White Texas Sheet Cake Recipe (from scratch)

Next time try this traditional chocolate Texas sheet cake or bourbon bundt recipe !

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🥄 Cook along!
• 🥄 Equipment
• 🥫 Storage
• 💭 Things to know
• 👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions
• 📚 Related recipes
• That Time I Was Wrong...
• If it doesn't have pecans...
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

• It's the perfect potluck dessert because it feeds a crowd
• It's the perfect cake for any special occasion or family birthday party (it's one of our favorite desserts)
• One of the easiest cakes ever made. Because you add the glaze while the cake is warm it's done in under an hour.

This rich white Texas sheet cake is moist and flavorful with just a hint of coconut. It's topped with a fudgy, candy-like white icing that's studded with toasted pecans -- almost like eating fudge at Christmas time.

This thin, white bite of scrumptious is full of homemade-from-scratch flavor and is even better the next day.

If you like traditional Texas sheet cake you'll love this yummy twist.

🧾 Ingredients

It's so weird how a few simple ingredients can end up being such an amazing cake.

🔪 Instructions

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

1. Mix the dry ingredients in the large bowl of a mixer. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl whisk the flavorings, eggs, and buttermilk together. Set aside.
3. Melt 1 cup butter in a large saucepan on top of the stove. Add the 1 cup water and bring to a boil.
4. Pour hot butter mixture over flour mixture in the bowl beating on low. Add the buttermilk mixture. Beat for one more minute then pour the cake batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

1. Melt butter in saucepan. Add the buttermilk. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove from heat and add the Confectioner’s sugar, pecans, coconut flavoring, and vanilla.
3. Mix quickly and spoon over warm cake.
4. Smooth to cover the whole top.

🥄 Cook along!

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🥄 Equipment

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

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• Jelly roll pan or high-sided, large cookie sheet
• Large mixing bowl
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Mixing spoons
• Parchment paper
• Rubber spatula

🥫 Storage

Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store at room temperature for up to about 5 days (I can't imagine it not being gone within hours but that's my house).

You can store it in the refrigerator if you want but I think it has the tendency to dry it out.

You can also wrap it in plastic wrap, then aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months. The day you plan to serve it let it thaw at room temperature.

💭 Things to know

I'm telling y'all this version of Texas sheet cake is so good! It's become on of my favorite cakes and even my dyed in the wool chocolate lovers are obsessed with it!

Expert tip: The frosting should be almost pourable and goes directly on the warm cake. If you have to spread it too much the top is going to tear. Spoon it on and move it around gently.

• It's a good idea to use everything at room temperature. If your eggs are cold put them in hot water for a minute or two - not hot enough to start them cooking just hot like hot dishwater.
• Toast the pecans lightly. I like chop them and then toast them because that way all the sides get toasted. The flavor is out of this world  and every time I make something with pecans people wonder what I've done differently than they did. It makes a huge difference.
• Use a heavy cookie sheet with sides. This should not be much more than an inch thick. If you end up with a cake 3 inches thick it wasn't made by a Texan!
• I use salted butter in this. I like the flavor it gives.
• You can also melt the butter and let it turn a golden brown before adding the water. It gives it a nutty flavor that is delicious.
• If you can stand to do it, cover the finished cake and let it hang out on the counter overnight. The flavors really develop.
• I've seen people sprinkle the nuts on top of the frosting. Ummm - no. Stir them in so they are part of the frosting not an addition to it.
• Texas sheet cake is never served with buttercream frosting. Just no.

👩🏻‍🍳 Frequently asked questions

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

📚 Related recipes

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• Boston Cream Poke Cake - baked in a 13x9-inch pan, poked with holes, covered in vanilla custard, and then topped with a shiny ganache. You may want to consider keeping this one for yourself.
• Chocolate Sheet Cake - This easy chocolate cake has a whipped chocolate frosting that's thick enough to get lost in. One of my top picks for a birthday cake.
• Lemon Cream Cake - Tangy lemon with a whipped lemon frosting is impossible not to like. This one comes with smiles.
• Pig Pickin' Cake - Oddly enough there are literally no pigs in this delicious dessert. Another southern classic that'll do your kitchen proud.
• Holy Cow Cake - This concoction will make you say "Holy COW!" or Holy S*** depending on whether your were raised with a bar of soap in your mom's apron pocket or not. Chocolate cake soaked in Eagle Brand, covered in caramel, topped with chopped Butterfingers, covered in whipped cream, and sprinkled with more Butterfingers. I don't care HOW good skinny feels - this tastes better.

That Time I Was Wrong...

Oh y'all. I don't know who in the world decided that there was such a thing as a white Texas sheet cake - there sure wasn't when I was growing up. I really fought against the whole idea of the sacrilege of a white version of my childhood favorite - I did.

They are supposed to be chocolate and, by all that is holy, I was determined I wouldn't be one to change things. We're pretty conservative down here - and of course - tradition.

Then I tasted one.

That was all she wrote for me. I was a goner - it was SO rich and SO sweet and had the perfect part cake-part brownie texture. So I caved.

I like this just as much as the chocolate version!

If it doesn't have pecans...

It's not Texan. Period.

Most of the recipes that I've seen call for almond flavoring. I'm sure that's just delicious but we have ONE nut in Texas (no, it's not me) and it's the pecan. Using anything else wouldn't be right. In fact, it'd be downright disrespectful - so I used coconut flavoring and pecans.

Oh yes. I may like this a smidge better than the chocolate version.

Thanks to the melted butter this is an ultra moist cake...tender and perfectly delicious with a delicate coconut flavor. The icing is like biting into vanilla-coconut fudge with pecans. It's southern sweet - pairs perfectly with black coffee and neighborhood gossip.

Or... take it to a potluck and become instantly known as the "cake lady" (or "cake man" - we don't discriminate here).

I'm absolutely positive that you are going to love this easy recipe for its flavor as well and how easy it is to make.

Still not what you're looking for? How about these white cupcakes with whipped cream cheese frosting?

📖 Recipe

First published March 9, 2018. Last updated June 29, 2021 - minor updates and grammar corrections.