- Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on "Preppy Kitchen,"
we're making a decadent and delicious Texas sheet cake.
So let's get started.
First off, set your oven to 350.
And now in the medium pot, I'm adding one cup of water,
one cup of butter, 226 grams,
and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.
You can use Dutch processed or regular.
It's really up to you.
In you go.
I'm gonna place this over medium heat
and bring it to a boil.
While that happens, we'll get the rest of the cake together.
All right, now in a large bowl,
I'm adding two cups of flour, that's 240 grams,
two cups of granulated sugar, that's 400 grams.
This has come to a boil.
I'm taking this off heat right now.
To puff things up, one teaspoon of baking soda.
In you go.
I also want 1/2 teaspoon of salt
for a little bit of contrast.
Grab a whisk.
Let's whisk that together so it's nice and combined
and you can hit any lumps.
This cake is so good and it's so quick and easy.
The key is to work fast because you're gonna make
a delicious boiled chocolate pecan frosting
and pour that over your hot cake.
It's gonna be amazing.
Okay.
That's mixed up.
In a smaller bowl, I want 1/2 cup
or 120 grams of sour cream.
To the sour cream,
I'm adding two whole room temperature eggs.
One and two, no shells.
Whisk this together.
If you have like the best story ever
for why this is called Texas sheet cake, you let me know.
I was looking into it and clearly popular in Texas,
was named probably in Texas by a Texan,
but the cake itself seems to be a variation
of a German sweet chocolate cake.
Not the country, the company.
So German chocolate cake is made by,
was popularized by the German chocolate company.
They have those green packages at the grocery store.
All right, this is all ready.
The one thing I didn't do is get my half sheet pan
and just butter it up.
You could use baking spray if you want to,
but this just helps when you get the pieces out.
But you serve it in the sheet pan,
so don't worry about it being perfect.
It's just kind of help grease it up a little bit.
Now, I'm gonna add the sour cream mixture
to the flour mixture.
You'll probably want to use an electric mixer,
but today I want to use my hands and a whisk.
I don't, I changed my mind.
I'm gonna use that electric hand mixer.
I've done that before, it's a mistake.
It's much easier just with a little machine
to help you along.
So we're gonna mix this up.
It's gonna become a pretty thick batter.
But don't forget we have our hot chocolate
water butter mixture waiting to get added in.
(mixer whirring) Okay.
Once you get started you can increase to medium speed
and you just want this to be nicely combined.
Just like that.
So much easier, oh my gosh.
Now I'm gonna add my warm chocolate mixture
into the batter while mixing on low.
(mixer whirring)
Don't you dare splatter on me.
Work this together until it is nice and smooth.
(ethereal music)
Okay, I'm just gonna switch to a spatula
and kind of like fold the bottom up to the top
because there's a little bit of like denser stuff
hanging out there.
If you're wondering why we heated that mixture up,
it's because that hot water butter combination
really helped the cocoa powder bloom,
and then give you just gives you
an intense chocolate flavor.
It's amazing.
Similar things are done with brownies, if you recall.
Okay, this is smooth and luscious.
Oh my gosh, look at that.
I'm gonna pour this right into my sheet pan now.
You don't really have to smooth this batter out.
You're just going to kind of let it go to the corner
and come right back.
There we go.
It really levels out pretty easily on its own.
So just give it a little bit of a nudge.
This is ready to go into the oven.
350, 415, maybe 18 minutes
or until a skewer in the middle comes out
with like just a couple crumbs.
In the meantime, we're gonna make the frosting
because they have to be done together at the same time.
In you go.
(upbeat music)
Now for this frosting,
it is just so good and really easy too.
We're gonna add 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons
of unsalted butter into a medium pan or pot.
That's the two tablespoons.
Along with 1/2 cup of whole milk, 120 mils,
1/4 cup of cocoa powder.
I think it said half.
1/2 cup of cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of cocoa powder,
1/4 cup of cocoa powder, 25 grams.
This is gonna come to a boil to just like before,
so pop it over medium heat,
and then while that's heating up, I'm gonna chop my pecans.
There you go.
And.
I'm stirring this occasionally,
but I'm also gonna chop my pecans.
I want about a cup of finely chopped pecans.
Bonus points if you toasted them.
Give us a chop.
This cake is like, it's beyond moist.
Clearly it's like soaked in like this butter,
cocoa powder, milk situation,
and it was already tender to begin with.
So once you have all these creamy things
you want a little bit of texture,
and that's gonna come from the chopped pecans.
If you really don't like pecans,
skip it or use walnuts, or hazelnuts,
or you could skip it.
What I'm trying to say is it's optional.
(upbeat music)
Okay, my pecans are chopped.
I hear a gentle boil in the background.
And if you're wondering like,
gosh, that frosting sure doesn't have any sugar in it.
Don't you worry, we'll get some sugar.
We're gonna add that in.
This came to a boil,
and I wanna tell you like my cooktop is so hot.
It is like half the time,
half the time of almost anything else.
So if your mixture warms up quickly and it's boiling,
just take it off heat and you might warm it up again
towards the end, right before you do the next step.
That's what I'm gonna do.
My cake just came out of the oven.
Look this beautiful she cake, a little bounce.
Skewer came out clean.
This is very heavy, by the way.
Pop that over there just for a minute.
Bring your warm cocoa butter mixture over here.
I'm gonna whisk in four cups of powdered sugar.
This'll help bring things together too.
You might have noticed that it's separated out,
you have little pools of butter, that's okay.
You're gonna whisk it, it's gonna be fine.
It just needs the sugar to help bind it together.
(upbeat music)
Ooh, look at that one cup in,
it's already like a hundred percent better.
Two cups in. Hmm.
This reminds me, I've had a few requests
for like a boiled milk frosting.
You let me know if you want that still.
I'm, I've been thinking about making a video for it,
but I'm just on the fence.
I don't know if people really want that
or if it's just one or two people.
Last cup in and we're just gonna mix this together.
So smooth.
Add those pecans in.
This time we're gonna stir them in
since our mixture is getting pretty full.
I could eat this by the spoonful, by the way.
And now, bring your warm sheet cake back.
Now you're gonna quickly pour all this amazing frosting
over your warm cake and smooth it out.
Use an offset spatula and gently pull that to the edges.
This is amazing.
We're gonna let it cool completely before slicing
because it is very hot right now.
Once it's cool, you're ready to slice and enjoy.
That is so good.
I don't know how you couldn't love this
pillowy soft chocolate cake that is intensely chocolatey
with that wonderful slick of icing on top
to give you the perfect hit of sweetness
with a little bit of crunch.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my chocolate playlist.