How to Make the Best Classic Chocolate Sheet Cake

[@karengamble5804]

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing is always my son’s request for his birthday cake. He’s going to love this version, I think.

[@mattstewart1637]

Let us know how he likes it!

[@bobby3509]

Recipe Cake 1 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 cup milk 8 oz bittersweet chocolate 3/4 cocoa powder 2/3 vegetable oil 4 eggs 1 tsp vanilla Frosting 1 pound milk chocolate 2/3 heavy cream 16 tbs room temperature butter

[@sheenaelizabeth1983]

Not all heros wear capes! Thanks!

[@nusratrehman1350]

Could someone please convert this into grams please?

[@00Jennahy13]

What size is the pan?

[@bobby3509]

@@00Jennahy13 watch the video

[@jenniferdryden4436]

Anyone know what the yield on the frosting is? 2 looks like maybe 2 cups or so?

[@georei]

This cake is like eating a cake like brownie with all the chocolate. I couldn't find dutch cocoa, so I used regular cocoa powder. I iced mine with whipped peanut butter icing. It took a little longer to finish, but the results were satisfying. This is the second sheet cake I have made using your recipes. Outstanding!

[@NessaRossini...]

Oh YES! I'm going to make this for hubs' birthday in a few days. He's recovering from a massive stroke and depressed and not eating much so this, hopefully, will get his attention. I'll cut the recipe by 1/2 a whole sheet is way too much for just the 2 of us. * I'll make a half of a recipe in an 8x8 pan. :) (freeze extra slices)

[@carowells1607]

I hope he feels a little better. Cake always cheers me up!

[@NessaRossini...]

@@carowells1607 Thank you. All of that chocolate will cheer me up if it doesn't him. :)

[@faraichareka9803]

I decided to try out this recipe and lawd!!!..it was amazing..Thank you guys for the wonderful recipe

[@275carreira]

Simple and yet mouthwatering!

[@martiemc8398]

You are not just culinary artists it is so psychologically satisfied to see a good meal being made so well.

[@darlenesgardenandhome]

Love your show and your youtube vignettes.

[@MariaRodriguez-gb5pr]

It's my favorite thanks

[@Mauro_blox26]

My mother is in love with the channel, she has already made the donuts and really likes the recipes, hugs from Brazil🇧🇷

[@salliem4599]

No matter how many cooking shows I watch, I always come back to ATK.

[@gabriellayee6472]

Sallie M They are the best!!!!

[@rachelsweets]

Me too

[@tonilyng4851]

Yup...

[@NOTHEOTHERGUY]

I've become a better cook because of this wonderful show! THANK YOU!

[@laidback4evr]

Looks great, thanks for sharing!

[@alicekelly4975]

There is a huge problem with that cake and it is that I don’t have a big piece of it RIGHT NOW.

[@pattimccraw6168]

this is one of my favorite cooking shows

[@marciavaldez7767]

Such a yummy looking cake. Definitely need to try this recipe.

[@hollym5873]

Need a tall glass of milk, yum. Love these videos

[@fatimaa9699]

The beauty of this recipe.... easy

[@teresadagostino643]

I'm making it this weekend. Can't wait!!!!

[@barbaravoneitzen7729]

Looks so yummy. Got to try this recipe.

[@gracefulkimberella]

I want to like and love this video a hundred times! Thank you!!!!

[@bahtiyor1995]

Best recipe! Thank u very much! Soo gooood!

[@MersayW]

I am so making this cake for my husband's birthday!! THANK YOU

[@uzocl2.s]

I made this cake and it tastes like a brownie cake version. Its delicious and moist. Its super easy to make and not complicated at all. Just use really good chocolate.

[@SteveMillerhuntingforfood]

Just a "little" bit of butter, a 1/2 pound. I was salivating watching this video.

[@carowells1607]

I'm so glad that you understood that was sarcasm😊

[@FGondola]

I've been looking for a recipe like this one due to the fact I don't have to use hot water in this recipe. So I will try it 😬 Thank you

[@gabriellayee6472]

You are great!! You set the bar high for all television, celebrity cooks everywhere!!! 😍

[@shikhalitahivwale3057]

So good!! Yum❤

[@ananouri3583]

Erin clearly knows her stuff.

[@michellejefcoat3882]

I made this cake and everyone loved it thank you so much love the show

[@johnhumphries4632]

You had me at chocolate! 😊

[@pretyblkgrl]

I made this cake. Its incredibly moist and very chocolatey. If you love dark chocolate you will love this cake. If you're more of milk chocolate fan like me, then you may not love this cake.

[@utoobr10]

Oh, mama! That looks good!

[@himynameisandri]

i love this show!😇

[@kiveon]

I need a big glass of ice cold milk with that yummy cake.

