If you're looking for a 'I need cake right now' recipe, this is it. This is a super simple, one bowl chocolate sheet cake recipe, topped with a yummy tahini buttercream. I was thinking about those cupcakes you get at King Soopers which have an insanely sweet frosting and sprinkles, and you know they won't taste that good but you want them anyways. This is basically a grown up version of those cupcakes.
What is Tahini?
Tahini is made of ground up toasted sesame seeds and it is DELISH. It's super creamy and almost nutty, think of it like peanut butter. You can use it for both sweet and savoury, I love using it for salad dressings, in hummus and in frosting!
American Buttercream
Usually I am not a fan of American buttercream, like I've mentioned here. Because I wanted that grocery store cupcake throwback though, I decided to go with American buttercream. American buttercream (oh my god how many times have I typed that now) is a combo of icing sugar and room temperature butter, and then flavoured. In this case I flavoured it with vanilla and tahini!
While a little of it is good, like a thin layer on this cake, it can be super sickly which is why I don't tend to use it that often.
Tips & FAQs
The secret to this super chocolatey cake is hot coffee! Make sure your coffee is super hot when you add it, or the cocoa powder won't get as dark.
For every cup of buttermilk (which is conveniently 227 grams), add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. Mix them together and leave for about 3-5 minutes, and it will have the consistency of buttermilk.
Recipe
Chocolate Sheet Cake with Tahini Buttercream
Equipment
- 9"x13" pan
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 226 grams all purpose flour
- 400 grams granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 75 grams cocoa powder
- 227 grams buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 113 grams vegetable oil
- 227 grams hot coffee
Tahini Buttercream
- 226 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
- 113 grams tahini
- 186 grams icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease a 9x13 inch pan and line with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, whisk the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the dry ingredients until combined. Pour in the hot coffee and continue mixing until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. A toothpick inserted should come out with a few crumbs.
Tahini Buttercream
- In a mixer (or by hand!) using a paddle attachment, beat the butter and tahini until completely smooth.
- Add the icing sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat for another 2-3 minutes and then top cake.
Laurence
This is the perfect sheet cake! SO easy and SO tasty and light! Made the perfect birthday cake for my nephew, LOVED it!
Jen
This tahini buttercream mix is genius! I would have never thought of this combination, so tasty!
Mp
This is one of the BEST recipes I've ever come across! Super easy to make, tastes delicious and the cake is still quite moist even after 2weeks in the fridge (neither me nor my husband are too much of a sweet teeth, so it took us a while to finish it :P). Loved it.
Ella
I'm so glad you liked it!