One-Pot Chocolate Sheet Cake

I’ve been faced with a lot of myself these past few weeks – forced to gaze upon a lot of my own, shall we say…. tendencies .  I’ll eat a bag of chips within 24 hours of bringing it home. I’m very resistant to emptying the clean dish washer.  I will go back to the pantry to look for more chips even when I know I’ve eaten them all. I will not, unless faced with severe fines and penalties, put away my clean laundry.  If there is cookie dough in the freezer… well there’s no more cookie dough in the freezer so we’ll just leave it at that.  

I’m ok. You’re ok. And we’re making a simple, single-layer chocolate cake about it.

This is the sort of cake that comes together super simply, is tri-flavored (trying out that new word), and is the sort of snacking cake that you eat by the sliver straight from the refrigerator.  We’re leaning all the way into our tendencies. Let’s call them luxuries and go in with big bites. 

Stacks on stacks, but cake with soft fluffy flavored whip. Which flavor has your name on it? 

For this cake you’ll need all the things that make a cake a cake: 

•  flour, sugar, an egg, a stick of butter, cocoa powder, buttermilk, baking soda and salt. 

You can make this cake gluten-free using a 1-for-1 flour blend.

If you don’t have buttermilk, I’ve used yogurt or sour cream in equal amounts.  

We’re topping this cake with three flavored lightly whipped cream. Strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate – classics, ya know?  In this recipe we’ll whip of heavy cream but I feel comfortable admitting to you that I LOVE this cake made with Cool Whip that I flavor.  It’s not a mistake, I’ll tell ya that much.  

The wonder of this cake is that it all comes together in a medium-size pot. 

I know you’re sick of doing dishes. Me too. I feel the dish fatigue in my bones.(Ok that’s dramatic.)  All the small bowls we show in these pictures is just to show you a step-by-step of ingredients.  In your own kitchen, please please use as few dishes as possible and feel empowered to just get everything in the pan. 

In a pan melt cocoa powder, a bit of water, and a stick of butter.  Whisk and nudge any lumps out of the cocoa powder as the mixture melts together. 

Remove from the heat and allow the melted butter to cool jus a touch before adding the buttermilk and egg.  

Whisk it all to glossy. 

Stir in the the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. 

You’ll whisk the ingredients until smooth.  We love a glossy chocolate batter – I just can’t stress this enough. 

The batter will be pourable. 

Grease and parchment and grease the parchment inside a quarter sheet (9×13-inch) pan.  I promise that the layers of pan prep are worth it to ease the cake out of the pan in perfect little square slices. 

Oh, one more thing! This is a thin layered chocolate cake. I bake it in a rimmed sheet pan though a traditional 9×13-inch cake pan will also do. Don’t expect too much height – it bakes to soft and spring rather quickly. 

While the cake baked, whip some lightly sweetened heavy cream to very soft peaks. 

We’re going to add flavors and continue whipping the cream so to keep things soft and spreadable – soft peaks to start. 

Divide the whipped cream into thirds and stir cocoa into one, strawberry milk powder (or ground dehydrated strawberries) into another, and a dash of vanilla extract into the third.  

Frost the cake in thirds. 

Frost the cake in any flavor combination that your heart desires.  There’s no wrong way to do this! 

Allow the cake to rest in the refrigerator for a few hours (if you can stand to wait) and slice clean slices to enjoy.  

You’ll want a slice of each.  Ok wait… maybe a slice of one and then thin slivers of the rest of the flavors eaten straight from the cake pan in the refrigerator.  That’s what our tendencies insist.  

Photos with my friend Jon Melendez. 

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