[@MarkIra613]

Great show. Pain in the ass to deal with the website. All the support I igive to PBS, asnd I have tov jump through even MORE hoops jusat to download a recipe.

[@SI-rf3yb]

Beautiful cake baked by a beautiful lady

[@hislilsister]

I made it! It's good! My icing was not thick like theirs...cake not flat like theirs either BUT good ❤ just enough sweet

[@tonilyng4851]

This is a great recipe. I was a little more cautious melting the chocolate. I placed a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water to combine the chocolate and milk. The bowl was big enough to accommodate the dry ingredients. Thank you for the great tips.

[@sharonmckenzie1282]

I love the show. This is a very simple recipe. Hubby will make it today or tomorrow

[@alexwansss]

That's so much chocolate for one sheet, I guess there's no skimping when it comes to flavor.

[@jandkhilbert]

Made this and it is awesome! I'll have to make this chocolate cake from.now on. It's not really sweet and it's a rich chocolate. The frosting or Gamache is very light and satisfying mouth feel

[@annfreese6499]

going to make it for Thanksgiving!

[@kellygervais3440]

Whoa! Mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmm 😆😆

[@LadyCatherine538]

Be still my heart.

[@kathleenchisholm4672]

you girls and guys rock. love, love, love ATK.

[@junezalukmoore]

Thank you, looks so delicious! I would go for the dark chocolate frosting and a whipping cream frosting as a filling. Yum!

[@denirathompson9262]

This is awesome🇧🇸

[@SpencerPullenPhotography]

I just made this and I have to say it’s the best chocolate cake I have ever made. I was thinking the cake would have been a bit talker but probably due to the chocolate and oil is why it fell a little. Very good though! I added 2 tsp of espresso powder to the flour. Yum!

[@maryrico7816]

Why so little flour it will not be a tall cake? It's so little flour.

[@inthekitchenwithshylinda5915]

I used milk chocolate instead and it was terrific 💯

[@danieldumas7361]

Though I do own the COOK'S Illustrated Baking Book, I had to watch this for comparison. They're identical, so here goes!

[@williethomas4889]

NOT BAD!!👍🏻

[@bobanthony1297]

Indeed

[@soniaclarkson3766]

This def is a keeper! I wanted to make this cake but as a layer cake so want to bake it in a flat baking sheet ( 1 inch or 1.5 inch deep), what temp and time do you suggest?

[@kokostormy7710]

I’m thinking to make this I sall this in there book 📖 looks yummy 😋 and so mouthwatering 🤤

[@tjblum57]

I am more than a little irritated that to get the "free recipe" above that they want to make me a trial member for I don't know how much the cost!

[@izzardfanwcake]

Any specific recommendations for the bittersweet chocolate?

[@stevelogan5475]

Depends on how much bitterness you want vs sweetness. Use your bitter , unsweetened chocolate and adjust the sweetner you use, for instance confectioners sugar is in powder form and is not nearly as sweet as granulated sugar, so i would go with that, taste your batter after mixing your ingredients, and start out with a small amount of confectioners sugar to see if it is the bitterness you want. If you want a little more sweetness add a little at a time and mix in with a hand whisk until you get your desired level of flavor. Note, you can always add a little sugar for sweetness, but you can't take it away, so i hope that helps you.

[@izzardfanwcake]

Steve Logan Thanks for your response. I was actually wondering what brand or type of bittersweet chocolate, bar or chips or?

[@stevelogan5475]

@@izzardfanwcake ok, i' sorry, i misunderstood, you can get nestle's unsweetened, semi sweetened, chocolate chips in a bag, or if you can find them get gharedelli unsweetened chocolate( the best) bars, but you can find several brands, but they will normally be in the baking products aisle of your grocer and not the candy section. Does that help ?

[@nerdcave0]

Trader Joe's sells large, 1-pound bars of dark, bittersweet, and milk chocolate for a great price. I use those for everything and would totally use those here. I wouldn't use chocolate chips as those have emulsifiers that might throw off the recipe in large amounts (in small amounts they're usually ok to swap in).

[@nerdcave0]

@@stevelogan5475 I'd be careful swapping in unsweetened if a recipe asks for bittersweet, even if you add sugar to compensate. Unsweetened chocolate has a lot more cocoa fat which would affect the recipe, so you'd likely have to add less of it.

[@sophieg8522]

By how much can we reduce the amount of sugar and not alter the texture of the cake? I ask because I have a feeling that sugar isn't only for flavour, but also for texture/moisture. Thank you in advance.

[@mariaconsuelothomen]

I have a ,9 x 13" pyrex, but not that size pan.. Can I use the pyrex? This recipe sounds yummyr.

