This cake almost always gets rave reviews. It is similar to the one Ree over at Pioneer Woman Cooks calls The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. The only difference I can find is that my recipe includes a teaspoon of cinnamon and is cooked in a 9 X 13 inch pan rather than a jelly roll pan. So my cake is a little thicker than Ree’s and has a subtle cinnamon flavor that enhances the taste but leaves most people wondering what makes the cake different. You can leave out the cinnamon if you like and/or bake it in a larger pan if you would rather have a thinner layer. We think it is just perfect the way it is.
I got my original recipe approximately forty years ago in Home Ec class. A new girl at school brought the recipe for us to try in class. (Was it a coincidence that she was from Texas?) This cake is so good that it has been a family staple ever since.
TEXAS CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 eggs — well beaten
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup water
Sift flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. In saucepan, add butter, water and cocoa and bring to boil. Pour this over flour mixture. In another bowl, beat eggs, soda, buttermilk and vanilla. Add this to flour and chocolate mixture and mix well. Place in greased and floured 9 X 13-inch pan. Bake at 350° until done – about 25 minutes.
About 10 minutes before cake is done, mix all ingredients except sugar and nuts in saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Do not boil. Remove from heat, add sugar and beat well. Stir in nuts. Pour and spread over cake as soon as it comes out of oven.
In her deep plowing of the heart, moving from tears one moment to laughter the next, Golden will touch your heart with her dynamic Bible teaching, combined with her vivid personal examples, moving from tears one moment, to laughter the next, all the while communicating the message that God is faithful–keep trusting Him. She has a passion to communicate the Word of God in such a manner that will lead to godly living.
Golden, and her husband, Blaine, have just retired as pastors at Faith Mountain Fellowship Church in Red River, NM. They have three grown daughters and eight grandchildren. Her testimony and myriad of life experiences lend a touch of authenticity to her teaching. She loves to speak for women’s conferences, seminars, luncheons, retreats and Mother/Daughter events.
If deep Bible teaching that brings the Scriptures alive is what you want, Golden is the speaker you need.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Madeleine’s faith puts her at odds with an intimidating rival: King Louis XIV.
Having fled their homeland of France because of the persecution by Louis XIV, the Clavell family seeks refuge in Switzerland. However, the king is not about to let the recently widowed Madeleine, his childhood sweetheart, escape that easily. He sends musketeers to kidnap her and her oldest son, Philippe, holding them captive in his opulent palace. King Louis is suspicious that Philippe could be his son, and he’s enraged by the growing affection of one of his courtiers for Madeleine.
Will Madeleine escape the king with her life or lose everything that she’s fought so hard to keep?
A Prisoner of Versaille is a fast moving, easy to read historical romance/adventure set primarily in seventeenth century France. In it the reader is given an inside look at court life during the reign of King Louis XIV as well as his ruthless determination to have his wishes enforced and a brief glimpse at the religious conflict between the Huguenots and the Catholics. I was a bit disappointed with the abrupt ending but understand that it leaves the door open to the next installment of the series.
This book has a great deal of spiritual content so it would not be a good choice for those who are offended by that (as evidenced by many reviews on Amazon). However for those like me who enjoy Christian fiction, if you like the Regency type historical novels, A Prisoner of Versaille might just be your cup of tea.
Robin Lee Hatcher discovered her vocation as a novelist after many years of reading everything she could put her hands on, including the backs of cereal boxes and ketchup bottles. The winner of the Christy Award for Excellence in Christian Fiction (Whispers from Yesterday), the RITA Award for Best Inspirational Romance (Patterns of Love and The Shepherd’s Voice), two RT Career Achievement Awards (Americana Romance and Inspirational Fiction), and the RWA Lifetime Achievement Award, Robin is the author of over 50 novels, including Catching Katie, named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the Library Journal.
Robin enjoys being with her family, spending time in the beautiful Idaho outdoors, reading books that make her cry, and watching romantic movies. She is passionate about the theater, and several nights every summer, she can be found at the outdoor amphitheater of the Idaho Shakespeare Festival, enjoying Shakespeare under the stars. She makes her home outside of Boise, sharing it with Poppet the high-maintenance Papillon
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Cleo Arlington dresses like a cowboy, is fearless and fun-loving, and can ride, rope, and wrangle a horse as well as any man. In 1916, however, those talents aren’t what most young women aspire to. But Cleo isn’t most women. Twenty-nine years old and single, Cleo loves life on her father’s Idaho ranch. Still, she hopes someday to marry and have children.
