Yellow sheet cake

I don't usually make sheet cakes because in the faraway past my 9x13 cakes used to sink the middle. So I switched to making bundt cakes instead. They're beautiful and there's no middle TO sink.

And I'm not a frosting person, either.

BUT. I wanted to make a birthday cake for my friend, who asked for yellow cake with chocolate frosting. You can't really do that with a bundt cake. Drizzle, sure, but that's not the same.

So I made this recipe, which promises to be pretty foolproof:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/

And you know what? It seems to be foolproof indeed.

I did not use cake flour; I sifted regular flour, then measured it, added the salt and leavening, and sifted again.

I lined my 9x13 with parchment paper and then sprayed with with flour-oil spray just to be sure. I baked it for somewhere around 43-45 minutes and let it cool for 10 on a rack and then inverted it onto a cookie sheet, where it currently awaits its fate (frosting, then being eaten.) It came out of the pan beautifully and while it got a bit domed in the oven, it fell just enough to be pretty flat and smooth as it was cooling - perfect.

I made this frosting recipe: http://comfortablydomestic.com/2012/02/14/milk-chocolate-buttercream/

but using better millk chocolate than Hershey's, and using half and half instead of heavy whipping cream because that's what I had around and I don't think it will affect the consistency.

 VERDICT: quite excellent for a yellow cake. Quite good for a not super chocolate-y frosting (which is what my friend wanted.) Also? If you cut raspberries along their equator, they look like flowers. Nice for simple cake decorating for people that don't like wacky colors of icing. (I decorated the cake with melted chocolate chips in a piping bag...well, ok, in a ziploc bag with a tiny corner cut off. Bonus is that the chocolate hardens so the writing won't smear when you're transporting the cake.)