This Devil's Food Sheet Cake with Rich Chocolate Buttercream is the perfect recipe for chocolate lovers! The easy devil's food cake comes together quickly and is baked as a chocolate sheet cake, and is then topped with swirls of smooth chocolate buttercream and sprinkles. This recipe comes from 'Zoë Bakes Cakes', the new book from Zoë François!
Table of contents
Devil's Food Sheet Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
Hi hi! I am just popping in to share the recipe for this Devil's Food Sheet Cake with Chocolate Frosting! I made this a month or so ago and have been meaning to share it - my apologies for the delay, but I PROMISE you that it is worth the wait.
This Devil's food sheet cake is perfectly moist, and has a tight, tender crumb. The cake comes together super fast, and the chocolate buttercream uses a unique method which is new to me (more on that in a wee bit), which makes it the dreamiest, fluffiest chocolate buttercream I have ever made. I am FULLY obsessed.
Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoë François
This recipe comes from my friend Zoë's new book, Zoë Bakes Cakes! Zoë has an amazing instagram page and website, and has written some amaaaazing books on bread, and I am SO EXCITED that she wrote one all about cake!
The book is everything you would want from a cake book and then a tiny bit more - it is jam packed with incredible base recipes. The first part of the book is called 'cake academy' and goes on a deep dive into everything you could need to know when it comes to the technicalities of baking cakes. It is full of tips and tricks, and is a one stop shop for learning all you need to know about cakes. Zoë's teaching method is straight forward and easy to follow, and she gives all the details on how to make beautiful cakes the way that she does.
The book has recipes for pound cakes and fruit cakes, layer cakes, loaf cakes and sheet cake, a whole section on soaked cakes and another on cakes which are based on whipped eggs, a buttercream chapter, and then how to put it all together. There's base recipes for almost everything you can think of. It is such an asset to have on your book shelf - run run and get yourself a copy right now! Congrats Zoë! The book is AMAZING.
Devil's Food Sheet Cake
Devil's food cake is a super rich chocolate cake. It is light in texture, but with an extremely chocolatey taste. It's one of my favourites - they are typically a little less sweet than a traditional chocolate cake, which means there is so much room to play with frostings.
Zoë's version is super easy to make and comes together in less time than it takes to preheat the oven. Here's how easy it is.
- Prepare your pan. I used a 9"x13" pan for this, which I just lined with some parchment paper. The batter is quite wet, so make sure there aren't too many gaps for it to go between.
- Prep your dry ingredients. Mix all the dry together in a bowl - flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, etc.
- Combine your wet ingredients. Mix them all together too. Coffee and rum go together in a small bowl.
- All together now. Wet and dry get combined, and then into the pan!
- Bake it off. The cake gets baked, then left to cool. While the cake is cooling, you can start to prep the frosting if you like. It takes a while to cool and thicken, so this is a good time to do this.
- Make the frosting. The chocolate frosting is super delicious and takes a wee bit of time, but is 10000% worth it for the dreamiest frosting ever.
- Put it all together. Live your best swirling life with the frosting! Add sprinkles if you like.
Silky Smooth Easy Chocolate Fudge Buttercream
This cake has a new to me chocolate fudge frosting which is my new absolute favourite - I told Zoë it should be called 'Holy Shit' frosting because that's the first thing I said when I tried it - it is THAT good. Hopefully she consults me for recipe naming on her next book. hahahha.
This frosting is a true DREAM. It starts off with a ganache made from cream, butter, espresso powder and chocolate, which is cooked together and then left to thicken as it cools, then powdered sugar is beaten in. The frosting is fluffy and smooth and gets a little crust on it when it sets and OH MY it's just so, so good. It will be going on many, many things from here forward. Make sure you account for time for the ganache mix to cool - you can pop it into the fridge if it is a particularly hot day. I got impatient and did this, checking it every few minutes until it was the right consistency.
