Texas Sheet Cake | Dinners, Dishes & Desserts

This Texas Sheet Cake is a decadent classic. Moist chocolate cake baked in a large sheet pan that is topped with a warm chocolate frosting. It is easy to make and will disappear in no time.

Texas sheet cake is a classic and has been around forever. It is rich, chocolate-y, but super easy to make. It gets baked in a large sheet pan, so you don’t have to deal with any layers.

The secret to the best sheet cake is sour milk. When this cake first started being made, they actually used milk from the fridge that was going bad. Today we can use buttermilk or just add vinegar to milk to get the same desired tanginess. And it was gives it the classic taste like these Sheet Cake Cookies.

If you’re a chocoholic like me, you’ll also want to try my Death By Chocolate Pie and these Moonies, AKA Chocolate Mousse Brownies.

This Texas Sheet Cake is a family recipe we’ve been making since I was a little girl. From birthday parties to a special weekend treat, this is a tried-and-true recipe from my family to yours.

Why You’ll Love Texas Sheet Cake

Texas Sheet Cake is an effortless, delicious dessert that can feed a large crowd.

• Fast. You can bake, frost, and serve this cake in under an hour. Or, bake it ahead of time and frost it right when you need it.
• Delicious. Sour milk and baking soda are the leavening agents in this recipe that’ll create the perfect crumb.
• Balanced. Sour milk in the frosting cuts through all the sugar to create a compulsively craveable cake. So, one slice will never be enough.

What You’ll Need

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the post for the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card.

For the Cake:

• All-Purpose Flour
• Sugar
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• Salt
• Water
• Butter – I always use unsalted when baking
• Eggs
• Vanilla
• Sour Milk – Don’t worry, I’ll explain this next!
• Baking Soda

For the Frosting:

• Butter
• Sour Milk – see notes below!
• Powdered Sugar
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• Vanilla Extract
• Nuts – These are optional. Walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds are my favorites for this recipe. Try toasting and cooling them before adding them to the frosting for added depth of flavor.

Sour Milk

Sour milk works double-time in this recipe as a texture enhancer and leavening agent. The acidity creates a delicate crumb while activating the baking soda to create the rise for the cake.

To make sour milk, fill your measuring cup with milk, leaving about ¼ inch of room in the cup. Then top the milk with white vinegar until the measuring cup is full. I like to use approximately 3 Tablespoons of vinegar for just under the 1 cup of milk.

You’ll need ½ cup of sour milk for the cake batter and ⅓ cup for the frosting.

How To Make Texas Sheet Cake

For the Cake:

1. Combine Dry Ingredients – Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
2. Combine Wet Ingredients – Mix together eggs, vanilla, and sour milk until well combined.
3. Boil Water & Butter & Mix with Dry Ingredients – Meanwhile, bring water and butter to a boil. Then, pour the hot mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
4. Incorporate Remaining Cake Ingredients – Pour in the wet ingredients and mix until it comes together.
5. Pour Into Pan & Bake – Pour the batter into a greased and floured 15” x 11” jelly roll pan or rimmed sheet pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 350°F oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

For the Frosting:

1. Boil. Bring the butter, milk and cocoa powder to a boil in a saucepan. Stir frequently so it doesn’t burn.
2. Mix. Once it boils, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar until it is a nice, smooth, and pourable frosting.
3. Fold In the Nuts – If you’re adding nuts to the frosting, you can gently fold them into the finished product. Or, sprinkle them on the frosted cake to serve as flavor and decoration.

Can I Make This Cake Ahead Of Time

You can bake the sheet cake, then cover the pan with multiple layers of cling film. It’ll keep in the fridge for 3-5 days or in the freezer for up to 4 months. Then, allow the cake to thaw and come to room temperature before frosting and serving.

Recipe Tips & Tricks

• Sour milk sounds odd, but it is really just buttermilk with a little more tang. You can definitely use buttermilk in its place if you have it on hand.
• I like unsweetened cocoa powder for this instead of Dutch processed. Sheet cake isn’t usually a dark chocolate, but is still rich and delicious.
• The nuts are optional, you can mix them in with the frosting, which is very traditional. But I am not a fan of nuts in dessert, so I leave them out and then just sprinkle them on top of half the cake for those that like nuts.
• Some classic Texas sheet cake recipes include cinnamon. If you want to add 1 teaspoon to the flour mixture.

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