[@hashimali-wx5jp]

Please try in your test kitchen chocolate molten lava cake

[@estherlevitt2229]

Do you use sweetened or unsweetened cocoa powder?

[@shawnflynn7235]

Can I make this with a gluten free grain, such as oat? Millet? I love this recipe, but i have some friends that can not eat gluten. You all do amazing work. Thank you!

[@sabrinamendez6223]

Current making this right now as we speak , sord of speak 😊

[@unguidedone]

wow

[@Bradley7708]

Looks delicious, add Pecans to the frosting and you have a Louisiana choc cake!

[@JG-sz9li]

My parents are from Louisiana, & no dessert comes from their kitchen without pecans! Made me get burned out on pecans at an early age!

[@Bradley7708]

@@JG-sz9li yup! I’m born and raised in Louisiana and I love pecans!

[@buffy2875]

I always put pecans in my frosting ,

[@joannak4730]

I'm having my mom bake this for my birthday next year.

[@tammydowell589]

OMG!!

[@JAY1892]

I put on 3lbs just watching this. 😋

[@JAY1892]

Robert Telarket What do you mean?

[@iamme453]

The thing I detest most about box cake mixes (which I no longer use) is the way they dome in the center with less rise on the edges.

[@ARCGinger]

I'm going to bake this cake for my Mothers Birthday on October 10th, I'll let everyone know how it goes!

[@jellybean6422]

On your website it says that using a natural cocoa powder will result in a drier cake, so if I use natural cocoa powder can I just add more milk to fix it?

[@maxshandler8963]

Bridget, Erin, where do I buy the Dove milk chocolate. I can't find bars of it anywhere - even online. Please help! I want to make this cake.

[@anemated20]

How would you make a vanilla version of this? Would it be simply withholding the cocoa powder, or is it an entirely different recipe?

[@guswojo3762]

My wife just made this cake recipe. The cake came out dense. Any recommendations?

[@misscndnwoman2177]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🌹🌹

[@misscndnwoman2177]

Making in about an hour,waiting for the chocolate 🍫... I cannot wait. You rock my Sunday night. Thanks cutie patuties. 🌹🌹

[@misscndnwoman2177]

mmmmmMaybe I'll make two rounds so I can use ganash in between ,yes I must. Yikes.😆👍👍👏

[@imeldakins]

Can i use another type of oil? And can i divide the batter into 2 round inch pans will the time baking time change?

[@Appaddict01]

Yes

[@marthamalupande4369]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@heatherfeather4]

1) What percent chocolate is considered bittersweet? 2) What kind of milk chocolate bar do you use for the frosting?

[@ssab9063]

Just use chocolate chips.

[@billygarfield5520]

That cake really serves 4, right?

[@NessaRossini...]

Yes, in my world. Don't forget the scoop of ice cream with it.

[@nerdcave0]

This entire cake has around 8800 calories, 610 grams of fat (288 saturated), and 660 grams of sugar. Divide by 4 and it's not so bad as long as you don't eat anything else for a few days. :D

[@NessaRossini...]

@@nerdcave0 WoW! I'm only going to make a half recipe and we'll have small squares of it and freeze the rest. I have my shopping list, including Ghirardelli 60% for the cake and Dove Silky Smooth for the icing as recommended on their website. I'm using an 8x8 pan and going to slice it into 8ths.

[@josephineroe8424]

And if you made it into a layer cake by cutting it in half and putting one half on top of the other, then it would serve two. I majored in math.

[@NessaRossini...]

@@josephineroe8424 My gosh, you're a genius! And if we make it into a 4 layer cake it will serve one. Any more layers and we can start subtracting calories.

[@Fiscotte]

I like some orange zest in there too

[@CitizenPerkins]

+filipe pinto -- Hey, nice addition! 👍😁

[@carowells1607]

I'd been hearing about citrus and chocolate being great together for years before I finally tried it. Someone gave me one of those chocolate oranges for Christmas and shortly afterward I ordered a chocolate dessert with lemon in it. No offense to anyone and I know taste is totally subjective, but I will NEVER deliberately eat anything with chocolate and citrus again. Yuck! Then again people find it gross that I sometimes salt my brownies or chocolates.

[@raynethackery1]

Is there any way to do this without the dairy?

[@cindyharrington5958]

Can't believe there are people out there who don't like chocolate. Ummm good. lol

[@misscndnwoman2177]

It's truly shocking and I don't believe them one bit. Lol

[@JG-sz9li]

You need to really LOVE chocolate for this recipe though!

[@duenge]

I could marry Erin....

[@eio1971]

I always get a dome on top of cake how do i reduce the dome?

[@larrymbouche]

Don't reduce the dome. Cut the corners off the square cake, stack them on top.... bingo... you've got a round cake. Cover with a round dome. It'll taste better, cuz there's no corners to leak out the flavors. Yark Yark Yark....

