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This Mini Chocolate Sheet Cake is inspired by your favorite devil’s food cake. The crumb is light, rich and super flavorful. The frosting is fudge-y and delicious, incorporating melted chocolate and heavy cream. This is the perfect alternative to a large classic sheet cake. Top it with your favorite homemade sprinkles!ย
Disclaimer: This is an update on an old recipe. I replaced the raspberry frosting with fudge-y, delicious chocolate frosting. And obviously took new photos but really the cake recipe itself is the exact same.
This recipe is perfect for a smaller chocolate cake. It’s made in an 8×8-inch brownie/cake pan.
What is Devil’s Food Cake
Devil’s Food Cake is also known as chocolate cake, fools! But there are some chocolate cake recipes out there that use melted chocolate; I opt for cocoa powder. Coffee in place of the hot water, adds a lovely enhanced chocolate flavor. There is a healthy amount of salt and the buttermilk gives this cake a super light texture.
How to Make the Fudge-y Chocolate Frosting:
- Temper the chocolate. This is what gives the frosting the flavor and the color and flavor. And let it cool to mostly room temperature. A bit warm is ok, you just don’t want it to be super hot or else it’ll melt the butter.
- Beat the butter and sugar together. Use the paddle attachment and a stand mixer and beat until combined with no pockets of powdered sugar.
- Add the melted chocolate. Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined. And then add the heavy cream and beat until light and fluffy. This really gives the frosting a super fluffy texture.
How to Make Chocolate Sheet Cake for Two:
- Mix together the dry ingredients. Just add the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on low just to combine.
- Add everything else! This is a very easy cake, just add the rest of the ingredients and mix on low just until they’re combined.
- Bake.ย Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake.
Tips and Tricks
- The coffee should be brewed on the stronger side. No weak cups of coffee! The stronger, honestly the better. The coffee will bring out and highlight the chocolate flavor in this cake.
- Be sure to line your 8×8 cake pan. I see this a lot: people are like, it’ll be fine! And then their cake sticks to the bottom of the pan and they’re all mad. Think of parchment like our insurance plan.
- For the frosting you want slightly warm melted chocolate. It shouldn’t be added to the butter super warm because it will melt the butter. But you also don’t want to cool it too much or else it’ll be solid.
Did you make this recipe? Let me know on Instagram!
Looking for more recipes? Here are some of my favorites:
- Mini Yellow Cakes with Malt Chocolate Frosting
- Birthday Cake
- Carrot Snacking Cake
- Piรฑa Colada Cake
- Carrot Cupcakes
Mini Chocolate Sheet Cake with Fudgey Frosting
Ingredients
Sheet Cake for Two:
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup coffee
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fudge-y Chocolate Frosting:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- Pinch kosher salt
- 3 ounces semi-sweet (or dark) chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- Sprinkles of choice, as garnish
Instructions
To Make the Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 8x8-inch square cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, using a whisk, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Crack in the eggs, pour in the buttermilk, coffee, olive oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. The batter will be thinโthatโs ok!
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the cake pan for about 5 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack and cool until room temperature before frosting.
To Make the Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, with the paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and salt; beat until smooth, about a minute.
- Pour in the melted chocolate and heavy cream. Beat again until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
To Frost the Cake:
- Scoop the frosting onto the top of the cooled cake and make a bunch of swoops, decorating the top how you like. Top with a handful of sprinkles
- Cut and serve. If you want nice, neat slice, transfer to the fridge to chill for about 15 minutes and then slice and serve.
Notes
- The coffee should be brewed on the stronger side. No weak cups of coffee! The stronger, honestly the better. The coffee will bring out and highlight the chocolate flavor in this cake.ย
- Be sure to line your 8x8 cake pan. I see this a lot: people are like, it'll be fine! And then their cake sticks to the bottom of the pan and they're all mad. Think of parchment like our insurance plan.ย
- For the frosting you want slightly warm melted chocolate. It shouldn't be added to the butter super warm because it will melt the butter. But you also don't want to cool it too much or else it'll be solid.ย
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So easy and moist! This is the best coinage cake recipe. I make it for birthdays I. my family and everyone loves it!
I made this cute little sheet cake this weekend. It needed to bake probably 10 minutes longer but I suspect it’s because my oven is on its way out and I didn’t have the exact size pan. It tasted so good and wasn’t dry at all! In fact, I feel like it gets better with time. It was super easy to make and the frosting was perfection – I used dark chocolate and it was not too sweet…just the way I like it! I will definitely be making this again. We got about 8 servings out of ours. We’ll be eating the last 2 pieces this evening. Thank you so much for sharing!
amazing i love hearing this type of feedback ๐
Hi- I made the cake today and it deflated in the middle! I followed instructions to a T- is the buttermilk supposed to be room temp? Thatโs the only thing I thought of. All my ingredients incl baking powder and soda are fresh.
Delicious! Reduced sugar in cake to 3/4 cup. Made 2/3 of the frosting recipe and used unsweetened chocolate. Love that itโs a mini cake!
Great!
I made this for the second time in a month tonight. Just the best. This will be my forever go to chocolate cake recipe for a small chocolate cake.
This was so rich and delicious! I made in an 8×8 pan and it took about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Canโt wait to make it again.
These sheet cakes are my secret weapon. I’ve made them for graduations and birthdays and they have yet to disappoint.
I made you chocolat cake for two, it was soooo good. Do you have a recipe for red velvet cake? Iโm wondering if I could just add red beet juice to this same recipe (choc cake for 2)? Any thoughts? Thank you for your time and amazing recipes!
Could you make this into a round stacked cake instead of square?
This wouldn’t be enough batter for two 8-inch rounds. But you could use the full size chocolate sheet cake for that!
https://www.acozykitchen.com/one-bowl-sheet-chocolate-cake
Is the butter for the icing cold? Room temp?
room temperature! sorry about that–fixed in the recipe ๐