Chocolate Sheet Cake
The best Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe by The Pioneer Woman
Servings: 24 servings
Ingredients
For the Sheet Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¼ t salt
- 225 g butter (2 sticks in the USA)
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder (heaped tablespoons)
- 1 cup boiling water
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 t vanilla essence
- 1 t bicarbonate of soda (baking soda in the USA)
For the Icing
- 198 g butter (1¾ sticks in the USA)
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder (heaped tablespoons again)
- 6 tbsp milk (or 90 ml - either is hard to measure)
- 392 g icing sugar (sifted) (1 pound minus ½ a cup - this took some math to convert!)
- ½ cup chopped pecan nuts (finely chopped) see note
Instructions
For the cake
- Grease a large baking tray (see note) and preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Mix together the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat. Once melted, add the cocoa powder and stir together.
- Add the cup of boiling water and let the mixture cook for 30 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and add to the flour mixture. Stir lightly to cool (Ree's words).
- Measure the buttermilk into a measuring jug, add the beaten eggs, vanilla and bicarb (baking soda).
- Mix the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and pour into the prepared baking tray.
- Bake for 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
For the icing
- Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat and add the cocoa powder once melted.
- Stir to combine and remove from the heat.
- Add the milk and sifted icing sugar and mix. Add the chopped nuts.
- Pour the icing over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven. It flows slowly and lusciously all over the place without too much effort.
- Decorate with some grated or shaved chocolate or colourful candy if you didn't add the chopped nuts, or even if you did - I won't judge you!
Notes
- I have often made the icing without the chopped nuts as my husband is allergic to tree nuts. The nuts give it some crunch which is lovely, so feel free to replace the nuts with something crunchy. SA readers think broken Crunchie bars (honeycomb) or Peppermint Crisp. If the cake is for children Rice Crispies or Astros could be nice.
- The Pioneer Woman uses an 18 x 13 x 1-inch sheet cake pan. A large baking tray in South Africa is generally 39 x 27 x 2cm. Which is more shallow than US sheet pans and therefore I make my cake in a 37 x 27 x 5 cm roasting pan which makes the cake a bit thicker and prevents spillage. If you have a baking tray that's 2,5 to 3cm deep that should be fine.