Chocolate Texas Cowboy Sheet Cake

Cake: Sift together sugar, soda and flour. Bring margarine, cocoa and water to a boil. Pour over sugar and flour mixture. Mix well.

Beat egg and buttermilk together. Add to mixture and beat well. Pour into greased 9 x 9 pan. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Icing: Melt together margarine, cocoa, milk and vanilla - bring to a boil. Add powdered sugar; mix until smooth.

Prepare the icing just before the cake comes out of the oven and pour it on right away, while the cake is still hot and in the pan. Sprinkle evenly with the nuts. What happens is that some of the icing seeps into the cake, making it very moist. The end result is somewhere between cake, fudge and brownie - but not too rich.

Serve either warm or at room temperature, but never serve hot. Vanilla ice cream kicks it up a notch. We always prepare a double batch; you get about 12 pieces that way, and it turns out even better for some reason.

cook's notes

** We tried using butter once - we thought it would be even better. It was horrible! It made for some odd flavor. We can't explain it - but don't use butter