Texas Sheet Cake Recipe Is a Classic

Classic chocolate Texas Sheet Cake is dense and thin – similar to a brownie. The moist cake is so fudgy and sweet it will scare away chocolate cravings that are lurking around. Tons of pecans are stirred into the shiny chocolate icing so it’s like biting into the chewiest brownie you ever tasted with square of homemade fudge on top! Don’t let anyone fool ya, this is the BEST because it’s the real deal.

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Texas Sheet Cake Ingredients

While the ingredients may look pretty basic the way that they come together is anything but! This cake is southern sweet and worthy of any potluck or picnic.

• All purpose flour is fine for this recipe. Cake flour is too delicate,
• Cocoa makes this more chocolatey. I use Hershey’s extra dark but you can use regular cocoa if you want – there will be a flavor and color difference.
• Sugar used here is granulated but I have been known to use half light brown sugar for extra flavor and moistness.
• Baking soda gives a little leavening and neutralizes the acids in the buttermilk.
• Vanilla is optional. Try it both ways and see what you like best.
• Water is one of the liquids here. I’ve used strong coffee before with good results.
• Eggs are large, pasture raised, and organic. Use whatever you generally get… unless you get something like ostrich eggs. Then you’d better stick with the recipe as written.
• Buttermilk is best for making baked goods tender. You can “make your own” by adding lemon or vinegar to milk but it doesn’t have the same effect. You can also culture your own REAL buttermilk if you like.
• Confectioner’s sugar is also called powdered sugar. It thickens the icing and makes it fudgy.
• Pecans are THE only nut allowed. Toast them, chop them, and add them to the frosting. Otherwise you might as well make a regular cake.

You’ll also need a high sided cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.

What Is Texas Sheet Cake?

Texas Sheet Cake. Is it a cake? A brownie? And why the cult-like following?

If you have ever visited Texas and spent at least an hour in a local home you have probably experienced the phenomena of sheet cake. A decadently, rich, chocolaty cake with a frosting that is ..well is it a glaze or an icing or a frosting or a candy???

No matter. It is good and every Texan over the age of six months knows it.

It is quick to make; you can be shooing flies off off the finished cake within about forty five minutes. And that first bite? Rich, moist, chocolate, delicious…. your mouth will think you’ve died and gone to Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake FAQs

Here are the most commonly asked questions about this recipe. If you don’t find the answer to yours here leave a comment below or email me – I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!

How is a Texas sheet cake different from a regular sheet cake?

It’s different from an old fashioned chocolate sheet cake in several ways. First of all, most sheet cakes are baked in a 13×9-inch pan so the cake is about twice as thick as a Texas Sheet Cake. The cake tends to be a fluffier – like a layer cake without the layers.

My Texas Sheet Cake recipe, and most of the authentic ones that I’ve been around, call for baking in a jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with high sides. You get a thinner, denser cake. The other difference is that the frosting is somewhat runny and is poured over the cake while it’s hot rather than spread on. The pecans should be mixed right in so that they are enrobed in all of the chocolate goo.

As it cools, the frosting solidifies to a thin, fudgy glaze that is more like candy than frosting. It’s what makes Texas Sheet Cake authentic – I don’t know about all these recipes that call for buttercream.

Just say “nah”.

Does Texas sheet cake need to be refrigerated?

Nope! Wrap it tightly and store it on the counter for up to 3 or 4 days. I can’t tell you exactly because it doesn’t last more than two days here. And that was only because several of the kids were out of town.

Can I make a cake 2 days in advance?

You can make almost any cake 2 days in advance and definitely this one. But you better hide it or you’ll walk in the pantry to see a big slice missing.

More Cake Recipes

Who doesn’t love a good cake? Here are more great recipes!

White Texas Sheet Cake

Homemade and rich, this white Texas sheet cake has just a whiff of coconut flavor. This easy cake is topped with a candy-like white glaze generously studded with toasted pecans. A quick from scratch cake that’s the perfect dessert for potlucks, casual get-togethers, and bake sales.  

Check out this recipe

Southern Coconut Cake

Triple layer coconut cake with raspberry jam filling and a creamy, rich white chocolate whipped frosting.

Check out this recipe

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

An old fashioned layer cake that's moist and tender with deep chocolate flavor. This is great for birthdays or Sunday dinners!

Check out this recipe

Lemon Cream Cake

Moist, buttery lemon cake with a creamy, rich whipped topping is quick and easy to make for birthdays or potlucks.

Check out this recipe

Classic Buttermilk Pound Cake

This easy pound cake has a moist, buttery crumb and a deliciously tangy vanilla flavor. Serve it plain or with the luscious brown butter glaze.

Check out this recipe

Tips from a Texan for Texas Sheet Cake

The only people I have ever met that have NOT liked this cake are those unique individuals that don’t like chocolate (bless their hearts) and those individuals that did not follow protocol or that used a non-Texas approved recipe.

