I’m sure you’re like me and you visit food blogs galore and then one post just hits you so hard you have to go to the kitchen right that minute and make whatever it was that hit your hot button? Surely I’m not the only one. It happened to me again today. I was doing the rounds of my favorite bloggers and I visited Add A Pinch and saw her mother’s chocolate sheet cake. It looked so moist and chocolatey and I knew I had all the ingredients. I was salivating as I went down the stairs to the kitchen.
Those of you in the US just open the fridge and get out a stick of butter that her recipe calls for and pop it in the pan, right? Well, I speak American but I live in Australia and our butter comes in 250 or 500 grams. NOT four ounces.
Robyn’s mother’s cake is so easy and quick to make, I can’t imagine not making it often. You melt butter and add the cocoa in a heavy bottomed pan.
Then once it’s melted and combined, toss in all the dry ingredients and stir.
Once that’s mixed together add the eggs one at a time. This gives me an opportunity to beg you, if you aren’t already using free range eggs, please do it. Do it for the girls who lay these eggs. Chickens might not be too bright but if you’ve ever owned any you’d never buy caged eggs again. See how yellow the yolk is? That’s because the girl who laid this egg got fresh green goodies and bugs to eat.
Once the eggs are in add in 1/2 cup of buttermilk and some baking soda. This was the only bit that took a few minutes. I kept thinking the buttermilk was never going to incorporate but I was just being impatient.
That’s it, toss it in a 9 x 13 pan. (if you wondered, no, our pans come in metric sizes and 9 x 13 doesn’t exist here. I did the best I could and extended the cooking time just a bit and the cake was perfect.)
Once the cake comes out of the oven you pour over the icing onto the warm cake and then you’re supposed to wait until it cools and then cut it and eat it. I couldn’t wait. As soon as the icing was just a bit tacky I dived in with a big spoon. I lost the corners but I’m sure you’ll forgive me. It was SO good.
I made the cake at 10am and by 11am I’d already eaten a piece of it. I know.. hell in a handbasket day, but I have NO regrets. Thanks to Robyn’s mother you can get the full recipe for Chocolate Sheet Cake at Add A Pinch. I don’t post someone else’s recipes on my site — it’s just not the right thing to do. While you’re at it, follow her on twitter @addapinch.
The only thing I changed from Robyn’s recipe was that I added just a slurp of corn syrup to the icing to keep it shiny, otherwise I followed it exactly.
Yummo! Looks delish, I’m always up for a good chocolate cake recipe. I’ll head on over and check it out 🙂
Who could wait? Looks fantastic, especially with ice cream on the side!
I wouldn’t wonder why you had the urge to bake it right there and then. It simply looks irresistable! Can I dig in? LOL!
xo,
Malou
Oh, this looks absolutely delicious and frighteningly addictive! I love light, molten, chocolate desserts made with quality ingredients -this one looks divine!
I eat anything chocolate. And this looks even more decadent than most chocolate delectables. After seeing and reading this I now need a chocolate fix.
ahhh i’m so like you! i find something inspiring in the blogworld and i have to go right to the kitchen! lol. i love chocolate. who can say no to this cake?!!
Looks tasty!
Yes our butter doesn’t come in sticks-the cups measurement confuses me because it’s quite hard to measure a cup of butter in this weather when it’s cold!
Only one piece! Looks decadent!
Yummm that looks amazing!! I definitely need to try it!
That’s brilliant. Buttermilk? Genius! No wonder you popped right into the kitchen and made it. And you’re not alone, I did that with an orange creamsicle float on Saturday 🙂
I would be in so much trouble with this dessert. I love sheet cake and this one looks like something I couldn’t resist and by that i mean- resist eating the WHOLE thing! Wow!
Wow, great pictures. I have a feeling if Katherine saw this she’d run straight for the kitchen too!
I’m always on the lookout for a good chocolate cake. Thanks for sharing, it sounds wonderful!
Serve this for dessert following your easy pasta sauce and I’ll be over for dinner!! Beautiful, tempting photos!!
Oooh looks so dark and deliciously moist!
This looks very good! Yum!
I wish I could reach in through my computer screen and take a bite of this -I know how yummy this cake is as we have made it and loved it for years! I am a little lazy and do the melting in the microwave. There is also a white-cake version of this! Check it out here – http://thecafesucrefarine.blogspot.com/2011/07/fabulous-white-chocolate-and-blueberry.html – chocolate or white, I think this is one of the best cakes ever!! Thanks, Chris
Chris, your cake looks fantastic!
That is a brilliant recipe and with buttermilk too – I love the sound of that. The pictures are brilliant and useful. Best quality chocolate and then follow the instructions on the post…we’ll get this lovely dessert….thanks for sharing.
Cake?! Count me in! You know I’ve just got to try this,it looks great 🙂 Actually been looking for a good 13×9 recipe,their all 8,10 or 12 etc. so thank you for posting this!
This is really a great recipe! I loved it and the way you made it is fabulous!! Shall visit the “Add a Pinch” site now!
Simple and nice, quite easy to follow your recipe 🙂 I bet the chocolate cake tasted good.
