I visited my family earlier this month to celebrate my grandson’s fifth birthday.  Quinten is just the sweetest boy, except maybe for his little brother!  I couldn’t miss out on his landmark birthday!!

Quinten loves birthday cake, and I’d planned to make him a BIG chocolate cake using my Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake recipe.

Of course, every event has a story.  This one revolves around my obsession for cooking and baking supplies.  The last time I was in Indy, my daughter took me to TJ Maxx.  A great place for odds and ends, you never know what you will find there.  Well, in July, I had my eye on a 18″x13″ Nordic Ware sheet cake pan – what made this one special was it had a fitted plastic lid.  I have a variety of sheet cake pans, but not one THIS size.  And it had a lid!  Oh, how could I pass it up, but I did . . . I regretted my decision as soon as we left the store.

Now, many of my priceless Indy finds wind up in storage at Jessica’s home until my return. For grocery items, this is generally not a problem, because we use them up, except for the rendered duck fat and guanciale still in their freezer.  Hardware, however, is a different story.  With two small children, it’s not easy to find spare storage space.  I’ve crammed as much as I can in my mom & dad’s dresser and chest of drawers they are also storing for me.

Anyway, always the eternal optimist and set on making this BIG chocolate birthday cake in THAT pan, I dragged Jessica back to TJ Maxx and straight to the baking implement section. No time to dilly dally.  Could it be that any were left after three months?  Wouldn’t everyone identify how handy this sheet cake pan would become??  What was I going to do if my lovely pan wasn’t on the shelf???

God does answer prayer!  Behold, there it was!!  On the end cap – only one, the big sheet cake pan I was destined to own.  Big sigh of relief, I snatched it up and away we went!

I ended up making 1 1/2 times the cake recipe along with 1 1/2 times the chocolate frosting, because this is the largest sheet cake pan in my inventory.  Quinten helped me decorate, and he finished the project with dinosaur birthday candles.

Strutting around like a triumphant grandmother, Quinten’s remark was that he liked the cake, but it didn’t have enough frosting.  Well, nuts . . .

Happy Birthday, Quinten, my sweetheart!  Your Mimi loves you tons bigger than this big ol’ Texas Chocolate Birthday Cake!!!