Texas Sheet Cake -Revamped (Vegan; low Gluten; lower Sugar)

Yesterday for Dale's birthday, I converted a Betty Crocker Texas Sheet Cake recipe and I thought I'd share it with you. This is one of my all-time favorites cakes and although I still wouldn't call it "healthy", it was definitely a step in the right direction. This wouldn't be something I'd make regularly because of the sugar and gluten factors, but for a special occasion, it was pretty tasty. When you see the amounts of sugar, you'll understand what I mean and believe it or not, this Betty Crocker version was the lowest in sugar I could find. That does give the icing more of a glaze texture instead of the traditional fudge-like icing of most Texas Sheet Cakes. Hope you enjoy it. We did (and still are!)!

Texas Sheet Cake (vegan; lower gluten and lower sugar):

• 2 cups spelt flour (I used 1 cup gluten free blend to lower gluten even more)
• 1 cup Sucanat (*see note below)
• 1 cup organic evaporated cane juice crystals
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup water
• 3 Tablespoons baking cocoa
• 1/2 cup almond or coconut butter"milk" (**see note below)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 flaxseed "eggs"

Frosting

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3 Tablespoons baking cocoa
• 6 Tablespoons almond or coconut milk
• 1 cup coconut sugar (***see note below)
• 1 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

For the cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 15 x 10 x 1 pan and set aside. Stir flour, sugars and salt together in a mixing bowl and set aside. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat coconut oil, water and cocoa together just until boiling. Remove from heat. Pour oil/water/cocoa into mixing bowl with flour mixture and stir until well mixed. Add butter"milk", baking soda, vanilla and eggs to mixing bowl and stir until well blended. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

For the frosting: While cake is baking, heat coconut oil, cocoa, almond or coconut milk, and coconut sugar in 2 quart saucepan just until simmering. Remove from heat. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Stir in pecans, if using. 

When cake has been removed from the oven, pour frosting over hot cake and allow to cool completely (about one hour) before cutting.

Notes: 

*You could probably strictly used Sucanat in place of traditional sugar, but it will significantly increase the fiber content so you made need to add more liquid to get a cake-like consistency to the batter.

**To make soured/butter milk, add 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup and then add almond or coconut milk to equal 1/2 cup. It will separate and curdle quickly. This is what you want it to do.

***Add the 1 cup of coconut sugar to what you heat in the pan, otherwise your frosting may be gritty. If you want to eliminate the powdered sugar altogether, then cook all coconut sugar in saucepan just until the sugar dissolves. Cooking too much can make it harder to spread onto cake.