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Texas Sheet Cake

This cake is a classic in our family! It's a soft cake that isn't too sweet but just enough sweetness to satiate your tastebuds.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cake, dessert

Ingredients

Cake

  • 2 cups all purpose unbleached flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks
  • 4 T unsweetened cocoa powder heaping
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • 2 eggs slightly beaten
  • 1½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Frosting

  • ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick
  • 4 T unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ⅓ cup milk
  • dash of salt
  • 1½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 2½ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional

Instructions

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 375°. Into a large mixing bowl, sift flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a medium saucepan, bring butter, cocoa, and water to a boil. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Now add in the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda and mix until smooth.
  • Pour into a greased jelly roll pan. I like putting a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom and grease the sides. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 16-20 minutes. Start watching closely at 16 minutes and remove when the cake is no longer jiggly but not over-cooked. You don't want a dry cake. Let cool 2 minutes before frosting.

Frosting

  • Before removing the cake from the oven, prep the frosting ingredients. You want to frost the cake before it cools, right at the 2 minute mark out of the oven.
  • In a medium saucepan, bring butter, cocoa, and milk to a boil and remove from heat. Add in the last 3 ingredients and stir until smooth and shiny. Poke the cake with a fork a few times and pour the warm frosting over the cake. Add the chopped nuts on top now, if desired.
  • Enjoy, y'all!