Quarter sheet cake, Texas style! A small Texas chocolate sheet cake made in a quarter sheet pan!
In the past 3 years, we’ve moved 3 times. I met and fell in love with my husband in California. We talked about moving closer to family on our first date. A little over a year later, we did.
We moved outside Kansas City. We were an 8-hour drive from both sides of the family, save for some precious folks still back on the West coast. Since we left our hearts behind in California, we thought it would be okay because we jump at any chance to hop on a plane and head back there.
It’s hard to move lots, friends.
Our stint in Kansas City didn’t last long (but was full of so much good barbecue). Just as we were getting settled in, we moved to St Louis.
My husband is one of those people that is so warm, genuine and kind; he makes friends so easily. People sidle up to him quick and share their hearts. He’s just so open and trust-worthy. And you get a sense of it in the first few seconds of talking to him.
I, on the other hand, can take a bit of warming up to (read: wine). Luckily, everywhere we’ve lived, we’ve become quick friends with our neighbors. Not only is being neighborly a good tradition to have, but I can’t tell you how nice it is to have best friends next door. I don’t have to schedule a lunch date, I just go over. I don’t have to call first to ask if anyone wants to open a bottle of wine on the porch, people just show up. It’s such a warm feeling. We all need more drop-by friends. Friends that you don’t have to clean the house for. Those are neighbor friends. The best kind of friends.
We start out getting to know our neighbors by inviting them over for drinks and dessert (like this quarter sheet cake) on Friday nights. After a long work week, everyone looks forward to a cocktail and a little sugar. My husband handles the drinks, and I, of course, make the dessert.
However, I need a little more than dessert for two, don’t I? I mean, sometimes a small batch of cupcakes that makes 4 is perfect, but I always like to send people home with extra for the kiddos. This tradition has served us well everywhere we’ve lived. We’ve made life-long friends with our neighbors in every state we’ve lived in.
That is how I started scaling down the Pioneer Woman’s chocolate sheet cake. I certainly didn’t need a giant chocolate cake, but I needed one that served more than two. I halved her recipe and baked it on a quarter-sheet pan, made a few alterations, and it’s perfect! Everyone loves chocolate, and I get about 6 generous servings out of the pan. That’s enough for the 4 of us, plus if anyone wants seconds or an extra slice to take home for kids.
Quarter Sheet Cake Size
This quarter sheet cake is the perfect size for celebrating small things, or having a few friends over. Everyone still gets chocolate cake, but you don’t have to make a giant 3-layer one. Plus, the cake to frosting ratio on Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake is ideal. My quarter sheet cake pan measures 9×13″ with a heavy 1″ lip on the sides.
How many people does a quarter sheet cake feed?
You can see in the photo that I got 12 small squares of cake, but I would say this quarter sheet cake generously serves 6 people.
Our neighborly visits often go late, and I’m too tired to do dishes when everyone leaves, so I use paper plates. I think it provides a more casual feeling anyway. Last Friday, I used these pretty floral Dixie paper plates. Clean-up was a breeze, and they’re perfect for sending home leftovers, too.
So, make it easy on yourself, grab the paper plates and invite your neighbors over! Make moments that matter together!
I hope you love this Texas Chocolate Quarter Sheet Cake! This is the exact quarter sheet pan I use and love.
Texas Chocolate "Quarter" Sheet Cake
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
- 2 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup boiling water
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- For the frosting:â?¨7 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 heaping cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Lightly spray a quarter-sheet pan with cooking spray. A quarter-sheet pan measures 12x10-inches.
- First, make the cake. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
- Once melted, stir in the cocoa powder and boiling water.
- In a measuring cup, stir together the buttermilk, egg, baking soda and vanilla.
- Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, following by the boiling water mixture.
- Stir together all cake ingredients very ell, and then pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake cake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- While the cake bakes, make the frosting. In the same saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.
- Stir in the cocoa powder, buttermilk and vanilla until well-combined.
- Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar.
- Immediately when the cake comes out of the oven, pour the frosting over. Use an off-set spatula to spread the frosting to the edges of the pan.
- Let the cake cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 319Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 54mgSodium: 100mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 2g
I want to be your neighbor!!
I don’t know what you are talking about, you don’t need warming up to! And with this cake, you definitely would win over anyone I know. Maybe your next move should be to the east coast;-)
Much to my dismay, we don’t really hang out with our neighbors, one, because the house across the street is full of bachelor dudes; and two, two adorable and super sweet people live to the left of us, but they are our grandparents age so not exactly cocktail sharing neighbors; BUT the house to the right of us is about to get a new family and I’m crossing my fingers it’s a family I can share cocktails and dessert with! Your neighbors are pretty lucky if they’re being served up this sheet cake (one of my favorite things on the face of this planet)! I absolutely need a scaled down version of this, because I have no problem eating the entire sheet in under a week. Oy. (P.S. That was the longest comment on the face of the planet. Sorry!)