A wonderful cake! I am not surprised you had already a piece of it one hour after baking. I am wondering how much time it took you to finish it…
Love this chocolaty sin! The gooey chocolate on the cake is making me reach out for that slice. Thanks for reaching out on Twitter 🙂
orgasmic indeed!
Maureen you are killing me here…it looks amazing. Regarding the free range eggs I am entirely with you, I have 5 hens, all pretty and cute, who offer me a lot of eggs if I offer them in exchange freedom to run in the garden. They lay so many eggs that we can’t handle to eat them all, I constantly have at least 20 eggs in the fridge. I highly recommend.
Maureen, this looks so amazing! I would have eaten more than 1 piece.
lovely cake and must have been fun to have lived in FL do you miss the US?
After reading (and looking at it) I’ve concluded that I’m in a very serious need of chocolate… ok.. more like a desperate need of it! The cake looks over the top indulgent! 🙂
Maureen your blog just kills me, seriously, every recipe makes me want to eat the screen! Gorgeous looking cake, i would definitely have to warm up a big hunk’a this in the micro and gorge myself silly on gooey chocolatey goodness. Im craving.
Oh I haven’t made a good sheet cake in forever! This definitely sounds and looks like a winner to me =)
I wouldn’t have been able to wait either! I always burn my mouth on baked goods- I just can’t help myself when they come out of the oven 🙂
I feel like the title of the post goes perfect with your photos.
I keep looking for new chocolate cake recipes and recipes with buttermilk in them since husband has started buying bottles of it. This looks insanely good and super easy! Making this when son and his friends come home next. Fabulous! Gooey, chocolatey great!
Maureen this looks really decadent and hard to resist. I’m going to have to make some. Thanks for sharing this 🙂
The choc cake looks irresistible! Love the cute commentary as well 😀
So rich, chocolatey and delicious! I can see why you’d hurry to the kitchen and make it.
This is such a great cake! My aunt used to make a cake like this all the time. She would put pecan halves on top so that when pieces were cut, there would be a pecan in the middle of each. It looks amazing with a scoop of ice cream!
This happens often with me – usually, the moment I am set on a bread recipe for the weekend, I inadvertently fall on a bread blog and… there goes all the planning down the drain. I MUST BAKE THAT ONE. Period.
and, that brings me to this chocolate cake
(sigh)
You were right about that one recipe that calls out to you…this chocolate cake literally jumped off the screen for me! Trust me, one look at this, plus that dollop of ice cream and I’m ready to get my oven fired up an the ice cream machine churning!
In the cake..If English isnt your primary language coffee cake must be very confusing. I mean theres no coffee in it normally. It should be called Cake you eat with coffee. Of course that doesnt roll off the tongue really so people just say coffee cake..My point is that some people are probably disappointed when they eat their coffee cake and discover that it has no actual coffee IN IT..So I decided to fix that…Coffee Coffee Cake Adapted from a recipe .Makes a bundt cake or a 913 dish..Streusel .- 3 4 Cups pecans or walnuts.- 3 4 Cups sugar.- 1 Teaspoon cinnamon.Cake .- 3 1 3 Cups all-purpose flour.- 1 1 2 Teaspoons salt.- 2 Teaspoons baking powder.- 1 Teaspoon baking soda.- 3 4 Cups buttermilk.- 3 4 Cups strong coffee cold.- 2 Teaspoons vanilla.- 1 1 2 sticks 12 Tablespoons unsalted butter soft.- 1 3 4 Cups sugar.- 3 large eggs.Glaze Optional .- 1 4 Cup strong coffee.- 2 1 2 Cups sifted powdered sugar.Helpful Equipment .- but you can also use a normal baking dish.The Coffee. So Ill be completely honest. Im not the first genius to think of baking a coffee cake with coffee. and have done it for starters..A lot of recipes like this use instant espresso but I just decided to brew a really strong pot of french press coffee and use that in place of some of the liquid. It worked like a charm..Strong brew..The Streusel. So this coffee cake is like most coffee cakes in that its filled with a really tasty cinnamon sugar streusel. There are some pecans mixed in as well although they are totally optional..If youre using the pecans though chop them really finely or give them a spin in a food processor..All ground up!.Mix the chopped nuts with the cinnamon and sugar and set it aside for later..The liquids. Once you have your coffee brewed be sure to cool it off in the fridge. Adding hot coffee to a cake batter is a recipe for failure..But eventually youll want these things..Strong flavors..Then just mix all these together. This will smell really intense actually..For those that are recipe curious I just adapted the recipe I was using to replace 1-for-1 the buttermilk for the coffee. But I still kept a good amount of buttermilk because it gives the cake some great moisture..This smells good already..The dry stuff.
This sounds awesome, esp the way you described it. I have most ingredients, will be attempting it. I always have to use google to figure out what a stick of butter is:)
I’m sorry but this looks absolutely too decadent to try. I’m trying to be good, which means NO temptation! 😉 By the way, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with posting someone else’s recipe so long as you give them proper credit, preferably with a linkback. Especially if you have changed it, readers may not want to have to go to two places to get the whole ‘new version’ of the recipe.
Thanks again!!
I bet this is heavenly smelling as it cooks!
thanks, now I’m starving
I have enjoyed reading your blog so far, but I am back to reading, browsing and dreaming all before 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning.