Texas sheet cake

I don’t know how many times I have made this recipe or when I first made it. It is a family favorite so I was very young and I’ve made it a zillion times! My grandma made it, my mom made it and then I learned to make it. I’ve also had my stepson help me make it and I can’t wait to teach my nieces to make it!

When I was a kid (before I ever made it myself), I always preferred my mom’s version to my grandma’s. I’m not completely sure of the basis for my preference but there was an aesthetic reason, the chocolate frosting appeared more smooth when my mom made it. When I started baking it, I thought mine was on par with my mom’s but maybe slightly better. Everything should improve with the next generation, right?

I could never understand how the frosting could look so different when my grandma made it vs. when my mom/I made it. We were using the same recipe! In May 2007, my grandma passed away. For her funeral/celebration of her awesomeness, I was in charge of making several things including Texas Sheet Cake. I did my baking in my parents’ kitchen (i.e. one I was very familiar with). My younger brother was there and we were reminiscing about grandma thus I was a bit distracted. When I frosted the cake on this night I was shocked, it looked just like my grandma’s Texas Sheet Cake!! The only thing I did differently was that instead of following the instruction to “frost immediately!” (after removing from the oven), I frosted after it cooled since I was talking to my little brother about grandma stories and lost track of time! It was so appropriate that my Texas Sheet Cake looked just like hers on the day I was making it to remember her 🙂

My grandma with her cake and her recipe in her hand writing:

One “option” in the frosting recipe is coffee vs. water. My mom HATES the taste of coffee so she always taught me substitute “6 TBSP coffee” with “6 TBSP water”. I’ve never made the recipe with coffee but it is an option 🙂

Bonus fact: There is a small notation in the upper right corner on the first card. My little brother was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1999. He was the youngest child (in high school) and I was in college. Learning how to estimate carbs was a skill that we embraced during the summer of 1999. Thus I summed up all the carbs that went into a full sheet cake recipe and then projected the number of carbs as 4.5 carbs per one inch square.

Note about the photos: These were taken in my kitchen pre-remodel. I decided to keep these ones, rather than update to the current kitchen, because these were from my mom’s birthday in 2020 when we baked together on FaceTime.

Ingredients

Cake
1/2 lb. Butter
4 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa
1 cup Water
2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Buttermilk
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (ground)

Frosting
4 tbsp Unsweetened cocoa
1/4 lb. Butter
6 tbsp Water (or coffee)
3 3/4 cups Powdered sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Directions

Making the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease a sheet pan then coat with flour (or cocoa!). Discard excess flour/cocoa that isn’t stuck to the pan. (Note: it’s best to use a sheet pan that has a lid so the cake stays fresh for days!