk? Then I discovered the G Bakes blog and Mandelhoernchen and found my long lost love. After exhaustive research on Mandelhoernchen and Almond Horns, I came up with the recipe below and it's a WINNER. Or at least I think it is, check it our for yourself.

On a side note, my daughter and I discovered only just last month that Whole Foods sells these in their bakery in the self service cookie case. Only they don't dip the ends in chocolate. Shame on you Whole Foods, leaving off the chocolate. But honestly, they're pretty good. I'll head back there to snap one up, fo show!