Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake

 

Ok, so what do we have here?  Why, it’s a Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake.   Chocolate and chocolate, all without rotting your face off.

I mean ok, it is a sweet cake but it’s not like we’re piling chocolate cake with four hundred pounds of powdered sugar buttercream, candy bars, drizzling in hot fudge, and shoving fireworks into it.

While the latter makes for great Instagram fodder, I’d rather eat a more sane cake and live than slip into an ambulance, twitching from sugar overload.

Besides, if there’s one thing you ever get out of this nifty blog, it should be balance:  balancing flavors, textures, sweetness levels, and well, just balance.

So yeah, Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake.  What the heck is that?, you ask.

(This.)

Well, let’s see.  First and foremost, it’s a sheet cake meaning it’s large and in charge and stellar for crowds.

Which, I made this for the Thanksgiving soirée I was invited to, unsure of guest count, and it was perfectly sized.

A roarin' hit too!  Multiple people heaped praise upon this cake then even texted the hosts two days later who then texted me.  So, party crowd stamp of approval.

And it’s a chocolate cake with a chocolate icing.

But.  Where it’s different is that it’s like, hm, you just gotta try it, but it’s like a chocolate cake and a cakey brownie had uh, relations, and created this wonder.

It’s brownie in flavor, melts in your mouth like a brownie in a sense, but fluffy like a cake.  Just try it, you’ll see what I’m getting at.

And bonus, this Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake is a no mixer required ditty. 

Even bigger bonus, this cake actually gets better with time, like the next day or day after, unlike most baked goods.  A bit denser (in a good way), a bit moister (sorry, cringy word).

So it’s a champ.  Definitely. 

This came about because my other precious, aside from my oven (ah gotta wrap up that series, sorry!), my KitchenAid mixer flipped out a couple weeks ago.

Of course any time something so crucial to my very existence flips out, I flip out, it's an existential crisis. 

Ok, no, I’m not flailing like a freakazoid around my kitchen, I actually handled this shockingly calmly.  Finished what I was doing and shuffled my baby out to the car to head to the repair shop.

I will say, it was like there was a mini black hole swirling where my mixer sits in the kitchen in its absence.

Few days later, they called and said nothing was wrong, come get it.  Super confused, because I know there was, I went down to pick it up.  When they powered it up to show me, it was completely dead.  Like deader than a doorknob, like its soul had left the casing.

They looked at me, I looked at them.  I made a bad joke.  They said we’ll call you.

Thankfully I dragged my feet driving off as they came rushing back out, “hey we fixed it!  A brush was loose.”

But between then and well, then, this is when this recipe came to be.

Really painless to make, too.

Oh, before we get to far, this recipe was assembled by using grams, aka use a kitchen scale* but I did put volume in the recipe card.  It's far more accurate, this recipe, if you use a scale.

My old Ozeri* just died so I scaled up (ah ha, pun) and got the Oxo* instead.  (Don't get the Escali) 

Ok. 

While the nuts are purely optional, I highly encourage.   So we start there as here’s a hot tip:  toast your nuts in the oven as it preheats.  Pluck them out when you smell them.

Ran out of pecans so I used a combo of pecans and walnuts.  Tasty all the same.

Meanwhile, grab a big sturdy mixing bowl* (preferably non-slip*) and throw in your dry ingredients.  Whisk* them about until there are minimal to no cocoa powder clumps.  Or, be smarter than me and sift. But still whisk.*

Into a saucepan,* you’ll toss in your butter, spill in some oil, and then pour in some water.

If you want, you could go with fresh-brewed coffee instead of water but as that’s a big ol' nope for me, water it is.  Bring that to just-starting-to-boil, barely puffing up bubbles, making sure the butter is melted.

While that’s percolating, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla.  Easy peasy.

And then it’s go time.  Pour the melted butter mix into the dry and meld that with a whisk until it just comes together and is smooth.

Pour in the rest of the wet, give it all a gentle whisk briefly, just enough for it to come together because, we don’t want to overmix here.  You’ll feel the batter stiffen up a bit, that’s what you want.

Give that batter a few gentle scoops and stirs with a spatula* then pour into your metal pan* and into the oven it goes.

Sorry, camera was having some fits here.

Waaayyy simple, right?!

Clear the toothpick test and let the Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake cool completely in the pan.  And just leave it in the pan.

For the icing, again, super duper easy.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, preferably non-stick,* or that's my preference shimmering through as a non-cook.  Toss in the cocoa powder and milk, stir with a whisk constantly for a remarkably short bit...

It'll look like this.

...then off the heat add your vanilla (measure with your heart, aka add extra).

Do the powdered sugar whisk-in in two parts and your icing is ready.

That icing starts to set up fast so move with intention here.  I find if you do let it start to set up, it runs and puddles in low spots a lot less, so do that.

But pour it over the cake, spread it evenly with an offset spatula,* and bam, yum.  Sprinkle on your nuts.

Now, key here.  Don’t eat this right away.  No I’m serious.  Let the icing rest, if you will, because if you eat it too soon, the icing will rot your face off with just straight up sugar sweetness above all else.  Don’t want that.

Let it sit for a couple hours, at least, then dive in.

And bob your head in joyful understanding now because you know what for a Cakey Brownie Sheet Cake and how flippin’ tasty it is, what a gold mine winner. 
 

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*The mixing bowls, whisks, saucepans, spatulas, kitchen scales, and offset spatulas are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.