[@paulco4145]

Oh man, how many marriage proposals per week do these ladies get, lol??

[@That-Ninja]

I'd eat it.

[@sabrinamendez6223]

They're all married!!

[@That-Ninja]

@@sabrinamendez6223 Who do you think you are ? 🤔

[@carolc7562]

Mmmmm mmmmm❤😊

[@mariaavena6019]

Hello

[@DKen2k]

This cake was ok but a little too bitter because of the bitter chocolate they put in it. It definitely tasted better the 2nd day though. Only change I would make is swap the bitter chocolate with semi sweet, and I think this cake would be great. I actually loved the crumb of the cake, just not the bitter flavor.

[@lillith725]

It is much better with semi-sweet, I tried it🙂, also did half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate in the batter too.

[@blackenedfeatherz9503]

Nah most chocolate cake recipes call for just cocoa powder and I wouldn't say theyre lacking in chocolate flavor lmao

[@angieg601]

I'm a celiac. I would love to adjust this recipe with gluten free flour and xanthum gum. Is there anything else I would need to change?

[@AmericasTestKitchen]

That's it! We recommend that you swap the flour using the gluten-free all-purpose flour blend on our website

[@angieg601]

@@AmericasTestKitchen Will do! I use your flour blend most of the time.

[@hibahussein3441]

I don't like baking soda can I use baking powder instead please help

[@man0sticks]

A couple of critcisms: She specifies Dutch processed cocoa powder which has been alkalinized, which would then require a neutral leavening such as baking powder, not baking soda as in this recipe. Also, why is ATK still baking with volumetric measurements? Ask ten people to measure a cup of flour and you will get ten different quantities ranging from 130 to 170 grams. That lack of precision can make or break a recipe, especially in baking.

[@antoinettejwilliams1993]

Thank you ATK for understanding that the average US household bakers use cups. I recall some years ago ATK demonstrated how to measure so most their followers without scale can be on same page. - I understand the frustration as I had that when trying to follow a UK lovely site and various web sites had diff equivalents

[@ranchodiablaacres3967]

ATK, browned butter instead of oil.

[@JG-sz9li]

I made this with exact same ingredients, weighed for accuracy, & after the cake part was done, I couldn't fathom the thought of topping it with MORE chocolate. I decided to make their vanilla frosting/icing recipe instead. Surprisingly, it's still a bit too chocolatey for my taste. I love every recipe I've tried with dutch process cocoa, but adding tons of bar chocolate in this recipe made it way too chocolatey IMO. Loved the texture of the cake. I'm not a huge chocolate fan to begin with, so maybe that's part of the problem.

[@tarjei99]

I don't drink coffe, but I will still add some coffe to the chocolate cake and topping.

[@kronos77]

So is it as simple as cutting the recipe in half to make this in an 8 x 8 pan?

[@AmericasTestKitchen]

Cutting the recipe in half would yeild a smaller batch that we would recommend for an 8x8 pan, but you could try it!

[@kronos77]

I tried it. Disaster.

[@g-bgcg]

This looks delicious. Hmmm it doesn’t look like there was enough batter to fill the 9 x 13 pan though. It was less than half way up the pan when finished. You would definitely need 2 recipes if you were going to stack and put filling in them for decorating. I do love the 2/3 cake to 1/3 frosting ratio imo so this works. In any event, I would love to have a piece right now!!!

[@crystalkirkman]

Honest moment here... Pillsbury Devils Food cake mix is really good, moist. and incredibly easy to make. I know, I know... But it's so easy and good 😬😋 Maybe I'll have to do a blindfold test with myself 😂

[@rebeccahaughn8677]

Am still looking for adding mint flavoring to cake and or frosting. please and thank you.

[@wendydarling5790]

Add mint extract to taste.

[@joanhoffman3702]

Chocolate and mint? Now you're speaking my language!😊💖

[@davejones5747]

I think I would probably add it to the frosting as it'd be easier to control the amount of flavor, and it also doesn't get cooked, which can sometimes change flavors.

[@tojetsetter]

They didn’t grease the cake pan before baking? 🤔

[@davestelling]

Looked like it'd been sprayed w/ "Pam," (?)

[@lordbacon4972]

Not sure what I did wrong but I made this following exactly all ingredients, amounts, techniques/instructions, but the cake turned out dry. I had to throw it out since it was too dry to be eaten.

[@keales9564]

Your oven could be running hot, then display shows. This would cause cake being dry. Reduce time and/or heat. I would do the toothpick test, while cake still in oven, (pull rack out) and see if its done, if not done, quickly put cake back In oven until done. Or reduce cooking time and oven temp. All ovens are different.