Texas Sheet Cake - The Only Chocolate Cake You'll Ever Need

This cake recipe is my family's Texas sheet cake recipe. It is the only chocolate sheet cake you will ever need. Essentially a one-bowl recipe and super quick to whip up. It is super moist, super chocolate and super versatile.

What is Sheet Cake?

Well, sheet cakes are not really a thing in the UK, at least not in the American sense (or size) of the term. Basically a sheet cake is an easy crowd pleasing bake, using a large baking tray known as a sheet pan. This large rectangular cake is fairly thin, and normally topped with frosting. When homemade, the sheet cakes are usually served straight from the pan. They are easily sliced into squares for serving, a lot like brownies, which makes it a great birthday party cake.

In the UK, sheet pans exist, but these are normally smaller than the American counterpart and used for bakes such as Swiss rolls. You don't usually find large sheet cakes ready made and frosted in grocery stores, the way you would in America. In fact, I know many American expats who are willing to travel long distances to get to a Costco, which is one of the few locations in the UK that you can reliably get an American style sheet cake birthday cake.

What Makes a Texas Sheet Cake?

The exact origins of the Texas sheet cake are not known. It is thought to be related to German Chocolate Cake, but baked in a single layer sheet pan rather than stacked round cake layers. It is a popular chocolate sheet cake, most known for being moist and topped with a boiled cocoa frosting.

Making My Chocolate Sheet Cake

Ingredients and Process

For this recipe, you will need:

• Unsalted butter - no need for this to be softened as you'll be melting this.
• Water
• Cocoa powder
• Flour - you can use all-purpose flour or plain flour interchangeably here.
• Sugar - either granulated or caster sugar.
• Salt
• Baking Soda
• Eggs
• Crème fraîche

This cake recipe is essentially a one-bowl recipe and you can make it using just one large saucepan. I opt to use a saucepan and a separate bowl to speed the cooling process.

There are only three steps, which align with the ingredients fairly nicely.

1. Boil: Butter, Water and Cocoa

To begin this recipe, you will add the butter, water and cocoa powder to a saucepan. Heat this over a medium heat and bring these to a boil as your butter melts.

You do not need to work with softened room temperature butter for this recipe, since you will be melting it over a stove top anyway. You can take butter straight from the refrigerator. My recipe calls for 1 cup - in America, this is the same as 2 sticks of butter, in Britain this is 220g (so slightly less than a full 250g block).

The process of boiling the mixture helps to bloom the cocoa, accentuating the flavour for the final product.

Once your mixture boils, remove this from the stovetop and set aside to cool. There are two options for cooling:

• Cool in the pan for 30 minutes and then carry on mixing the rest of the cake batter in the pan.
• Pour into a large bowl to cool more quickly (15 min) and make the remaining batter in the bowl.

2. Add the Sugar, Flour and Salt

Once cooled a bit, add in the sugar, flour and salt. I do this all at once, no need to add in intervals or any particular order.

3. Add Crème Fraîche, Eggs and Baking Soda

The final ingredients can then all be added to the mix. Whisk together until smooth.

If you don't have crème fraîche, you can also use sour cream in place of this for the same effect or substitute with yogurt. You will want something with a bit of acidity to help react with the baking soda and for the flavour in your cake.

Preparing Sheet Pans

This recipe fits in one American standard three-quarters sheet pan or in two 9"x13" sheet pans. If you want to make one 9"x13" sheet pan, simply halve the recipe ingredients and otherwise follow the same process.

I find lining the base of the sheet pan with parchment paper makes it easier to remove slices and removes any fear of the cake sticking.

Since it is standard practice to serve sheet cake straight from the pan, you may want to forego the overhanging parchment for presentation. Simply grease and flour the pan well in advance to help avoid sticking at the end.

Texas Sheet Cake Frosting

So, a Texas sheet cake isn't really a Texas sheet cake without the fudgy chocolate frosting. This boiled cocoa frosting is a standard accompaniment for an old fashioned Texas sheet cake.

The recipe is five ingredients and made in one saucepan.

You will need:

• Cocoa powder
• Unsalted butter - again no need for this to be pre-softened.
• Vanilla extract
• Milk
• Powdered icing sugar

Place the cocoa powder, butter, vanilla and milk into a saucepan. Melt the butter and bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and sift in the powdered sugar. Whisk this all together until smooth and then pour over the cakes in their sheet pans while they are still warm.

Smooth the frosting out with a spatula. It will start to set quickly and may look like it is crusting. This won't be a problem, it will even itself out and won't fully set until it cools.

Slice and Serve Sheet Cake

It is best to allow the sheet cake to cool a bit before slicing, if you can restrain yourself! One of the beauties of an old fashioned chocolate sheet cake is that you can easily cut this with a standard spatula - one tool to slice and serve!

FAQs for the Ultimate Chocolate Sheet Cake

If you like this recipe, you might also like:

• Devil's Food Cake
• Seven Layered Chocolate Cake
• No Bake S'mores Cheesecake
• Mini Chocolate Ganache Cheesecakes