Texas Sheet Cake Cupcakes and let's talk about memories

I made these cupcakes for a barbeque a while back, and yes they're chocolatey and yes they're delicious, but more to the point, they're a cupcake version of something called "Texas Sheet Cake," which perhaps you already know about.  I've never been to Texas and I've never, as far as I knew, had their sheet cake, although I had seen it all over the internet.  But then I made these, and I realized I might have had it before after all.

They're just like my grandma's chocolate birthday cake.

It was a little surprising, because I don't think she has anything to do with Texas, although I suppose Texas doesn't have a monopoly on this cake, and we see the same thing with names of things cropping up everywhere.  But more than that it just made me miss her terribly all over again.  She's been gone for a year and a half now, and while I miss her as a person and I miss her farm and going home to visit, I also really, really, miss her food.

Here.  Let me stop before I get all maudlin.  You all know as well as I do that food is an amazing vector for memory.  Why don't you make these cupcakes and see what memories they conjure up for you - and if they don't, then know that you're partaking in a family tradition from my family.  She always had a little more for guests; you're welcome to it.