Naturally Sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake

This naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake is incredibly rich and chocolatey, moist, and super fluffy. It comes together quickly and requires only two bowls and a whisk! Perfect for beginner cake bakers. You’ll love it paired with the velvety refined sugar free cream cheese frosting.

Welcome to Naturally Sweet Cake Week 2020! I am so thrilled that you’re here!

If you missed last week’s post, here’s the low down: over the next week I’m going to walk you through how to bake three very simple and delicious refined sugar free cakes.

The goal of this week is to give you more confidence baking cakes with natural sweeteners and show you that creating Insta-worthy cakes doesn’t have to be stressful or intimidating.

In fact, I guarantee you will find all of these recipes achievable, even if you’ve never baked a cake before! There’s also a fun giveaway happening for those of you eager to get involved in Cake Week. (You can skip to the details on how to enter right here!)

We’re starting out with the easiest cake of all today: a super rich and indulgent naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake.

Starting out Simple: Baking a Sheet Cake

We’re starting Cake Week 2020 with a sheet cake recipe because they’re the easiest cakes to bake. To kick your confidence into high gear for the rest of the week, I wanted to make sure that we began with something simple.

All that’s required when baking this sheet cake is one rectangular pan, a whisk, and two bowls! You can use either a hand mixer or stand mixer to make your life easier, but I generally stick to the whisk for this cake.

Because this naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake is baked in a single pan, you don’t have to worry about levelling layers, crumb coating, or extraneous decoration. Simply bake it up, dump some frosting on top, toss on some chocolate shavings for good measure, and you’re done!

Doesn’t that sound easy?

Why you’ll love this recipe

• This easy chocolate sheet cake recipe is perfect for beginning cake bakers. It requires only one baking pan and a couple of bowls, so there’s less to clean up!
• It’s naturally sweetened with coconut sugar, making it completely refined sugar free.
• The flavour and texture of this chocolate sheet cake is incredible! It’s super moist, fluffy, and richly chocolatey.
• The main elements of this cake can be made in advance if you have less time on your hands. Make the pudding for the heritage frosting up to two days ahead of time. Make the cake and/or the frosting the night before. Assemble and decorate on the day of serving.

Ingredients in this easy chocolate sheet cake recipe

• Plain flour: Essential for any cake recipe to give it structure. If you’re in North America, plain flour is known as all-purpose flour. Please choose a flour brand that is unbleached.
• Raw cacao powder: Our star ingredient! Cacao powder is what gives this cake its deep, rich chocolate flavour.
• Coconut sugar: Adds sweetness to this naturally sweetened chocolate sheet cake.
• Espresso powder: Used to enhance the flavour of the chocolate. I promise you won’t even taste it!
• Cold-pressed rapeseed oil: Rapeseed oil is one of the healthiest oils available on the market and is the lowest in saturated fats. Cold-pressing is the most natural form of releasing the oil from the rapeseeds and doesn’t use chemical extraction or bleaching. You could also use sunflower oil or another neutral oil.
• Oat milk: Adds moisture to the cake. Feel free to swap in any other plant-based or dairy milk or you have on hand.
• Greek yogurt: I love the slight tang that yogurt gives this naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake! It works superbly well with the richness of the cacao. You can also use sour cream here.
• Hot coffee: Similarly to the espresso powder, coffee brings out the flavour of the chocolate. You won’t taste the coffee. If you’d really rather leave it out, you can sub in additional room temperature oat milk.

How to make a naturally sweetened chocolate sheet cake

I love how easy this chocolate sheet cake is to bake. Here’s how to do it:

1. Mix together your dry ingredients.
2. Whisk together your wet ingredients.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet into it. Whisk well to combine.
4. Pour the batter into the baking tin. Tap the tin on the counter a few times to release any large air bubbles.
5. Bake the cake for 23 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
6. Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin. Once the cake has cooled, you can frost and serve!

Need a little visual help? Follow along with the video tutorial for this naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe:

Tips for making this recipe perfectly

• Remember to preheat your oven. Once the batter is mixed, this cake needs to be put into the oven immediately.
• Make sure you’re using cacao powder and not cocoa powder. They are not the same. Raw cacao powder is created using a cold-pressing method to retain the nutrients and natural enzymes in the cocoa. Cocoa powder is heat-treated cacao powder and is less potent.
• If you can’t find espresso powder, you can leave it out of this recipe.

Looking for more naturally sweetened cake recipes?

• Refined Sugar Free Carrot Cake
• Gingerbread Cake
• Pumpkin Spice Cake
• No-bake Espresso Cheesecake
• Apricot Upside Down Cake

If you make this recipe, let me know by snapping a picture and tagging me on Instagram @naturallysweet_kitchen. I love seeing your creations and sharing them in my Stories. Or let me know you love this naturally sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake by leaving a comment and rating below!

