Texas Sheet Cake

I love eating sweet treats but hate baking complicated desserts. Luckily this Texas Sheet Cake recipe is about as easy as a cake recipe can get and it tastes so delicious! If you're not familiar with Texas Sheet Cake, this is a must-bake cake recipe that everyone will love!

The actual origin of Texas sheet cake is shrouded in mystery, but it is very similar to German Sweet Chocolate Cake. Both are traditionally chocolate cakes covered with sugary coconut-pecan frosting. Culinary historians claim German Sweet Chocolate Cake inspired Texan cooks to create their famous sheet cake. In 1957 a Dallas newspaper reproduced a recipe for German's Chocolate Cake, which was made with German's Sweet Chocolate, a dark baking chocolate developed over 100 years earlier by Sam German. The recipe spread like wildfire and soon almost everyone in Dallas was baking German Sweet Chocolate Cake. Both German Sweet Chocolate Cake and Texas sheet cake recipes usually call for buttermilk and pecans: two of Texans' favorite baking ingredients! The big difference is that sheet cake is extremely easy to prepare. Instead of melting chocolate, beating egg whites and creaming butter, everything for a traditional Texas sheet cake is stirred together in one large bowl and then spread into a large sheet pan for baking. Texas sheet cake is a big, old-fashioned cake that's easy to bake, easy to transport and is always a crowd pleaser.

So what is Texas sheet cake? It's a cake baked in a large, flat plan such as a jelly roll or sheet pan. The single layer cake is then frosted and adorned with decorations such as ornamental frosting, sprinkles or chocolate chips. Sheet cakes are commonly made with boxed cake mixes, making them even easier to prepare, and can come in a variety of flavors, though chocolate is the original cake recipe and still the most common. While a traditional Texas sheet cake was iced with a gooey caramel and pecan icing, many nowadays sheet cakes are usually iced with a simple, basic frosting. While Texas sheet cake may or may not be native to the state of Texas, it is definitely a symbol of Texan friendliness and hospitality.

So what do you need for a Texas sheet cake? You could use a cake mix, but this sheet cake recipe is made the old-fashioned way, from scratch. You'll need flour, white sugar, baking soda, sour cream, eggs, butter and unsweetened cocoa powder for the cake mix recipe, all of which are stirred together in a pot, brought to a boil, cooled and then poured into a prepared sheet pan. This cake recipe, since it is spread so thinly, requires only about 20 minutes of bake time to complete. While the cake is baking, you'll have just enough time to prepare a delicious frosting to accompany this delicious cake recipe. For the frosting you'll need butter, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract and maybe a few pecans or walnuts � but nuts are optional (they add a little bit of flavor and a whole lot of texture to your simple cake recipe). Unlike most cake and frosting recipes, this one calls for the frosting to be added to the cake while it's still warm. That helps it melt and spread and stay soft and helps to keep the cake moist.

This is probably the easiest cake recipe you'll ever come across and is easily one of the most delicious cakes to eat (maybe it's so delicious because it's so simple?). But don't take my word for it. Get our your mixing bowl and sheet pan and give this cake recipe a taste test. You won't be disappointed!