In our family, Grandma was the type of woman who had a freshly baked cake sitting on the counter whenever company was expected. Even if that company was just the neighbor dropping by to return something, or a grandkid hanging out for the afternoon. A frosted sheet cake was a commonplace fixture in her kitchen and our all-time favorite was her moist yellow cake with chocolate buttercream. (Because, if you’re asking us, yellow cake and chocolate frosting just belong together.)
If memory serves, a box of mix never entered her kitchen. She believed to her core that a cake from scratch was really never too much trouble, and besides, she had made most of her favorites so many times that she probably knew the recipes by heart. And that kind of muscle memory doestend to make kitchen work go faster. This cake is a classic yellow cake that’s simple and reliable, and while we haven’t committed it totally to memory, it mixes up really quickly.
It’s fluffy and moist and has that hallmark neutral vanilla flavor that pairs so well with a chocolate frosting. The chocolate buttercream that tops it is easy; it’s based on cocoa powder rather than melted chocolate, so no melting needed here. The half-and-half that’s whipped in cuts through the sugary taste for a frosting that’s dreamy and creamy and oh-so-chocolatey.
A frosted sheet cake might not fit into our lives every single day, but there’s no reason we can’t be a little more like Grandma from time to time and whip up a cake when the mood strikes. This reliably classic combo lets us do that with ease.
