Chocolate Marshmallow Cake (Texas Sheet Cake!)

Classic Texas Sheet Cake

There’s always room for Chocolate cake.
ALWAYS.
Dig in!

Chocolate Marshmallow Texas Sheet Cake recipe

Oh chocolate marshmallow cake.
How I love and hate you, but mostly love you.  And continue to make you over, and over, and over again for every function, and birthday.
YES.
Whenever a birthday rolls around, every person in the house requests the chocolate cake.

And I’ve shared my mom’s recipe with you before….but I’ve realized that I like to make it a few different ways.  So rather than adding notes to the original recipe, I thought this version deserved its own spotlight.

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting for Texas Sheet Cake

Because everything’s bigger in Texas.
Ahhh. That should have been the title of this post:
because there’s always room for big A** Texas sheet cake.

Texas Sheet Cake with chocolate marshmallow frosting

Or maybe Big A** sheet cake will give you a Big A**?
Sorry.
For all the asterisks.
The word I may have been going for was “All”?
As in “All, Y’all”….which is an expression I have never gotten used to, but it has its charm.

Okay. Let’s do this thing.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE
Makes 24-30 pieces

1 3/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (or mix 1 cup of milk with 1 Tbl vinegar)
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

The beauty of this sheet cake version is that it’s baked on a large jelly roll pan—or cookie sheet.  So it makes a lot of cake. Or rather, it feeds a lot of cattle.  And has an extra gooey ratio of cake to frosting.
Oh, it’s the important things in life.

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a large jelly roll pan or cookie baking sheet.
• Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a small pan, or microwave it for about 3 minutes.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Add the buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.
• Add 1 cup boiling water and carefully stir until the water is mixed in; beat for 1 1/2 minutes.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean from the center.  Don’t under bake the cake! I’ve done it. It’s not as good as you’d think it would be.

While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting…

Chocolate Marshmallow Frosting

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup buttermilk (or mix 3/4 cup milk with 2 tsp vinegar)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla
32 oz bag of powdered sugar (about 8 cups)
5-6 cups marshmallows

• In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, buttermilk, and cocoa powder.
• Cook, stirring frequently, just until it comes to a boil. Then remove the pan from the heat.
• Pour the mixture into a clean bowl, add the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat with an electric mixer till smooth.
• Pour in the marshmallows and mix in with a spatula.
• Then pour the warm frosting over the hot cake when it comes out. THIS IS KEY.  It’s best to frost while the cake is hot, so the marshmallows puff up slightly and become nice and gooey soft.

Do your best to spread the frosting evenly around, while making subtle messes….which will need to be cleaned up and licked off your finger.

chocolate marshmallow frosting for sheet cake

Then cool to room temperature before serving.

And ahhhh.
Texas sheet cake.
It’s a yummy thing.

Texas sheet cake with chocolate marshmallow icing

Then start adding your own surprises into the mix!
For Lucy’s birthday, I added sprinkles (it’s best to frost smaller sections at a time and sprinkle as you go, before the icing hardens.

Texas Sheet Cake with birthday sprinkles
Chocolate Marshmallow Texas Sheet Cake

For Owen’s birthday we used colorful mallows (which looked cute under the frosting but didn’t change the flavor).
And Texas sheet cake always looks cute with 40-ish + candles, for Casey’s birthday.

Texas Sheet Cake oh my

Any way you slice it,
All y’all are gonna love it.

how to make Texas Sheet Cake on MADE

  1. 2) Heidi

    Looks so good, and so easy to frost too! Have you ever tried making the cake with hot coffee instead of boiling water? It seems to bring out the flavour of the chocolate even more, yum!

  2. 3) valerie

    How funny that you posted this since I was planning on making your original version for company tonight. Although now that I see this one, it appears to have TWICE as much frosting, which sounds mighty good to me!! Either way, I”m sure it will be a hit. This is one of the only scratch cakes that I ever attempt and it always turns out!!

  3. 5) Annie

    STOP! This is not helping my diet! 🙂

  4. Oh my goodness are you kidding me,i love Chocolate and marshmallow, and i am craving this big time !!! Thank you for sharing, i bet between you and i it would be gone in no time :-))) Double hugs to you.

  5. Oh, man- buttermilk makes EVERYTHING better! Pinned it! Thanks for sharing!

  6. 8) Krista

    This looks SO good!! I’ve never had it with the marshmallows! My Mom’s recipe for Texas Sheet Cake has some cinnamon in it and it’s the dessert I always request for any family party or function.

    • 9) Dana

      Oooo. That’s a great idea to add cinnamon! It’s like Mexican Chocolate.
      I’m trying that sometime 🙂 Thanks!

  7. 10) British American

    Ahhh, wish I’d seen this a couple of days ago when my son asked for chocolate cake for his birthday next weekend. I just looked up cake mix hacks on pinterest instead. This looks way better though, but I’m not sure I’m up for another trip to the store. Maybe I’ll change my mind!

  8. Oh my goodness Dana, this was so incredibly delicious! My daughter was wanting a treat so she made this cake tonight for dinner. So so yummy!! I could not stop eating it and I don’t even like chocolate cake!

  9. 12) Sarah Bonn

    This looks super yummy! I have a question though, is this for a full size (18″x26″) pan or a 1/2 sheet pan (18″x13″)?
    Thanks!

  10. 13) Maegen

    I’m been drooling over this since you posted it. I just made it today for girls’ night tonight. I can’t wait!!! Thank you!!!

  11. 14) Kate

    Great party!!!

  12. 15) Katherine

    My grandma would top the cake with marshmallows for the last few minutes of baking so the marshmallows would be toasted and then pour the frosting over. It was amazing.

  13. 16) Pavla

    This is so good. I just made it for my boy’s class for his birthday. what a wonderful cake for a class full of kids. thank you so much for the recipe.

  14. 17) Lisa

    Trying this next Birthday 😍 thanks Dana for sharing!

    • 18) Dana

      I just ate a piece, right before reading your comment 🙂 haha.
      Enjoy!

  15. 19) Angela Jarvis

    Oh my yummy!! Sounds devine!!

  16. 20) Nancy

    My Mom mixed chopped pecans in the icing instead of marshmallows.

  17. 21) Bree

    Oh wow looks amazing, question from New Zealand. What size are your marshmallows? Are they mini or just a regular size 🙂

    • 22) Anne

      Hi Bree- I am from NZ and I made this with mini marshmallows. It turned out great.

      Regards Anne

  18. 23) Becky

    This cake s awesome! I’ve made it many times now. Today I made it in 4 smaller pans and delivered it to some neighbors. Such a fun treat to share! Thanks for sharing it with us❤️💕

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