Texas Brownie Cake

This Texas classic, sometimes called Texas sheet cake or Texas Tornado cake, is what happens when you cross a brownie with a sheet cake and run the whole thing through a school cafeteria pass-through window. Hot melted butter, water, and cocoa get boiled together and poured straight over the dry ingredients, which gives you a batter that bakes up into a thin fudgy slab in about twenty minutes.

The boiled-water trick is doing real work. Hot liquid blooms the cocoa and starts dissolving the sugar, which deepens the chocolate flavor and creates that signature dense brownie texture instead of a fluffy cake crumb.

The frosting goes on warm right after the cake cools, and that warmth is the secret. Hot frosting on a barely-warm cake seeps slightly into the top surface, fusing the two layers together into something neither layer could be on its own. Sprinkle chopped pecans over while the frosting is still glossy so they stick fast.

Use a half sheet pan or 11×17 inch jelly roll pan for the traditional thin texture. A regular 9×13 makes a thicker cake that bakes longer at a lower temperature.

Pro Tips

• Toast the pecans before chopping for richer flavor, raw pecans taste flat against the chocolate
• Watch the cake closely toward the end, thin sheet cakes go from done to overcooked in two minutes
• Make the frosting while the cake cools, you want it hot when it hits the cooled cake
• Spread the frosting fast before it sets up, it firms up quickly as it cools
• This cake feeds a crowd and travels well, cover loosely with foil for transport

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter for a Mexican chocolate spin
• Swap pecans for walnuts or skip the nuts entirely for a smooth glossy top
• Stir a tablespoon of bourbon into the frosting for a grown up boozy edge