Don’t assume those people on the left that are your grandparents age aren’t up for cocktails!!! They just might surprise you????????
This is very close to my Grandma’s sheet cake recipe but hers also has some cinnamon in the batter. :)
I always add a teaspoon of cinnamon to my batter. It changes the cake for the best.
I’d love to be your neighbor! I can provide tons of wine, you can provide the cake. Deal? :)
This looks AMAZING! I love anything chocolate!
I haven’t made a sheet cake in ages. I always put frozen black cherries in mine, since I am too lazy to make a full blown black forest cake, and it was my husband’s favorite.
Oh my word!! This would be so yummy!!
As an avid baker, this recipe has been a life changer! Seriously! This recipe is phenomenal. I found this post a year ago and I bake this cake atleast every three weeks. The simplicity of the recipe and the final product is amazing. I have tried MANY chocolate cake recipes and this is the only recipe I use now. I have made no modifications to this recipe other than adding a quarter cup of sourcream, which I have only recently started to do, which makes this great recipe even better! Please do not hesitate to try it. You will not be disappointed!
Hey Christina, I, too have trouble warming up to new people due to inherent shyness, but have always found I open up when food is involved. Thanks for sharing your scaled down recipe and gorgeous photos. The Dixie plates are perfect:-) I love your “about me” video – fantastic!
I know all to well about multiple moves! We have moved cross country 4 times and it is so hard. Love the idea of sharing this cake with new neighbors though – that would surely win them over.
Perfect size for us two plus! Thank-you so much! When my grandkids pop in, and yep, they do now that one is driving!!! They expect something.
I am hoping these could cut into serving sizes, wrap and freeze individually and would take just a few minutes to thaw on the counter while we visit?
We moved 9 times from coast to coast (and the mid-west) in our first 12 years together. I feel your pain! And, yes, food is always a good “welcome wagon”.
That’s so awesome that you make such good friends with your neighbors! I’m jealous!
and this cake looks so chocolatey and dangerous–it’s good that it’s scaled down ;P
Neighbour friends are the best! We have just moved into our new home so we haven’t really made friends with our neighbours yet, but I’m hopeful! And I will totally be copying the cocktails and sweets equation when we do make friends.
I can’t promise to share the remaining slices of this gorgeous cake though ;)
This looks delicious! Your recipe says 4-6 servings, but your photos show 12 pieces. Are they small brownie size portions in the photos? Thanks
Good eye, Barb! It was just for photos. Those pieces are much too small ;)
Hi,
Love this one.. have done twice with awesome results.. everyone loves it. My daughter wants it for her birthday. Can I use a springform pan? The eat ouy of the pan might not work as well at her birthday party. Lol.
I’ve only tried the recipe the way you see written. It’s really not meant to be baked in a springform pan because the cake is meant to be thin. I’m not sure it would rise much. It definitely won’t look like a regular chocolate layer cake, if that’s what you’re going for. This is a completely different type of chocolate cake made with water. Chocolate layer cakes are made with butter and/or oil.
My sister doubles the recipe and it makes the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had – comes out size of typical cake not a sheet cake.
That is so great to hear!!! Does she bake it in a regular 9″ round cake pan?! I need to know :)
Thanks for the reply! I don’t want a layer cake. Just want to remove the sides so it looks better.
No wonder you are life long friends with your neighbors when you present them with desserts like this!
My family loves Texas Sheet Cake, great to see a version I can make for a small group. I didn’t realize we had so much in common. I went to college in Kansas (go Jayhawks), lived and worked in St. Louis for 5 years, then headed back home to Hawaii to be close to family, only to turn around and move to San Francisco for work. With the holiday’s coming up soon may I recommend checking out Main St. St.Charles during Christmas time. It would be fun to take your neighbors there eat, see the old fashioned carolers, and shop.
<3 Dani
http://www.hauteinparadise.com
I made this for my knitting group. It is delicious. Everyone loved it. We thought the idea of this cake serving 4-6 was hilarious. It’s so rich, it can easily serve 12. I have added it to my notebook of favorite desserts and I know I’ll make it often.
This looks delicious! I like it. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I found your blog through the Google search engine, Christina. I’m a HUGE fan of chocolate, and looking at this cake is making my mouth water!! The portions are perfect, since it’s me and my sister. I’m looking forward to making the Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake very soon. :-)
I’m thinking this is going to be a life saver and dangerous!