5 from 4 votes

Print

Naturally Sweetened Chocolate Sheet Cake

This naturally sweetened chocolate sheet cake is rich, chocolatey, moist, and super fluffy. It comes together easily and fast, making it perfect for beginning cake bakers.

Category Cake, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate sheet cake, easy chocolate sheet cake, naturally sweetened chocolate sheet cake

Prep Time 50 minutes

Cook Time 23 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 13 minutes

Author Amanda | Naturally Sweet Kitchen

Ingredients

Cake

• 110 g unbleached plain flour
• 35 g raw cacao powder
• 150 g coconut sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp espresso powder (not instant granules)
• 60 ml cold-pressed rapeseed oil
• 1 large egg room temperature
• ¾ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 60 ml oat milk room temperature
• 55 g Greek yogurt room temperature
• 120 ml hot coffee

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 180 ml agave nectar
• 200 ml oat milk
• 35 g plain flour
• ¼ tsp fine sea salt
• 180 g cream cheese room temperature
• 75 g unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Chocolate shavings, mini chips, or sprinkles (optional)

Method

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and grease, line, and dust with cacao powder a 20 x 18 cm (11 x 7 in) baking tin.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cacao powder, coconut sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, vanilla, milk, and yogurt until well combined.
4. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Mix until all the dry ingredients disappear – the batter will be very thick.
5. Slowly pour in the hot coffee, whisking continuously until incorporated.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 23-26 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. Place the tray on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool completely in the tin.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Add the agave, milk, flour, and salt to a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk continuously until the flour disappears and the mixture comes to a boil.
2. Allow the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes, or until it thickens and reaches a loose pudding consistency.
3. Remove the pudding from the heat and spread it out on a large platter to cool to room temperature.
4. Once the pudding has cooled, add the cream cheese and butter to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat them together on a high speed for 5 minutes until fluffy. Turn the mixer off and scrape down any off the sides of the bowl.
5. Turn the mixer on to medium-low speed and slowly begin adding the pudding mixture to the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Once all of the pudding has been added, pour in the vanilla. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until super fluffy.
6. If you feel the frosting is loose, refrigerate it for 30 minutes before decorating the cake.

Assembly

1. Loosen the edges of the cake from the tin using a cranked palette knife or butter knife. Turn the cake upside down onto a wire rack or serving tray.
2. Frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting and decorate with chocolate shavings, mini chocolate chips, or chocolate sprinkles.
3. Serve immediately.

Recipe Video

Notes

• This cake will keep covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
• You can make the frosting pudding up to 2 days in advance, just be sure to store it in the fridge. Let it come to room temperature and stir it well before adding to the butter and cream cheese.
• The cake and frosting can be made separately, up to 24 hours in advance. Keep both covered and refrigerated until assembly.

Naturally Sweet Cake Week 2020 Giveaway Details

To celebrate Cake Week 2020, I’ll be giving away ONE grand prize and TWO runners-up prizes to home bakers who whip out their whisks and aprons and get baking some cake in the kitchen!

Grand Prize: Cake Baker’s Essentials Gift Pack ($130 USD Value)

• 1 GIR Ultimate Spatula in Navy
• 1 Wilton cranked palette knife
• 1 Wilton cake leveling tool
• 1 set reusable cake tin liners (8-inch)
• 1 Oxo premium cake tester
• 1 copy of Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book (Ebook version for winner outside of UK)
• 1 $50 USD Amazon gift card (or equivalent GBP amount)

Runners-up Prize: Baking Shopping Spree ($50 USD Value)

• 1 $50 USD Amazon gift card (or equivalent GBP amount)

How to Enter:

Step One: Bake any one of the three cakes published during cake week on naturallysweetkitchen.com between 2 March, 2020 and 31 March, 2020:

• Chocolate Sheet Cake

Step Two: Snap a picture and post it to Instagram Stories, your Instagram Feed, or in the NSK Crew Facebook Group tagging me @naturallysweet_kitchen and #NaturallySweetCakeWeek.

Bonus entries can be obtained by baking all three of the cakes (up to three extra entries per person), and by leaving a star-rated review on the recipe (up to three extra entries (one per recipe post) per person).

Terms & Conditions:

This contest is open to residents of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, United States, and Canada (excluding Quebec). You must be over the age of 18 to qualify. There will be 1 Grand Prize winner (RRP $130 USD) and 2 Runners-up Prize winners (RRP $50 USD ea). This contest will open 02/03/2020 at 9am GMT and close 31/03/2020 at 11.59pm GMT. The winner will be randomly chosen and contacted via direct message; they will have 48 hours to respond and claim their prize. Fake or giveaway-only accounts will be disqualified. Instagram profile must be public to be eligible to win. This giveaway is not sponsored, administered by or associated with Instagram or any other social media used throughout promotion of this contest.