This is the cake that TF wanted for her birthday last year. It's an unusual cake that gets cooked in a large rimmed baking sheet rather than a cake pan and iced while it's still hot out of the oven. Unfortunately, our baking sheets were both a bit too small and I didn't want to go out and get a new one just for this, so I chickend out and asked her to pick something else instead. I was feeling a little braver this year though, so I decided to give it a go!

I actually managed to fit all of the batter into one of our 11x17" baking sheets and it cooked beautifully with no overflow or spilling at all. I couldn't quite fit all of the icing on top afterward, but it was fine otherwise.

Also, it's important to note that not only can you ice this cake hot, you must ice it hot! I was a bit off in my timings and too slow to get the icing on the cake after it came out of the oven, so it ended up just settling on top of the cake rather than soaking in like the recipe said it should. It was still delicious, just not quite as dense and brownie-like as promised.

Photo goes here.

Texas Sheet Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 large eggs¹
• 1/4 c. sour cream²
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 225g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. oil³
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter

Icing

• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/2 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 340g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. pecans, toasted and chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease an 18x13" (46x33cm) rimmed baking sheet.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, applesauce, and vanilla.
4. Heat the chocolate, oil, water, cocoa, and butter over medium heat, stirring ocasionally, until melted and smooth (3-5 minutes).
5. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
6. Add the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
7. Pour into the prepared baking sheet and bake until cake tests done (~18 minutes).
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. While the cake is baking: Heat the butter, cream, cocoa, and corn syrup for the icing over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
10. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar⁴ and vanilla.
11. Make sure you have the icing ready to go as soon as the cake comes out of the oven (but don't get it ready so early that it has time to cool before the cake is done). Check the cake for doneness and as soon as it's ready pour the icing over it and spread in an even layer.
12. Sprinkle with the chopped toasted pecans and allow to cool on a wire rack for ~1 hour.
13. Transfer cooled cake to fridge for an hour or so before slicing to ensure that the icing is fully set.

---

¹ The original recipe called for 2 large eggs + 2 yolks, but we're actually running a bit low on eggs now that the chickens are slowing down for the fall/winter and I also didn't really want to faff around with separating eggs and storing the leftover whites and whatnot, so I just used 3 whole eggs instead. ^Back
2 I forgot to get sour cream, so I just swapped in 1/4 c. of Greek yogurt instead. The flavour is a bit different than sour cream, but it's still an acidic cultured dairy product, so it gets the job done. And the flavour difference isn't really noticeable in a cake like this anyway. It worked out fine. And, if you're watching your weight, swapping in FF Greek yogurt can be a good way to cut a few calories! ^Back
3 The original recipe calls for 3/4 c. vegetable oil. That sounded like A LOT of oil to me, so cut it back to just 1/2 c. of oil and made up the difference with 1/4 c. of applesauce stirred into the egg mixture. Next time I might even try swapping the proportions (1/4 c. of oil + 1/2 c. of applesauce). Obviously that won't exactly turn this cake into health food, but it should at least make it marginally less unhealthy. ^Back
4 I sifted the icing sugar into the hot mixture because I didn't want to it be lumpy, but I think this allowed it to cool too much. Next time I'd either dispense with the sifting or sift it in advance and have it all ready to go once the rest of the icing ingredients are hot. ^Back