And, as everyone knows, you don’t mess with Texas.

There are some don’ts to this cake:

• Don’t use anything but pecans. No, walnuts will not substitute.
• Nuts are not optional unless (1) you are allergic (2) you absolutely gag at the thought of them.
• Macadamias either. Don’t even think about hazelnuts or Brazil nuts.
• Don’t use a 13×9 inch pan…the texture will be wrong.
• Don’t experiment with flavor. Sometimes things should just be left alone. This is one of those things.
• Don’t cool the cake. Be sure the cake is still quite warm when you put the frosting on.
• Don’t drink sweet tea within three hours of eating this cake. The sugar jolt will have you zipping around like the Roadrunner. Beep Beep.

And here are some things you gotta do. Like my husband, the Aggie, says,  “It’s just tradition, that’s why.”

• Have cold milk or hot coffee at the ready.
• Share with someone. This cake is friendly. Take some to a neighbor or a co-worker.

Basically you can make this Texas Sheet Cake recipe with a couple of  Lone-Star-Approved variations:

• Add chopped Heath bars to the frosting
• Substitute hot coffee for the water in the recipe
• Subsitute Dr. Pepper for the water in the recipe.
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and/or chipotle to the cake batter

Well, honestly… there is one change I made to the original recipe. I browned the butter. Browned butter gives a rich, toffee flavor that is hard to describe and adds and amazing complexity and richness to this cake.

O.k.. You probably have everything on hand. You know what that means? You are about forty five minutes away from the best cake of your life…. if you hurry.

You May Need…

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What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you’ll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness!  Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!

These are the exact cookie sheets I use to make these cakes. You can use a jelly roll pan but the cake comes out a little thicker – and I like mine to be on the thin side – baked it’s about an inch thick. The main thing is that the baking sheets have to be heavy gauge stainless and not thin aluminum or something.

Authentic Texas Sheet Cake Recipe

This super-duper, authentic, BEST -EVER Texas Sheet Cake Recipe is made with buttermilk.

You’ll find that pretty much all the vintage Texas recipes for baked goods call for sour milk or buttermilk. I think it’s because it’s hot in Texas and milk went bad pretty dang quick.

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars!

Need to adjust for high altitude? Check out the instructions from Utah State University.

5 from 4 votes

Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake

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Classic Texas sheet cake.Moist cake with a rich, deep chocolate flavor. Pour on the dense frosting studded with toasted pecans while the cake is still hot and you have a real party Texas style. Quick, easy, and delicious no matter where you live!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American – Southern

Keyword buttermilk,chocolate,pecans,potlucks

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 36

Calories 222

Author Marye Audet

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Equipment Needed

• Stand mixer
• rubber spatula

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, I prefer Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa for this)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Texas Sheet Cake Frosting

• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup cocoa, Hersey's Special Dark is the preference
• 1/2 cup butter, browned until golden
• 3 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted to remove lumps
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Grease a jelly roll pan and set aside.
• Melt the butter until it is a golden brown in a heavy pan. Do not let it burn.
• Add the water and the cocoa and stir until smooth.
• Bring to a boil, stirring.
• Remove from heat.
• Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
• Beat in eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk.
• Stir in cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.
• Spoon into jellyroll pan, smoothing out evenly.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Remove from oven.

Texas Sheet Cake Frosting

• About 5 minutes before the cake is ready to come out of the oven melt the butter in saucepan until golden brown.
• Add the milk and the cocoa.
• Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring smooth.
• Remove from heat and add the Confectioner’s sugar, pecans and vanilla.
• Mix quickly and spoon over the warm cake.
• Cut in squares to serve.

Notes

There are some don’ts to this cake:

• Don’t use anything but pecans. No, walnuts will not substitute. Macadamias either. Don’t even think about hazelnuts or Brazil nuts.
• Don’t use a 13×9 inch pan…the texture will be wrong.
• Don’t experiment with flavor. Sometimes things should just be left alone. This is one of those things.
• Don’t cool the cake. Be sure the cake is still quite warm when you put the frosting on.
• Don’t drink sweet tea within three hours of eating this cake. The sugar jolt will have you zipping around like the Roadrunner. Beep Beep.

And here are some things you gotta do. Like my husband, the Aggie, says,  “It’s just tradition, that’s why.”

• Have cold milk or hot coffee at the ready.
• Share with someone. This cake is friendly. Take some to a neighbor or a co-worker.

Basically you can make this Texas Sheet Cake recipe with a couple of  Lone-Star-Approved variations:

• Add chopped Heath bars to the frosting
• Substitute hot coffee for the water in the recipe
• Subsitute Dr. Pepper for the water in the recipe.
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and/or chipotle to the cake batter

Nutrition

Calories: 222kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 124mg | Potassium: 60mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 248IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg

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