How to bake Devil's Food Cake in other formats
I made this recipe into a sheet cake, but is is super versatile - you can bake it a whole load of ways. Zoë does it in a pullman pan in her book, but some other variations are:
- As written in the book - baked in a pullman pan for about 1 hour 10 minutes until a tester comes out clean
- Divided between two 8" (20cm) cake pans and baked for about 30 minutes until a tester comes out clean
- Divided between 24 cupcake liners and baked for about 20 minutes until a tester comes out clean
Feel free to also mix and match your frosting! (The chocolate one I have here is INCREDIBLE but this cake would work great with any frosting you choose. Zoë has a whole section on mixing and matching in her book.
How to scale a Sheet Cake Recipe
The great thing about baking in grams is that it is super, super easy to scale a recipe. A general rule of thumb is that you can halve a recipe that is baked in a 9"x13" (20cmx30cm) pan, and bake it in an 8" pan. This would work great with this recipe, particularly as there are only two eggs in the recipe so makes halving it super easy.
Here is the basic math I do when working out how to scale any recipe. Let's use this one for example, scaling from a 9"x13" pan to an 8" pan. You work out the scaling by working out the area of both pans (which assumes the thickness of the cake stays the same). Units of measurements are not important here (cm vs inches) as long as you are using the same for both calculations, as this is a ratio.
- Area of a 9"x13" pan: 9x13= 117
- Area of an 8" square pan: 8x8=64
- 64/117 = 0.54 - so the size of the 8" square is 54% of the size of the 9x13" pan. This is close enough to 50% that halving the recipe will work just fine!
This method also works when calculating what size round pan to convert a square recipe to, for example an 8" square (area 64) and a 9" circle (area 63.6) are essentially interchangeable here.
Yay for math!
Frequently Asked questions
Do I have to line the pan?
If you have trust in your pan and you don't want to line it, then don't. But remember this is quite a big cake and you will have to flop it out onto a serving platter. Because it's so tender, having parchment paper to lift it out is helpful.
What pan did you use?
I used a 9"x13 USA pan to make this cake in. Anything a similar size will work! I have also used a pan with a lid so that I can just frost the cake in the pan and pop the lid on for an easy transport.
Do I have to use coffee in the cake?
Zoë uses both rum and coffee - I didn't have rum so just used extra coffee. You can't taste either in the recipe but they both bring out the chocolate flavour perfectly. Zoë suggests you can use flat cola or stout if you want! You can probably just leave the espresso powder out of the frosting if you need to. Just make sure you taste and make sure there is enough salt!
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes! The cake itself lasts great so you could make it a day or two ahead, then frost on the day, or prepare it all a day ahead
What can I use instead of espresso powder?
Finely ground instant coffee will work great.
For more sheet and snack cakes, check out:
❤️ Made this recipe and love it? ❤️
I would LOVE for you to leave me a review and star rating below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram!
Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
Devil's Food Sheet Cake
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 16 servings 1x
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Devil's Food Sheet Cake with Rich Chocolate Buttercream is the perfect recipe for chocolate lovers! The easy devil's food cake comes together quickly and is baked as a chocolate sheet cake, and is then topped with swirls of smooth chocolate buttercream and sprinkles. This recipe comes from 'Zoë Bakes Cakes', the new book from Zoë François!
Ingredients
Devil’s Food Sheet Cake
- 280g All-purpose flour
- 400g granulated sugar
- 50g Dutch processed cocoa powder (sifted if lumpy)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 300g strong hot coffee
- 30g rum or brandy (I used 30g more coffee)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 240g buttermilk, at room temperature
- 115g neutral oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Chocolate Frosting
- 90g Heavy whipping cream
- 165g unsalted butter
- ¾ tsp espresso powder
- ⅛ tsp kosher salt
- 315g bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 225g powdered sugar, sifted if lumpy
Instructions
DEVIL'S FOOD SHEET CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Grease and line a 9”x13” (20cmx30cm) baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until well combined. In a small bowl, stir together the coffee and rum (if using).
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla until well combined. Add the egg mixture and half the coffee to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until smooth. Slowly add the remaining coffee mixture and whisk until totally blended and smooth. The batter will be quite thin.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Gently tap the pan on the counter several times to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, or the centre springs back when lightly pressed, about 30 to 35 minutes. Start checking for doneness after 30 minutes.
