Brownie Cake

We've been having a lot of birthdays in my mystery reading group in the past few weeks. On Tuesday, my friend Janet Appel baked a Brownie Cake. It was fabulous, so I asked her to send the recipe. She's been making this for over 20 years, and I imagine it just gets better as she tinkers with the ingredients. The frosting is truly the "frosting on this cake"

BROWNIE CAKE, recipe by Janet Appel of I Have No Endings

Mix in a large bowl: 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar

Bring to boil: 1 stick butter ½ cup oil (I use Wesson)
1 cup water ½ cup cocoa (I use Hershey’s)
Stir every now and then.

Now pour over dry mixture and blend.

Stir in: 2 eggs (lightly beaten) 1 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp soda ½ cup buttermilk (or ½ cup of milk less 2 Tbsp, then add 2 Tbsp vinegar to sour)

Bake in a 10x15 inch cookie sheet for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or in a 9x13 pan for 25 minutes. (I use a glass pan)

FROSTING

Bring to a boil: 1 stick butter 6 Tbsp milk ½ cup cocoa
Stir every now and then.

Then add the above to the following:
1 pound box powdered sugar 1tsp. vanilla ½ to 1 cup broken pecans
Mix together.

When cake goes into the oven start the frosting. Let cake cool to warm them frost. Do not turn out the cake. Leave it in the pan.

NOTES:
I use 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in the cake and 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla in cake and in the frosting. Sometimes I put a pinch of cinnamon in the frosting. When baking in the 9x13 pan, sometimes it takes 30 minutes. I check with a metal cake tester (a toothpick will work) in the middle around 22 minutes. You want the tester to come out clean. I do not use a mixer; you want a gentle mixing by hand.