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This chocolate sheet cake is the one I keep coming back to. It’s deeply fudgy, made entirely from pantry staples, and comes together in under an hour — warm cake, poured-on frosting, done. The kind of recipe that earns a permanent spot in your rotation after the very first bite.
Why You’ll Love It
Fudgy frosting that soaks into the edges — poured on warm, so it sets into something between a glaze and a ganache
Crunch in every bite — chopped pecans in the frosting contrast perfectly with the soft, tender cake underneath
Feeds a crowd without stress — a full sheet pan means generous slices, no layering, no stand mixer
Even better the next day — the flavor deepens overnight and the texture stays perfect
A Few Things About the Ingredients
The Crisco. I know. I know some of you are going to want to substitute it, and you can — the original recipe actually says you can use another stick of butter instead — but I will tell you that I’ve made it both Ways and there is something about the Crisco that gives the cake a particular tenderness that the all-butter version doesn’t quite match. I’m not going to die on this hill. Use what you want. But I’m just saying.
Cocoa powder. Unsweetened, not Dutch-process, just the regular stuff. I use whatever’s in my pantry. I don’t have strong feelings about cocoa brands, which probably marks me as a philistine to some people.
Buttermilk. Don’t skip it and don’t fake it with milk-and-vinegar if you can help it. Real buttermilk does something in this batter that I can’t quite explain but I notice when it’s absent.
The pecans in the frosting are non-negotiable for me personally, but my middle child won’t touch nuts in Baked goods — has been that way since she was about six — so I’ve made it with walnuts, and I’ve made it plain. It’s good either way. Just different.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 stick butter
½ cup Crisco (or another stick of butter if that’s what you’ve got)
1 cup water
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
1 stick butter
3–4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (I usually do 4, the original recipe says 3, I think the lighter hand works too)
6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
How to Make It
Preheat your oven to 400°F. I know that sounds high for a cake, but trust it. Grease an 11×15 sheet cake pan — and make sure it has raised edges, otherwise you’ll have a situation on your hands.
In a large bowl, whisk together your flour and granulated sugar. Just stir them together, nothing complicated.
Now for the part that makes this cake what it is: in a saucepan, combine the butter, Crisco, water, and cocoa powder. Bring it to a boil while you stir, and then pour that whole hot chocolatey mixture right over the flour and sugar. It smells incredible at this point. My kitchen starts to smell like a different place entirely — warmer, somehow, more lived-in.
Mix it together — it’s going to be thick and glossy — and then in a separate bowl, stir together your eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add that to the cocoa-flour mixture and mix until everything is combined. The batter will be fairly thin. Don’t panic. That’s correct.
Pour it into your greased pan and slide it into the oven. It’ll take somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on your oven. Mine runs a little hot so I start checking at 20. You’re looking for the center to be set — it’ll be firm when you press it gently, and a toothpick should come out clean or with just a crumb or two.
Here’s the part that requires a little timing: about five minutes before the cake comes out of the oven, start your frosting. You want to pour it over the cake while the cake is still warm, and that means you can’t dawdle.
In a saucepan, melt the butter with the cocoa powder and milk. Heat it through — you don’t need it to boil, just hot enough that everything is melted and cohesive. Then stir in your confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and nuts. It’ll come together into a glossy, fudgy frosting fairly quickly.
Pull the cake out of the oven and pour the frosting over it immediately. It will spread out on its own mostly, though you can encourage it with a spatula. Then just leave it alone. Let it cool completely before you cut into it, if you can manage that — which in my house is approximately never.
Variations
I tried making this once with a little espresso powder added to the cake batter — just a teaspoon — because I read somewhere that coffee intensifies chocolate flavor, which is true, but it also made it taste more sophisticated than this cake is supposed to be, if that makes any sense. Like it lost something. I haven’t done it again.
My daughter has started making this with walnuts in the frosting and adding a tiny bit of cayenne to the cake itself. She sent me a picture of it and I won’t lie, it looked beautiful. I haven’t tried her version yet. I probably will eventually.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a stand-in with regular milk and a splash of white vinegar — let it sit for five minutes first. It’s not the same, but it works in a pinch. I’ve made it this way half the time and couldn’t tell the difference. I can, slightly. But that could also be in my head.
Storage
It keeps well at room temperature, covered loosely, for two or three days. Maybe longer, though I’ve never actually had it last that long. I once left a piece uncovered overnight by accident and it was still completely fine the next morning — a little drier at the edges, but the frosted middle was perfect.
You can refrigerate it, but I find that firms up the frosting more than I like. If you do refrigerate it, let it sit at room temperature for a bit before you eat it. Cold cake is its own thing, not a bad thing, just different.
I’ve been making this for probably fifteen years at this point — give or take, I really can’t track it anymore — and it has never once failed me. There’s something about a cake made in a sheet pan, frosted while warm, carried to a table in the pan it baked in, that just feels like the right way to feed people. No fussing. No layers. No stand mixer required.
Sheet Cake That Tastes Like Brownies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 stick butter
- 1/2 cup Crisco or 1 additional stick butter
- 1 cup water
- 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder for cake
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract for cake
- 1 stick butter for frosting
- 3-4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder for frosting
- 6 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract for frosting
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F and grease an 11x15-inch sheet cake pan with raised edges.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour and granulated sugar.
- In a saucepan, combine butter, Crisco, water, and cocoa powder. Bring to a boil while stirring.
- Pour hot cocoa mixture over flour mixture and stir until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, baking soda, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Add to batter and mix until smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 20–30 minutes until center is set and a toothpick comes out clean.
- For frosting, melt butter with cocoa powder and milk in a saucepan until smooth and heated through.
- Stir in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and chopped nuts until glossy and combined.
- Pour warm frosting over warm cake and spread evenly. Cool completely before slicing and serving.