The Best (Texas) Chocolate Sheet Cake

A few posts ago, I told you about a recipe for Cheesy Hash Brown Potatoes, made by Jane Ann for her department lunch. Well, Jane, who is also in that same department, made this fabulous Texas sheet cake for the dessert. It was super-good…nice and moist, very chocolatey, and topped with a smooth layer of chocolate icing. Jane found the recipe over at The Pioneer Woman, where it’s called The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever. Some people call this cake a Texas Sheet Cake because it’s so big…it’s baked in a jelly roll pan, which measures about 10″ x 15″ x 1″). It’s described on The Pioneer Woman website as “…moist beyond imagination, chocolatey and rich like no tomorrow, and 100% of the time, causes moans and groans from anyone who takes a bite.” And as someone who tasted the cake Jane made, I can verify that this is all true!

Jane actually made the cake in a large sheet pan that measured 13 x 18″?she had tried it in a 10 x 15″ pan, but said, “…by the time I added the frosting, it was running off the sides. It seemed to work much better in the larger pan. I used the recipe as is, just the larger pan.” So, if you use a pan larger than 10 x 15″, your cake will be thinner, like the one Jane made. I really liked the thinness of the cake–it kind of looks like a huge pan of brownies when you make it in a pan that big. But the cake will taste great whether you make it in a larger or smaller sheet pan.

Jane made the frosting a little differently, too, so it would be really smooth, and I’ve noted how she did that in the recipe below.

THE BEST CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE. EVER. (from The Pioneer Woman)

CAKE:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
2 sticks butter
1 cup boiling water
½ cup buttermilk (or use this Pioneer Woman tip to make a buttermilk substitute: pour just under 1/2 cup regular milk into a measuring cup, then add enough regular vinegar to the milk to bring the quantity up to 1/2 cup?it will turn into buttermilk within seconds!)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla

FROSTING:

1 3/4 stick butter
4 heaping Tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa
6 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound (minus 1/2 cup) powdered sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts, optional (Jane did not use nuts in her frosting and it was great…so if you don’t like nuts, leave them out!)

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add cocoa. Stir together. Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While cake is baking, make the icing. If using nuts, chop them finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the nuts, stir together, and pour over warm cake. (NOTE: if you follow these directions, you’ll notice your frosting is still a little lumpy. To make her frosting really nice and smooth, Jane simply cooked the frosting several minutes longer over low heat, stirring until the mixture was smooth; she also omitted the nuts. You could also leave the nuts out of the frosting mixture and sprinkle them on top of the icing instead).

Then just cut into squares, and it’s ready to eat!

As big as this sheet cake is, it disappears pretty quickly!

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Filed under: Cakes/Coffecakes, Food and Recipes, Guest Chef Tagged: baking, Butter, buttermilk, Cake, chocolate, dessert, Everyday, Flour, frosting, icing, Icing (food), Pioneer Woman, recipe, Sheet cake, Texas