- Let the cake cool completely before transferring to a serving plate.
CHOCOLATE FROSTING
- In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine the cream, butter, espresso powder, and salt, and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring often until the butter is melted. Add the chocolate and swirl the pan until the chocolate is submerged in the hot cream mixture. Let the mixture sit for about 3 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Let the mixture cool to room temperature; it will become quite thick as the butter and chocolate set. If the weather is hot or it is taking a long time to cool, transfer the bowl to the fridge and stir every 10 minutes or so until the mixture has chilled and firmed up.
- Turn the mixer speed to low, add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, and beat until smooth and spreadable. If the frosting is at all grainy, add additional cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it is smooth. The frosting will be quite soft but firm enough to cling to the cake and spread evenly.
ASSEMBLY
- Add the frosting to the top of the cake and swirl on with an offset spatula. Add sprinkles if using. Place the cake briefly in the fridge to help the frosting set, then cut into pieces.
- Store leftover cake in an airtight container in the fridge.
Notes
Recipe reprinted with Permission from "Zoë Bakes Cakes" by Zoë François
Comments
Suz says
Hello from Australia!
I tried making zoe’s devil’s food cake recipe (from her website) once before & it didn’t turn out great - uneven bake & quite flat/short. Must’ve messed it up somewhere.
I’m going to give it another go with your recipe! (Fingers crossed!)
One question - can you taste the espresso in the cake or coffee? As i’m not a fan of coffee.
Cheers
Suz
Erin says
Hi! I covered that in the FAQ section re the cake, you may want to leave it out of the frosting. I hope you enjoy! It's so, so good!
Steve says
I'm not a very confidant baker but these were so easy and so yum!
Elyse says
This was so super easy to bring together and the frosting was absolutely amazing! Thr crumb, the texture, the simple flavour of tje cake ans the beautiful soft and sweet icing. So good!
Allison says
The frosting is the best chocolate buttercream! I halved the recipe to put in an 8x8 pan, and realized I forgot to half the baking soda as I was putting it in the oven, but the cake was still delicious— can’t wait to make it again with the correct amount!
Mayanka says
Hi Erin,
It's a superb recipe , quick to make and absolutely delicious.
Thank you
Regards,
Mayanka
Isabella says
Can i just say how dang good this cake is!!! I never leave reviews on recipes but Erin (and Zoe), you totally deserve it! This cake is so yum, I've already made it twice! Once as a triple layer round cake and the other in it's original sheet cake glory.
It is so flipping moist - it literally lasted a week outside of the fridge and still tasted so good.
Your recipes are so well written and easy to understand - you give so many options and remedies to avoid disaster. Thank you 🙂
P.s i did find that both times my icing didn't seem as soft and smooth as yours. Would that be because i popped it in the fridge to cool down? Perhaps for too long? I had to work quick to smear it on the cake before it would harden up. Still tasted great though! Just didn't look as lush when I was recording compared to yours 🙂
Erin says
Thank you so much for the lovely review! I am so happy you love!
Morgana says
Hi Erin!
Do you think you could pipe this frosting? Looking at making this cake for a work function 🙂
Thank you!
Morgana says
So I piped the frosting- of course it worked, I don’t know why I thought it wouldn’t 😂 The only thing I would say is make sure you melt the chocolate fully for the ganache, because I had little pieces of hard chocolate that blocked my piping nozzle. Thank you once again for making me look like a star baker! Had friends asking for the recipe 😉
Erin says
Yay so happy to hear it went well!
Louise says
Made this for a Christmas bbq and it was a hit with the kids and adults! Such a great recipe and easy to make.
Erin Clarkson says
Ah yay it's my fave!
MiMo says
Hi!!! First off— LOVE everything you make. Found you on insta a few months ago and it’s gotten me back in to baking. Thank you.
Second—Have you made mini Bundt cakes using this recipe?
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! I haven't sorry!
Sonya says
Hi Erin,
Love your bakes! You are my go to baker for amazing tried and tested recipes, thank you.
