It is no secret that I love chocolate and chocolate cake is one of those things that missed the most when I first went gluten free.
Doesn’t everyone need a good piece of chocolate cake every once in awhile?
I was not the only one in my family that missed chocolate cake. My ten year old daughter has had it on her wish list of gluten free things for me to make for a while. I have made a few gluten free chocolate cakes, but they really have not been that great.
This cake was different though. I took one bite of this cake and instantly loved it. I can say this is one of the best desserts that I have made since going gluten free. It was that good.
It is no secret that I love the science behind food and baking. It has been a slow process, but I am learning some of the science behind gluten free flours and how they work.
Although I still have an occasional gluten free disasters in the kitchen, I am getting better at figuring out what recipes have a better potential of being adapted to gluten free.
I recently had one of those days where I needed to bake. Baking is what I do to relieve stress, and I knew spending time in the kitchen was what I needed this particular day.
I pulled out some cookbooks from my bookshelf and looked at quite a few different cake recipes. The one I kept going back to was the chocolate sheet cake from a Pioneer Woman cookbook. This cake just looked like it would adapt well to being gluten free.
I have to say though once you adapt most recipes to gluten free you have made so many changes that it really does not resemble the original recipe, but that is the recipe I started with.
This would be a perfect cake for the holidays. You could easily take this to a holiday dinner and no one would know that it was gluten free. This looks and tastes just like a normal chocolate sheet cake would.
Gluten Free Chocolate Sheet Cake
A classic chocolate sheet cake with an old fashioned chocolate frosting made gluten free. So good that you will not know that it is gluten free.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 cup rice flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Frosting:
- 14 tablespoons butter ( 1 3/4 sticks)
- 1/4 cup cocoa
- 6 tablespoons milk
- 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
For Cake:
- In a mixing bowl combine rice flours, cornstarch, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
- In a saucepan melt butter and add cocoa. Stir well.
- Add boiling water to cocoa mixture and boil for 30 seconds. Take off the heat and pour over flour mixture.
- Stir together.
- In a small bowl combine buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla.
- Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture.
- Spread onto a 10x15 type sheet cake pan that has been greased.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
For Frosting:
- While the cake is baking melt butter in a pan.
- Add cocoa and combine well.
- Remove from heat and add milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar.
- Mix well until the mixture is smooth.
- Pour over warm cake.
- Let cool and enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
18Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 430Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 276mgCarbohydrates: 61gFiber: 1gSugar: 45gProtein: 3g
Nutritional values are approximate and aren't always accurate.
This is like a gluten free version of a Texas Sheet Cake right ?
Basically yes. I have heard them called both just a chocolate sheet cake and a Texas Sheet Cake, but they are the same basic idea. I think the Texas sheet cakes almost always have pecans in them.
This looks so good. I’ll have to try it for my daughter who has issues with gluten, too.
Great photos, Lynn! I want to reach through the screen and have a piece for Part 2 of my breakfast. 😉 I’ve made a similar recipe which I call Secret Cake. It’s pretty much Texas Sheet Cake without the pecans. 🙂
Shirley
Just what I needed, comfort food! 🙂
-Mary
Lynn,
Just found you through SS&GF Slightly Indulgent and glad I did. This is gorgeous photog. (my weak point, for sure!). Like the others, I call this Texas Sheet Cake. I make it almost exactly as you, just an egg & dairy free version using less fat. And no nuts for us, either (although I wish – I miss pecans!).
I really do just adore your presentation of this cake – truly lovely!
~Gigi 🙂
Thank you! I am so glad that you found my site.
Could you post your recipe that is egg and dairy free? I have to avoid those items as well since my son has issues with them. Thanks.
Yes, please post the non dairy and gluten free version.thanks!
omg..my mouth is just watering looking at your pictures. I love love Texas sheet cake and needed to bake one to take to our church small group meeting tomorrow. I’m making my traditional non GF one and then your recipe too..we’ll do a little taste testing to see if anyone can really tell the difference.
Shoot I can’t wait until tomorrow to make it…
Thank you for your tenacity in making good GF recipes that taste good
Mary
I just posted your url and photo of your cake on my FB page…happy chocolate dreams….
Thank you! I hope you enjoy the cake.
I’ve found some wonderful chocolate cakes recipes in “The Allergen-free Baker’s handbook”. Our cakes are also egg-free, dairy-free. I look forward to trying this one too.
Thank you so much for negotiating the GF baking! I will be trying this recipe sometime soon. My daughter needs GF food and it is nice to have someone else trial and error also!
Thanks again!
This looks divine! Thanks so much — cannot wait to give it a try! The closest thing I have eaten to chocolate cake in the last several years was a GF brownie I made that was so wet and gooey it didn’t satisfy my craving for cake at all. Will certainly give this one a try for an upcoming summer picnic. Best ~ Marie-Claire / QSH
I don’t have any Xanthum Gum… what would happen if I made this without it? 🙂 I have everything else in my pantry and have been craving cake.
I think it would not hold together as well. So it might be a little drier. Do you have guar gum? I think you could use some of that in its place, but I think you use less guar gum. I hope that helps.
This Texas cake looks so amazingly good. I will be making it on Friday when I have some extra time. Just a quick question about xanthun gum and guar gum, what is the difference? I have several recipes that call for both, for doughnuts, and guar gum is not readily available here, at least I haven’t found it yet, but I am still looking. Are both needed in a recipe or can you substitute with more xanthun gum and no guar gum? What is the difference between sweet rice flour and rice flour? As you can tell I am new at the GF baking so I have tons of questions. Thank you.
I use mainly xanthun gum, I have some guar gum but have never really used it much. I need to do more research into, so that I can try it more. There is a difference between regular rice flour and sweet rice flour. Here is a post that I did on sweet rice flour. I do find that it makes a big difference in some recipes. https://lynnskitchenadventures.com/lra/sweet-rice-flour/
I hope you enjoy the cake. Gluten free baking is a whole new type of baking, but once you start figuring things out it really is not bad at all. And if gf eating works for you it is so worth it. I hope that helps.
This sounds sooooo good! Have you tried making it dairy free? And what was the result? Thanks!
We are not dairy free, so I have never tried it. I am really not sure how it would turn out. Sorry I could not be of more help.
I just found this delicious looking recipe. My family and I are new to GF and I need to make a chocolate sheet cake for my daughter’s birthday party this weekend. I have never made my own icing before and I notice here you said to pour it over the cake while warm. Does the icing thicken at all so I can write on the cake? Sorry very new to all this and panicking, I want my baby girl to have a b-day cake! Thanks~
It does thicken, but not quite as much as regular frosting. I do think you could still write on it though, I would just make it the day before and give the frosting a chance to set up before you write on it. This is one of our favorite gluten free cakes to make. Non gf people cannot tell it is gluten free. I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks Lynn, it definitely looks delicious and can’t wait to try it. I will take your advice and make it the day before and maybe refrigerate it to help stiffen the icing just in case. She is only 8 so she wants all the fancy decorating on it. LOL Thanks! 🙂
If this is the cake you made when we were there, it is as good and probably better than any cake I’ve had with gluten! So good!
Sounds great! I have used carob in place of cocoa, as I can’t have cocoa. Wonder if it would be okay here too. Love your site!
Could I sub almond milk for the buttermilk?
I have not tried it, so I am not sure if it would work. If you have used it in other similar cake recipes I think it is worth trying. I hope that helps.