This is my daughter’s favorite cake but it’s too much to make for our family of five. Thanks for cutting it back in size. It will be perfect for my upcoming birthday with some homemade vanilla ice cream! Yum! Thanks.
This was the perfect size! I read somewhere that you could sub yogurt for buttermilk. I used whole milk yogurt in the cake and frosting and it was REALLY great! Again thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it, Brooke! Thanks for letting me know :)
cinnamon & coconut are a must; pecans that are chopped are an added bonus as well. Take it from me. I have made many and I am from TX.
NO coconut! I have made many, too and I am also from Texas. Pecans in the icing is fine, and yes, cinnamon in the cake is great, but NO coconut!
This has almost cooled on my counter! I am so glad that I stumbled upon your recipe. Being empty nesters, the standard size is way too much. I mean we COULD eat it all but we shouldn’t, right? My mom always baked goodies for the neighborhood everywhere we went. My dad was with the State Department so there were foreign countries too. We are moving soon to a whole new area of the country and I will definitely keep the tradition going!
On Thursday, I baked two “Texas Sheet Cakes” for a church function. I was using the church kitchen, which is pretty fully stocked because a community meal is served there each Saturday. I was dismayed, though, to find that the kitchen had only gluten-free flour substitute and it was completely out of cocoa! I hate gluten-free cakes, and I was not very confident in my ability to substitute semi-sweet baking chocolate, so I was sure that my (Pioneer Woman) recipe was doomed. I had fun anyway, treating the situation as if it were a Cutthroat Kitchen experience. I had to sort of guess as to how to alter the butter and sugar in the recipe to compensate for the chocolate already having fat and sugar. And I tried to figure out what made the hideous texture in gluten free cakes, so I ended up adding extra eggs. Also…when I made the frosting, I found the chef had already locked the refrigerator back up, so I didn’t have any plain milk, all I had was the buttermilk I had used in the cake. Altogether, the cake was really not the original recipe at all. It looked great, but I wasn’t going to be able to taste it until it was served on Sunday, sooooooo….
I went home from the church and made another one the way it’s supposed to be made, and brought that with me Friday to a potluck at a different church. That turned out to be a hit, and the same people were gathering the next day again, so I went home and made the recipe again, this time leaving out the cocoa so that it was a White Texas Sheet Cake. That was also very well received.
Sunday came and I finally got to try the Cutthroat Kitchen version…which somehow turned out to be the best of the three! I wanted to eat more and more and more of it, but alas, we were sharing with large groups, so I just had a tiny piece of all three versions.
I have unexpected plans to have someone over tonight for dessert, and the memory of those four cakes is still very fresh in my mind, as is my longing for more of them. But it’s silly to make an entire Texas Sheet cake for two people. So I came to Desserts for Two for some other idea…and lo! and behold! I see that our dear Christine has had the exact same dilemma and solved it!!!! Here’s to my fifth Texas Sheet Cake in as many days!
Oh gosh! Glad it worked, April! :)
Can you use a 13×9 baking pan?
It’s tricky…I think so. I haven’t personally tried it, but others seem to have used it successfully. I don’t know how the extra heat from the height of the pan affects the cake, though.
Hi Christina, I have just made this in my new quarter sheet pan for desert today. I used to make tape as Sheet Cake years ago when my kids were younger. What other recipes on your site use this pan? Thanks and I love your recipes. Cathy
Hi Cathy!
I bake a lot of my cookies on this pan, and I use it to hold my ramekins when I make mini ramekin cakes. I don’t have a lot of other recipes that use it here on the site, but my latest cookbook has an entire chapter devoted to the quarter sheet pan: SWEET & SIMPLE: DESSERT FOR TWO
I use it to make mini cake rolls in my book, too!
We always use 13×9 pan to make his fabulous cake. And yessss add I teaspoon cinnamon to the flour. This old Texas gal has made this for years!
This recipe is perfect for a small family. It is delicious!
This cake is like eating an awesome chocolate candy bar… it’s addictive. EVERYTHING about it is wonderful.
It baked perfectly, the frosting was a wonderful companion to the cake. The size was just right for the two of us.
We had chocolate cake (and a little scoop of Hagen Daz pecan ice cream. They were wonderful companions!
At another time I sent a review on the Texas Vanilla Sheet Cake — also a winner!
Aww thank you so much, Sylvia! <3
Has anyone made this with some sort of egg substitute? Which type of egg substitute works best?
How do u save the rest of it, should i refrigerate?