I have made this cake several times and love it. I normally make Zoe's original chocolate frosting recipe which uses granulated sugar. Just a quick question, does this frosting come out grainy at all? Thank you.
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! It's not grainy at all but it will form a crust when it sits 🙂
Heather says
Made this cake for my daughter’s birthday and it was a huge hit! Everyone at the party said it was moist and the perfect balance of sweetness and chocolate flavor. The recipe is another huge win because as long as you have a kitchen scale it is fool proof! It’s one of the easiest cakes I’ve ever made!
Nadia says
Hi Erin
Thank you for the recipe . 2 questions before i start . Can i use normal coco powder instead of Dutch processed and sour cream instead of buttermilk, as i dont find both where I live.
Thanks
Nadia says
Hello
Thank you for the recipe . 2 questions before i start . Can i use normal coco powder instead of Dutch processed and sour cream instead of buttermilk, as i dont find both where I live.
Thanks
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! I haven't tried with regular sorry but it should be ok. For buttermilk you can use 1:3 sour cream to milk and combine and then use that!
Carmen says
Just finished - I appreciate the simplicity of it, so so easy to mix up, but the edges of the cake came out a bit dense and rubbery. Likely I overworked the batter whilst mixing in the liquids, but it didn't feel like I went at it too hard. If I were to try again might use a spatula (used gentle whisking but that's the likely culprit) and gently fold to incorporate to see if that makes a difference. The fudge frosting was very very sweet and definitely fudgy, I can see keeping it for layer cakes as it sets like a dream. Seems like a good children's birthday cake type of recipe overall, was fun to try out as I compare various chocolate cake recipes.
Kai says
Hi Erin!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I would like to ask how can I prepare the coffee. On the recipe, it said 300g strong coffee. Can you pls tell me how many tea spoon of coffee I need for 300g?
Thank you so much.
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! Just a little more than you would usually use to make coffee! I usually use strong espresso but if you want to use instant you can measure out 300g boiling water then add the coffee until it is strong enough 🙂
Erin says
So using your math to convert a recipe down, how would you do that? Let's say random math, you wanted to convert from a 9x13 pan (117) to a 6-inch pan? (28). How would the math go with each ingredient? Scaling up has been easy for me, but I have had trouble with scaling down in the past. Thanks.
Erin Clarkson says
Hi! I have a pan calculator on my site to help with this! It's linked in the section above the recipe 🙂
Allison says
Made just the frosting to use on another cake recipe — halved the recipe for a one layer 9x9inch cake and it was the perfect amount. Such a good and easy chocolate frosting recipe, and love that it doesn’t require planning ahead (no softened butter)!
Mish says
Best chocolate cake ever! I didn't have any oil on hand so I subbed the oil for 153g of melted butter - it came out perfectly. My new go to chocolate cake recipe! Didn't get around to making the icing, but the cake is a 10/10
Cara says
Yum, yum 😋. This is an easy recipe and chocolate-ly satisfying. I own Zoe’s book and have made this cake before, but never the frosting I don’t think. Sheww, chocolate heaven. Thanks, Erin!
Julie says
This is such a delicious cake, and the recipe is really easy to follow. It’s my go to cake for any special occasion, and everyone thinks it tastes like it was made by a pro. Great recipe. Thank you
Lu says
This cake is amazing! Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting! What’s not to love. Comes together easily and is great for taking to a party or work pot luck!
Liesje says
Yet another incredible recipe!
Erin's fast becoming the first place I look if I'm after a recipe.
Sophie says
Delicious!!
Nicole Washington says
This cake looks amazing!
Chris BW says
This cake is delicious!
Straight forward and reliable as usual from Erin.
I make 3x 8inch layer cakes by multiplying by 1.5 as per the variations in pans from the recipe. The ganache base for the icing was so yum! My gauche needed a little help from the fridge (the video was a really helpful reference for the desired texture), but worked perfectly!
Thanks Erin!
Kristen says
Just made this tonight and it was delicious! Super moist and perfect with the frosting. Instructions were clear and nothing too difficult. Thank you!