Enter Sherwood Statham, an English aristocrat whose father has sentenced him to a year of work in America to “straighten him out.” Sherwood, who expected a desk job at a posh spa, isn’t happy to be stuck on an Idaho ranch. And he has no idea how to handle Cleo, who’s been challenged with transforming this uptight playboy into a down-home cowboy, because he has never encountered a woman succeeding in a “man’s world.”
Just about everything either of them says or does leaves the other, well, fit to be tied. Cleo Arlington knows everything about horses but nothing about men. And though Cleo believes God’s plan for her includes a husband, it couldn’t possibly be Sherwood Statham. Could it?
Their bumpy trot into romance is frustrating, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming.
As I have said before, I love westerns, especially those with interesting characters and plenty of humor. Fit to Be Tied definitely meets all my requirements for a good western.
Cleo Arlington, a strong, independent cowgirl, dresses like a man and can do most anything a man can do (and sometimes better) on the family ranch. When her father agrees to provide a job for Sherwood Statham as a favor to her sister’s husband, Cleo can only dread a year of trying to teach the stuck-up English dandy how to be a cowboy. Although the two clash from the beginning, it is only a matter of time before each of them begins to see a few redeeming qualities in the other.
How will it all turn out? Will Sherwood (Woody) overcome his stern upbringing and the nightmares from his war experiences that haunt him? Will Cleo find the man of her dreams in this unlikely fellow? If you are interested in finding out, run to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy. If you haven’t read A Vote of Confidence, the story of Cleo’s sister Gwen, you might want to pick up a copy of it too.
Fit to Be Tied was such a fun read I hated for it to end. I can’t wait for Daphne’s story in the next Sisters of Bethlehem Springs installment.
I have a copy of White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner to give away this week. To enter to win, please read the review post about the book and leave a comment on this post telling me why you would like to read this book. The entry deadline is Friday, November 13. I will post the winner on Saturday if possible.
After a nomadic lifestyle with her father, Tally thinks her Aunt Amanda’s home and family are like a dream come true but soon discovers that all is not as it seems on the surface. Working together to interview survivors of the Treblinka concentration camp for a school project, Chase and Tally become friends and confidants. While Chase grapples with the haunting dreams of a devastating fire that came close to claiming his life as a small child, his parents struggle to keep their marriage together as their secrets push them apart.
White Picket Fences is a multi-layered narrative with several simultaneous plot lines as well as a story from the past. This book is a frank look at how a home that looks perfect on the exterior can actually hide the painful secrets and troubled lives of its inhabitants. An emotionally charged essay about a family in crisis, White Picket Fences illustrates the impact past events can have on the present, the danger of keeping secrets, and the serious consequences that can result when a parent withdraws from a child. White Picket Fences is a well written book that has a few surprises and neatly ties up all the sub-plots by its end.
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda’s idyllic home seems the perfect place for her niece Tally to stay while her vagabond brother is in Europe, but the white picket fence life Amanda wants to provide is a mere illusion. Amanda’s husband Neil refuses to admit their teenage son Chase, is haunted by the horrific fire he survived when he was four, and their marriage is crumbling while each looks the other way.
Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else.
Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away.
Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?
Readers of emotional dramas that are willing to explore the lies that families tell each other for protection and comfort will love White Picket Fences. The novel is ideal for those who appreciate exploring questions like: what type of honesty do children need from their parents, or how can one move beyond a past that isn’t acknowledged or understood? Is there hope and forgiveness for the tragedies of our past and a way to abundant grace?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Many links on this site are supplied by the Reviewer groups that provide the books I review. Occasionally other links may be my personal associate links.
I have a copy of White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner to give away this week. To enter to win, please read the 
Susan Meissner cannot remember a time when she wasn’t driven to put her thoughts down on paper. Her novel The Shape of Mercy was a Publishers Weekly pick for best religious fiction of 2008 and a Christian Book Award finalist. Susan and her husband live in Southern California, where he is a pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves. They are the parents of four grown children.
