If this post were a facebook status, it would read:
Katie is feeling beyond grateful.
Yesterday morning, the The Chocolate Covered Katie Cookbook became the #1 Amazon Best Seller for dessert cookbooks, the #1 Best Seller for health & fitness books, and #4 on the Best Seller list for cookbooks overall.
To everyone who has been ordering the book, thank you so incredibly much.
And now, I shall express my gratitude through food!
Texas Sheet Cake, ubiquitous at southern barbecues and potlucks, is a sinfully rich chocolate cake you cook in a thin pan and then top with frosting. The entire thing can be made in under an hour, and people always always always ask for the recipe.
If southern hospitality could be represented by a dessert, this cake would be it.
 
However, with 2 sticks of butter, 3 cups of sugar and 4 cups of powdered sugar in the recipe, traditional Texas Sheet Cake is far from healthy. (If you were keeping track, that’s seven cups of sugar…) Traditional recipes will set you back around 300 calories and 12 grams of fat for one small piece of cake.
In my healthy makeover version below, yogurt gives the cake moisture and softness without all the added fat, and I’ve cut way back extensively on the sugar as well. The result is a rich and surprisingly healthy chocolate cake with fewer than 60 calories per serving, including the frosting!
Healthy Texas Sheet Cake
Texas Sheet Cake Healthy Makeover
Ingredients
- 1 cup spelt, white, or Bob’s gf flour
- 6 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup xylitol or granulated sugar of choice
- 1/4 cup yogurt (I used Wholesoy)
- 1/4 cup oil OR more yogurt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- frosting, as desired (my recipe is listed in the instructions below)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a 13 x 9 jelly roll pan or baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients very well. In a separate bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients. Pour wet into dry and stir until just evenly combined, then pour into the greased pan. Bake 18-19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. For the frosting, you can use the recipe below, or any of my Healthy Frosting Recipes, or this cake is delicious even eaten plain!
Here is a healthier makeover of traditional Texas Sheet Cake frosting: Combine 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp powdered sugar with 2 tsp cocoa powder until there are no lumps. Slowly stir in 2 tsp melted buttery spread or milk of choice, stir well, then very slowly add up to 2 more tsp milk of choice. Stir, then spread over the cake.
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Yay! Must be so exciting to be at number one! How amazing! Congrats!
Hi Katie – congrats on your cookbook’s success. I was just wondering how you came up with the nutrition facts for this recipe. I used calorie count and used the exact ingredients listed and I came up with 101 calories, 1.7 grams of fat, and 11.1 grams of sugar per 1/15 slice. This was calculated using granulated sugar and no oil. I also did a calculation using xylitol and it also differed from your calculations by about 20-25 calories. Just wondering. Thanks!
This cake sounds amazing, Katie! And much like the Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake I’ve grown up with (only healthier, of course!)
Looks yummy! Can you use greek yogurt with this or will that make the taste/texture off (if you know). Thanks!
Hi! Just pre ordered your cookbook and I cannot wait to receive it in January! I will keep it on display in my kitchen 🙂
For the wholesoy yogurt what flavor do you use? Also, what is your preferred type of flour to use in your recipes? (what did you use in this particular recipe also?)
Plain wholesoy.
As for flour, I will never list an option in the ingredient list that I (or a friend) have not tried. 🙂
Have you tried coconut flour with these? That is all I have on hand and I want to make these tomorrow!
This looks so great! I wonder if the 3/4 cup of sugar could be subbed for mashed bananas. Or maybe even prunes. Hmm.
oh my gosh CONGRATS!! so incredibly exciting 🙂
That’s a delicious moist tasty looking thang! It’s definitely chocolate season around here (I mean when isn’t it really) now that we have more ladies living in the house. Thanks for sharing this, as always I’m excited to make it. Also, I’m very excited about your book!! Can’t wait to get it and play around in the kitchen. You’re awesome, stay awesome!
I’ve got the book on my christmas wishlist so hopefully it will be under the tree on christmas morning.
I am relatively new to your blog and am just about to attempt this cake – is it OK to use coconut oil? I only have olive oil and am afraid that it has too strong a flavour and may influence the taste of the cake negatively…??
Definitely! Coconut oil can always be subbed for vegetable oil. You just need to make sure to have all of your other ingredients not cold. So slightly warm the milk of choice before adding the melted oil. Otherwise the coconut oil would harden when it met the chilled milk.
Hi there! I’m looking for a healthier (covertly healthier) cake recipe for my three year old twins third birthday. Would this make a good layer cake recipe?
I would use this one. You can always omit the mint: https://lett-trim.today/2014/03/06/mint-chocolate-frosted-chocolate-layer-cake/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
WOW! You do a great job. Your posts are always gorgeous. These look so amazing. I’m sure they are superb/supreme/sensational! Thank you so much for the amazing recipe’s. Keep them coming.
I tried it! It tastes so good! But i poured it in a 8×8 pan.. Because the batter was kindda not lot enough for 9×13 dish :/ … Was there something i missed?
The idea of Texas sheet cake is that it makes a VERY thin cake. So it actually will fill a 9×13 and rise a little to be the thickness of brownies.
Oh ok.. Thank u. I will try it again with 9×13 pan
Katie
Do I use plain yogurt or vanilla? Would coconut milk yogurt work? Or would it alter the taste of the cake?
Thanks
Hello Katie!! I was very curious about this cake, so just tried it yesterday. 🙂 It took me twice as time to have it cooked, though, and it still got chewy inside. Can you tell why? Could it be because I’ve used the yogurt instead of oil or fructose instead xylitol?… Other than that, I just followed the recipe entirely. Season’s Greetings from Portugal (Europe) and thank you for all the great tips and ideas!!
This cake was amazing! It was kind of like a brownie morphed with a cake and it didn’t even need any frosting, although we put some on anyway because when is frosting ever a bad idea, amiright? 😉
I made this several times and it’s so dang delicious!!!! Than I made it with half a cup of chocolate chips and it was out of this world delicious!!! Never knew yogurt in cake could taste so could.