Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Recipe

Try this easy cake once and I am sure you'll have a new favorite! Tender, fudgy, and miles of whipped frosting make it the perfect bite! Best part?

Licking the cake batter off beaters!

Don't confuse Chocolate Sheet Cake with a Texas Sheet Cake recipe - they are not the same at all! Not even close!

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🥄 Equipment
• 🥫 Storage
• 💭 Tips for success
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions
• 📚 Related recipes
• 📞 The last word
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

• Quick and easy.
• Super moist!
• Addictively delicious whipped frosting.
• Feeds a lot of people.

This easy chocolate cake recipe is moist and full of classic fudgy flavor. It's an easy birthday cake, perfect for a church potluck dinner, or a great way to end a family meal.

Single layer cakes are the perfect starter cake for anyone who is new to cake baking because you can just bake them, frost them, and serve them all in the same baking pan!

🧾 Ingredients

You'll need:

• cocoa powder
• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• salt
• butter
• eggs
• vanilla
• sour cream
• heavy whipping cream
• chocolate pudding mix
• confectioners' sugar

🔪 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.

Step one

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Grease and dust a 13 x 9 -inch pan with cocoa and set aside. Or, spray the pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.

Step two

3. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. Beat the butter and sugar in a until light and fluffy - about 2 minutes
5. Add egg, one at a time, and beat well after each.
6. Stir in the vanilla.
7. With mixer on low speed blend in ⅓ of the cocoa mixture into the butter mixture.
8. Add ½ the sour cream.
9. Blend in ⅓ of the cocoa mixture.
10. Add the rest of the sour cream.
11. Stir in the remaining dry ingredients.

Step three

12. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
13. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly touched or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
14. Cool on a wire rack.

Step four

15. Add the heavy whipping cream, pudding mix, and powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar) to the bowl of a mixer.
16. Whip until light and fluffy.
17. Once the cake cools spread the frosting thickly on top and decorate as desired.
18. The frosted cake should be refrigerated after it is iced unless you'll be using it right away.

How to make a layer cake from this recipe

You can easily make a chocolate layer cake out of this sheet cake recipe. Just use 2 greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans and bake at 350F for about 20 minutes.

🥄 Equipment

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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.

• 9 x 13-inch cake pan
• Large mixing bowl (I like this set of nesting bowls from Pyrex! I have 2 sets.)
• Measuring cup, measuring spoons
• Stand mixer or hand mixer

🥫 Storage

This moist chocolate cake will be fine at (cool) room temperature for a couple of hours after it's frosted but for longer storage should be kept in the refrigerator for up to four days.

You can freeze it unfrosted for up to 4 months or freeze it frosted for up to 2 months.

💭 Tips for success

Expert tip: Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly. It will get fluffy and lighter in color. It could take 2 to 5 minutes.

• Don't over-bake the cake. It's ready when a toothpick comes out clean with a couple of crumbs hanging on for dear life.
• I use dark cocoa for more dark chocolate flavor. You can use regular cocoa for more of a classic chocolate sheet cake flavor.
• Don't use margarine. Not now. Not ever.
• Use room temperature ingredients.
• Stop and scrape the mixing bowl a couple of times.
• Don't overbeat - it will make the cake tough.
• Need to adjust for high altitude? Check out the instructions from Utah State University.
• Please don't call this a Texas Sheet Cake. That's completely different and it makes Texans twitch a little.

👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions

Here are the questions I am most frequently asked about this recipe.

📚 Related recipes

I love a good cake and if you've been reading Restless Chipotle very long you know that I make them a lot. Here are some of my favorites!

• Lemon Cream Cake is a lot like this dark chocolate sheet cake but with tangy lemon flavor and a matching whipped frosting. Lemon lovers rejoice!
• Pig Pickin' Cake has orange and pineapple flavors. It's a favorite at potlucks and such.
• White Chocolate and Lime Tres Leches Cake takes some planning ahead but the result is totally worth it.
• Holy Cow Cake is for you if you love Butterfingers bars. It's absolutely the easiest thing ever.
• Chocolate Upside Down Cake is from one of my old cookbooks. The frosting cooks right on it.

If you have a little time on your hands try these chocolate eclairs with espresso filling. OMG so good.

📞 The last word

Here's my experience...

• The frosting will melt on a hot day or in a hot room. It's basically stabilized whipped cream. Keep the cake cool.
• Substituting a cup of brown sugar for one cup of the white sugar gives it a deeper flavor and I think makes it a little more moist.

There isn’t anything more homemade than a chocolate sheet cake — at least that’s how I see it.

Layer cakes are fancy and they show you’ve gone to some trouble but a sheet cake?

Well now, that’s just an every day kind of dessert that you feed family. So, servings a big ole honkin’ slice of one of these old fashioned cakes just lets everyone know that they’re family.

It's kinda like telling them to use the kitchen door. And that’s a real good feeling.

I grew up in a family that never, ever, ever locked doors except at night. You know, people only commit crimes after dark…:::rolls eyes:::

Anyway, it was also a family that never, ever, ever used the front door unless it was a delivery or a stranger. If you were family or friend you used the kitchen door or garage door — never the front door.

And… while I do lock doors, rarely do people come to the front door. Oh, we might go through the front door to sit out on the porch and drink some wine or tea but thats it. Friend or family - kitchen door it is.

I know that it’s just a mental thing but I do think that there is something about welcoming someone into your kitchen that creates an instant bond and a special kind of intimacy.

It just says, welcome home.

This deep chocolate sheet cake does the same thing.

I don’t know that I would make it for a fancy occasion, although you could, but it’s real comfort food. I like to make it when I’m taking a meal to someone who’s just had a baby or has a family emergency, when the kids come home for a visit, and for low key birthday parties.

The cake is tender and springy with deep chocolate flavor in every bite. The frosting is light, creamy, and literally melts away on your tongue – almost like French Silk.

Make it when someone has had a bad day or someone has gotten an A in a hard class, or a promotion, or anytime a family celebration or cheering up session is needed. This is one of my favorites and I hope it will be one of yours, too.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it a 5 star rating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

First published April 12, 2016. Last updated for better readability and user experience April 27, 2021.