Billie Jean Cake

There is a little story to this cake.... Some of you might know this as a Judy Cake (or just a Texas sheet cake). I got the recipe from my grandmother, who got it from a friend named Judy. Now I have eaten this cake 100 times in my life (mostly at the Sheridan fire dances) but had never made it myself, as it just seemed too complicated. I'm a simple kinda baker girl. Then one day I was craving it and decided to make it, with a twist. Now, because I put my own little twist on it I thought it might be OK to rename it. The day I was making this cake for the first time happened to be the day that Michael Jackson passed away. I was sad about his passing and was listening to some of his music as I was baking. You may know his song Billy Jean, but noticed I spelled the new name of the cake Billie Jean. Some of you might also know my Grandmother, whose fill name happens to be Billie Jeanneane. So, in fallowing with the tradition of naming it after whom you got the recipe from, this cake has been renamed (again) and will forever be in my recipe box as a Billie Jean Cake. Thank you Grandma and thanks you MJ.

Preheat oven to 350*

Cake Ingredients:
2 C Flour
2 C Sugar
1/2 t salt
1 C Butter (2 sticks)
1 C water
3 T DARK Coco (original recipe was regular coco)
2 eggs
1 t Baking soda
1/2 C Butter milk
1 t vanilla

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a small pot combine butter water and coco. Heat and stir till butter is melted and comes to a boil, then remove from heat and add to the flour mixture.
In another bowl mix eggs, soda, vanilla, and milk. Then mix that with everything else in the large bowl.
Pour batter into a large cookie sheet or a 15 X 10 3/8 X 3 1/4 inch pan
Bake for 20 minutes at 350*
Remove from oven and place on a cookie cooling rack with several paper towels under it.

Icing Ingredients:
1/2 C Butter milk
3 T DARK coco (original recipe was regular coco)
6 T milk (not butter milk)
1 box powdered sugar (apx 3 3/4 C)
1 t vanilla
(original recipe has nut, not mine though)

Melt butter and coco in a med size pot on low heat. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla.
Ice the cake while it is hot. Let icing run to edges and paper towel will catch any run over.

I always/only make this cake when we have Cafe Rio for dinner, because that is the only time I ever buy butter milk. And a little half pint is the perfect amount for both recipes.
This is a good cake for pot lucks too. My Grandma always made 2 at a time for the Fire House dances, one with nuts and one with out.