Beetnick Cake?

My husband has very fond memories of something he calls "beetnick cake".  It was a single layered chocolate cake, with white frosting that was served in the cafeteria of Midway School, in Fellows, California.  He's asked me several times if I remember this cake (although I did not go to Midway School), he asks friends if they remember this cake (none of whom went to school with him either), and every time we're at a deli or restaurant serving a chocolate sheet cake with white frosting, he will ask if it is beetnick cake.  We have yet to run into a cake with that name.
Over the three day weekend, the sun was shining in through the sliding glass door of our kitchen, and I felt like cooking something up for my husband.  I pulled out an old Pillsbury cookbook. Published in 1969 - the year of my birth!  And, might I go off on a tangent for just a minute to exclaim how much I love and treasure old cook books!  They have a wealth of knowledge that the generations growing up without home economics classes will never be exposed to!  There are ingredients and measurements that no longer exist, and a seemingly inexhaustible variety of ways to stretch the most common and least expensive ingredients into delicious dishes.  Buy them up at yard sales whenever you see them!

Can you read the price of this hard covered cookbook, in the upper right hand corner?  $3.95!  So, I began looking through this book for "beetnick cake", and found nothing.  But, I did find a cake called, "Beat 'N Bake Cocoa Cake"....Say it fast a couple of times...do you think a young boy might hear this and think the grown up said "beetnick cake"?  That's exactly my theory.

Beat 'N Bake Cocoa Cake

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

3/4 C sugar

1/4 C unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp soda (I assumed baking soda)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 C cold waer

1/4 C cooking oil (when's the last time you read "cooking" oil in a recipe?!)

1 Tbs vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bottom only of an 8-inch square pan.  

Now the rest of the directions read that these ingredients are to be mixed right in the baking pan with a fork, but I could not bring myself to scrape a fork around the bottom of my shiny new baking pan, so I mixed the ingredients in my kitchenaid.

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, soda, and salt.  Blend in vanilla, water, oil, and vinegar.  Mix well.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until top springs back when touched lightly in center.  Cool completely before frosting.

I removed the cake from the pan and frosted it with a vanilla buttercream frosting - the recipe for which is also found in the Pillsbury cookbook:

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

3 Tbs softened butter

2 C confectioners' sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

dash of salt

4 Tbs milk or light cream (I used half & half)

Cream the butter, with a mixer and add confectioners' sugar, vanilla, salt and milk.  Mix until frosting is thick enough to spread, but smooth and creamy.

The finished and frosted cake reminds me of "snack cake".  Not sure where in my childhood I heard that term, but that is what comes to mind...

The cake is moist and chocolatey without being overly sweet...my children like it...my husband says it's good, but still isn't sure this is THE beetnick cake of his childhood.

I did google "beetnick cake" and found recipes.  Whether spelled "beetnick" or "beatnick", there were cake recipes with pureed, mashed, and grated beets.  I'm sure these recipes were not served out at Midway School.....I'm pretty sure...