Cornbread for a Crowd

Saturday night is our church ward's "The Great Pumpkin Event" and I volunteered to make the cornbread to feed 150 hungry Boo's and Ghouls of all ages (boys and girls, get it? Ha ha ha). I think I make Mr. CHiPy's head spin when I volunteer to do things like this. I just explain to him that I LOVE to cook and bake and help out and he pretty much just goes with it. He's good like that. Anyway, there will be a chili cook off, games for the kiddy's and of course the trunk-or-treat.

The Great Pumpkin Event is such a fun event for us because Mr. CHiPy really gets into it. This year he's making chili, carving a pumpkin AND dressing up as Willy Wonka. I'm going to be his Wonka Bar with the golden ticket - I tried to get little-big man to be Charlie but he would not have any part of that. Then I tried to get Sugar to be an Oompah Loompah and she would not have any part of that either. Too bad, so sad. I'll post about the event and our outfits this weekend.

So back to baking...In order to feed this many, I needed to make 8 batches which is 2 recipes for each 1/2 sheet pan - so would that be called Octrupling it? Well, whatever...

Boston Market Cornbread
Makes a 9x13 pan or 36 muffins or 18 mini loafs

2 (8-1/2 ounce) boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix
1 (18 ounce) box butter recipe cake mix
5 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1-1/3 cups water
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup frozen corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and mix all dry ingredients together. Add remaining ingredients except for corn and mix well for 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour into greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle corn on top - no need to mix in as bread will rise over it as it bakes. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean - In my oven, a 9x13 pan takes about 40 minutes to be completely cooked all the way through. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly in the pan. Eat with delicious honey butter!

*Note: Because I octrupled this recipe (ha ha ha) I had to bake the 1/2 sheet pans for 45 minutes at 350 degrees, then covered with foil and reduced heat to 325 degrees for another 20 minutes. Delicious!

See all of the luscious corn...this pan FILLS the width of my oven...a 1/2 sheet is big!

This 1/2 sheet pan will make 40-50 slices depending how you cut it...

We had to sample it to make sure it was delicious...and it was!