I cover with plastic wrap and leave on the counter for up to 1 day, in the fridge past that :)
Made this tonight—my first Texas sheet cake despite eight years living in Austin. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Love to make this and enjoy with my family nd friends and whomever comes home. Pls confirm frosting there is a ?mark before 7 butter. Am i assuming typo error. Thanx
Yes, just a typo. Just 7 tablespoons of butter in the frosting.
I have been making this cake since the 1980’s , it is the most delicious cake , I put pecans in my frosting , it is out of this World, I made it and took it to a Pool party and it was gone in a flash I didn’t even get a piece , neighbors asked me to make one for them ,
I used to make this cake when my kids lived at home, but love the smaller recipe. It’s snowing outside, so today was a great day for baking….
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4000 calories per serving? Really?
No, not really. My nutrition calculator was just installed, and I’m going back through 800 recipes and updating it.
I am from Pennsylvania and my Mom used to make this all the time! I never make it because it makes an entire sheet! Now I can make it and not have those left overs calling my name in the middle of the night! Thank you!
Awwww…so glad to find this in a smaller size! It’s getting mailed to my college daughter for her birthday (she’ll be so surprised as it’s her fav!) I might have to trim some to get it into the box and I should test it (don’t you think) before mailing it…LOL….Thanks
The version my mom makes uses sour cream. Can sour cream be substitutes for buttermilk in the cake?
Hmm…I haven’t tried that. I’ve only tried the recipe as you see written. Sour cream has about 40% fat and most buttermilk has <5%. It could be good!
I love this recipe, it’s not too sweet. I made cup cakes, and they turned out great. Next time I will add coconut and chopped pecans
I used sour cream, out of buttermilk and it seems to have worked fine. I could have done the lemon juice in milk but opted for quick and easy since I already had it out for dinner. Two teenage boys and a sweet craving husband will make quick work of this. This recipe is perfect so that no one makes themselves sick on tempting desert. Everyone gets plenty and then it’s gone! Thank you!
Love your cutting recipe for the 2 of us old folks. I’m 81 year old native Texan and have made this cake for years and years, but didn’t have the courage to try messing it up with making it smaller. I will say a Texas Sheet Cake doesn’t have cinnamon but does always have chopped pecans in frosting and sprinkled on top. Yay for you!
Hi Patricia! It’s always so nice to meet a fellow Texan! Howdy :) I SO agree with the chopped pecans!! I love it that way. However, my brother has a severe pecan allergy, so in my family, we’ve always had to leave them off :( But you better believe when I see a slice with pecans, I GRAB IT! :) Nice to meet you again!
This is the first time I’ve made a sheet cake, and my boyfriend loved it. Although the second day I thought the cake got dense or heavy taste. I would make it again. It’s not overly sweet.
I just made this tonight and my boyfriend thought it was delicious. Will be making again.
Great recipe and downsized version is spot on. But I live in Oregon and make Oregon style sheetcake which includes 1 tablespoon espresso powder in both the cake & icing, with hazelnuts in the icing. We love our coffee here in Oregon😊
Thanks Christina.
I had made this cake (your recipe dozen of times) always a favorite. I am making it for Valentine’s. Going to add some white buttercream flowers and swirls and cut it in to heart shapes. I will use the scraps for cake balls. This cake serving us 6 prefectly. Thank you.
I WANT TO TRY THIS BUT WAS WONDERING IF 1 CUP SUGAR WILL IT MAKE TOO SWEET?
THX
We love Chocolate Sheet Cake. And this recipe is just right for my husband and I. Thanks so much for the recipe and it was delicious!
Good heaven’s, this is wonderful. By the time this stay at home is over with I will have gone thru your cookbooks. I didn’t have buttermilk. For the cake, I used a bit of vinegar in the milk and the frosting just used milk. Thank you!
I’ve never tasted a Texas sheet cake and I’ve been curious for a long time. I have finally made this today and wow(!!!!!), I absolutely love it. I made it on a 9×13 that I bought specifically for this(I needed one anyway for brownies and such) and it worked great even though your recipe requests a different pan.
I’m so glad! So a quarter sheet pan measures 9 x 13 x 1″ so that’s why your regular 9×13 pan worked. Hooray!
How much butter for the frosting? It seems to be written over in my Pinterest
Scroll until you see the recipe. You can also hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button.
After trying other ‘best chocolate cake’ recipes. I am back to Texas sheet cake. There is nothing better for flavor and texture. I add espresso powder to the boiling water for a little added depth. I’ve made it with either sour cream or buttermilk and both are great. I lean toward the buttermilk these days just for the calorie count. Thanks for leaving this on your site for whenever I want it.