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Chocolate Sheet Cake (Texas Sheet Cake)

Written By: The Old Farmer’s Almanac Editors The Almanac Editors and Staff
Yield
about 40 servings
Category
Cakes and Frostings
Course
Desserts
Credit
Ruth Southwick, Willington Baptist Church, Connecticut

This Chocolate Sheet Cake, or Texas Sheet Cake, is a quick, moist, and delicious dessert with fudgy pourable icing. This big cake is great for birthdays, potlucks, tailgates, holidays, and a crowd! 

The added sour cream can’t be tasted but adds amazing moisture. 

Tip: Don’t worry if the batter is thin when pouring it. The cake will all come together.

This cake is Texas big! But you can freeze it. When baking, cover the bottom of your baking pan with foil. Once the cake cools, cover it with storage wrap, and then at least one layer of foil. Put in freezer.

Cake:

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 cups all-purpose white flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream, buttermilk, or yogurt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease an 11-inch by 17-inch pan (also known as a jelly roll pan).

Make the cake: 

  1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Then, stir in the 1/4 cup cocoa and water. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat and cool to room temperature. 
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Beat in sour cream and eggs.
  3. Stir the cocoa mixture into the mixing bowl until blended.
  4. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan. 
  5. Bake for about 22 minutes or until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the icing:

Icing

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 to 6 tablespoons milk
1 box (1 pound) confectioners' sugar (4-1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Combine all the icing ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
  2. Pour the warm frosting on the warm cake. (Don’t let the icing cool, as it will turn into fudge quickly!)
  3. Let cake cool set and cool before serving.
     

About The Author
The Old Farmer’s Almanac Editors

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Editors

The Almanac Editors and Staff

Under the guiding hand of its first editor, Robert B. Thomas, the premiere issue of The Old Farmer’s Almanac was published in 1792 during George Washington’s first term as president.Today, the Almanac...
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Comments

<span>Lisa Sinclair</span> Wed, 08/23/2023 - 18:18
Have my Mom's recipe for this cake! Ake it as a treat, for family get togethers. It's way too big, just for Hubby and I! Delicious!!! And a great way to honor Mom!❤️
<span>Lois Ahntholz</span> Mon, 08/28/2023 - 21:37
When I make a sheet cake, I cut it into pieces and freeze some of it, because it is so large, and there are just two of us. I like making sheet cakes. The pieces are easy to cut smaller than a regular size cake. Sheet cakes are so easy to make and bake fast!
<span>Joanne Trepanier</span> Mon, 06/26/2023 - 10:41
I have made your chocolate cake for years! It's called a Texas Sheet Cake! Always delicious and so simple to make! May family adores it....!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 06/26/2023 - 14:16

We love to hear that, Joanne. Thanks for sharing!

 <span>Kathy</span> Wed, 09/02/2020 - 21:27
I made this cake tonight and used the sour cream in the cake. The cake wasn’t as chocolatey as I would like...guess I was hoping more of a Cracker Barrel coco cola taste. Still very good, though, and very moist.
<span>Linda</span> Thu, 06/04/2020 - 20:58
We made this cake today. It has a good flavor. I did. Ot hav an 11x17 pan, so I used my 11x15 pan. The cake came out thinner than I expected using a slightly smaller pan. Next time I would use even smaller. This Looked more like a brownie with frosting than a cake. But definitely had the cake flavor. I think maybe it needed a little bit of baking powder or perhaps larger eggs to have made it raise more. All in all, a great flavor and very moist. Will work with it and try again.
<span>Elizabeth Vongvisith</span> Thu, 12/01/2011 - 19:43
I halved this recipe, as I didn't want such a large cake -- but I went ahead and used the entire amount of cocoa powder for the cake in the original recipe. I didn't make the frosting, however, but used a regular icing instead. It came out well and was sufficiently "chocolatey" to please everyone in my household, including my one housemate who's picky about chocolate things.