Tracy says
Hi can I cut back on the sugar?? Thanks! 😊
Erin Clarkson says
Not really sorry!
Megan Evans says
Love this recipe! Made such a nice easy chocolate cake(s) that I could shape well and cover in frosting.
Thank you for the time you take to test your recipes
Claudia A says
Can’t wait to make this! I’m in France and need a replacement for buttermilk, any suggestions? Thanks a bunch 🫶🏼
Shalev says
Hi
How can I replace the buttermilk? The recipe looks really good but I don't have a way to get buttermilk.
Erin Clarkson says
You can use milk with a little yoghurt in it, or milk with a little lemon
Karen says
Really lovely cake and fabulous frosting. However, microwave a slice for 20-40 seconds and you have unctuous chocolate pudding with divine sauce. Thanks Zoe and Erin.
Shalev says
Hi!
What can I substitute the buttermilk with? Will milk with lemon juice work?
Glenda says
Made this to give to a new mom, but of course sneaked a (few) bite(s) of the cake and found it to be really moist, soft and not super intense or sweet (all good things). I did use natural cocoa instead of Dutch because that was what I had open and the recipe used baking soda anyway… it still turned out!
I guess the Dutch processed cocoa would make the cake more chocolatey and darker, but I wasn’t disappointed by the sub.
I halved both cake and frosting recipes (I used an 8x8 square pan). I found it curious though that my frosting - although still delicious - was never as soft as the one in the video; I had sifted about 112g of powdered sugar (half the recipe), but I don’t think I used even half that before I noticed my frosting was much stiffer than it was supposed to be… so I’m really glad I didn’t dump it all inside the bowl haha
I also had to add some heavy cream to make everything softer. Next time if I’m using the same pan, I’ll try to make a third of the frosting instead and keep an eye on the amount of sugar.
Lauren says
I made this cake yesterday (with a different frosting, because my kids wanted vanilla). It’s absolutely delicious and has a beautiful texture. Perfect rich, chocolate flavor. This one is a keeper!
Heather says
This is by far my favorite chocolate sheet cake in so long. Rich chocolate flavor and so easy. My go to recipe from now on.
Becky H says
I love this cake! And I am not a huge chocolate cake fan but this is Amazballs ( yes that’s a real word). The frosting is silky a so much better than a traditional buttercream. Love that the recipe is in weights not cups! IYKYK! Thanks for another great treat!
Nancy says
I made this base cake yesterday for my husband’s birthday — wow, it is now my go-to chocolate cake! Moist and absolutely terrific flavor and texture!! I used Skrewball peanut butter whiskey as the booze component since I was making this as 2 9” round layers with a peanut butter frosting filling.
Erin tests her recipes so thoroughly - you can always trust them to work!
Sarah says
Another incredible recipe! I’m never a big fan of choc cake cause I just don’t think it’s ever chocolatey enough but holy moly! This cake is where it’s at. I subbed the choc icing for a regular icing as couldn’t afford the dark chocolate and it was delicious! Another kids birthday cake win!
Grace Tairua says
This is by far the best chocolate cake and chocolate frosting I’ve ever made and tasted. Highly recommend. I made this in its original sheet cake glory for my daughter’s birthday, but I’d like to try a 3 layer cake next time. Truely gorgeous. Just recommend you don’t refrigerate it the night before as the frosting takes forever to go creamy again. Better left in air right container in the cupboard.
Jean says
Could you please convert your measurements into standard measurements instead of metric. I don't understand the metric math. I never had to learn it. It took me and a friend to figure out what's grams to cup. So prep time took about a 1/2 hour to figure the math out and right it all down.
Erin Clarkson says
Hi, no I don't provide them as they are not accurate. A scale is a great investment!
El says
Another winner from Erin! My husband who doesn't even like chocolate cake demolished this.
Also worth mentioning that I baked this hoping it would last us for a week. My husband and son finished it in less than 48 hours.
Emma says
Could I make 2 of these and layer them?
Erin Clarkson says
Yes that should work well! It bakes up flat so should be good for layering 🙂