They fill your entire home with the most incredible smell. I topped these ones with sea salt, dried rosemary, and tabasco sauce (a crazy-sounding but delicious combination) but you can feel free to experiment with different herbs and spices, both fresh and dried. The nuts only take about 20 minutes to make from start to eating, and are 1000x worth the effort. The same can be said for the salted dulce de leche, although that one takes a bit more patience. You can buy dulce de leche (a very creamy caramel) from the store, yes, but that dulce de leche is usually super thick, and if you want to drizzle it over the cake you’d need to heat it up with a bit of milk to thin it out a bit. I like making it from scratch, too, because I can control the amount of sugar better, since the store-bought varieties tend to be too sweet and I love the flavor that honey adds to the mix.
Dulce de leche takes about 50 minutes to make, and the vast majority of that time is spent near the stove top so you can stir it every couple minutes to keep it from burning on the bottom. I usually just pull a chair up to the stove and read a book during this time (but not too good of a book, don’t want to get distracted and accidentally burn it…) If I was craftier, knitting would also be a good use of time during this period. But you get the idea; just because it’s a bit time-consuming does not mean it isn’t doable. Plus, at the end of it you’ll be left with a bit of extra dulce de leche to enjoy on top of fruit and other sweets. And who couldn’t use a little bit more dulce de leche in their life?
Also, my Edible Flower Workshop still has a couple remaining seats and you can register and read more about it here. I would love to have you!
Chocolate Sheet Cake With Toasted Nuts & Salted Dulce De Leche
Ingredients
Chocolate Sheet Cake
- 1 1/4 cups warm milk
- 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon chile powder preferably chipotle
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Toasted Nuts
- 1 cup mixed raw almonds cashews, & walnuts
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon tabasco sauce or other vinegar-based hot sauce
- parchment paper
Salted Dulce de Leche
- 12 oz evaporated milk
- 3/4 cup honey
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt
Instructions
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Begin by preparing the dulce de leche. In a small thick-bottomed pot, mix together the evaporated milk, honey, and butter over medium low heat until combined. Allow to cook, stirring every few minutes, for about 45-55 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened and turned a deep gold color. Remove from heat, stir in the sea salt, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
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To make the cake, mix together the milk and cocoa powder until well blended, then set the mixture aside. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and chile powder and set the bowl aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the eggs and sugar until combined, then add the olive oil and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Alternate between adding half the flour mixture and half the cocoa mixture until the batter just smoothes out. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into a well-greased and lightly-floured roughly 8 x 12 inch pan. Place in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature.
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While the cake is cooling, you can prepare the toasted nuts. Melt the butter and sugar in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat, stirring to incorporate the sugar. Once the sugar has melted, add the nuts and stir to coat them in the mixture. Let them sit in the pan for a couple minutes until they start smelling slightly toasty, then stir it up again. Repeat this process until most of the nuts are lightly browned and toasted on part of their surface and the pan is very aromatic with the smell of toasted nuts. Remove the pan from the heat and empty the mixture onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Smooth it out so the nuts are in one layer, then sprinkle the salt, rosemary, and tobacco sauce over the nuts. Place them in the freezer for 10 minutes to get hard and crunchy, then remove them and break the sheet of nuts apart with your hands.
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Drizzle the cake with the dulce de leche and top with the toasted nuts. Serve immediately.
Oh, yes, all of this. I wish I could go to your class!! When you are back in Portland, you can bet I'm coming to every single one…
We will do so many wonderful things when I am back in Portland…that day can't come soon enough!!
Now! Why have i never made a chocolate sheet cake!!! You are right, sheet cakes and loaves are like go to party in your mouth :). Love your take on the cake and the toppings!
Hahaha, definitely! Thanks Asha!
This cake looks so wonderfully dark and dreamy. LOVING it.
Thank you Katrina!! It is wonderfully rich π
Now this is my kind of cake. I love the dulce de leche and roasted nut topping! Who needs frosting, right? π
Exactly! When you have toasted nuts and dulce de leche, no frosting is required π
You are killing me with your photos and recipes!! Now I need to try to make every one of them and get very fat! π I was planning to make your hot chocolate recipe one of these days but now I HAVE to make also this cake, sounds like heaven! You are one multi-talented lady, Eva…
Awwww thank you so much Lili!!! Yes, this is one rich little number and so is that hot cocoa π What can I say but I am a woman who loves her sweets π
Love the new blog design! beautiful photography as always!
Thank you so much Avital!! π
Cakes in a 9×13 don't scare me the way layer cakes do. They're so much more approachable. I should be making them more often! I really like your dulce de leche recipe. Something about cooking sweetened condensed milk in a can freaks me out a bit. It's good to know there are alternatives! And I love the wooden dishes in these photos. You use such beautiful props!
Yeah I tried the sweetened condensed milk in a can thing once and the bottom of the dulce de leche in the can got all burnt since you can't stir it, the evaporated milk with a sweetener is sooooo much better. It took me a long time to realize that sweetened condensed milk was the same thing as evaporated milk, just with sugar already added. Once I did, I was prettttty excited about making more dulce de leche. And huzzah for sheet cakes!! They really are the easiest cakes ever, you don't even need to unmold them from a pan, which is the part I always hate about layer cakes.
Your edibles class sounds wonderful! I wish I lived closer to LA. Also, love the touch of heat you added to the nuts – bet it gives wonderful depth to the otherwise sweet dish.
Thank you so much, Shelly!! The tabasco does add an awesome little kick to the toasted nuts, especially in combination with the chocolate cake and dulce de leche π
Sheet cakes are one of the most unassuming desserts, but you always make them look SO beautiful and delicious! I think Brianne's description of "approachable" is perfect. (I love making layer cakes, but I need to get myself into a LET'S SHOW THIS CAKE WHO'S BOSS mindset.) There's just something wonderful about the ease of baking a sheet cake, topping it with a whole lot of pretty, scrumptious things, and then letting the flavor speak for itself. I love that you used chile powder for the cake and tabasco for the nuts!
Also, have you ever had/made cajeta? (Basically dulce de leche, but made using goat's milk instead.) I made a bunch of it to go with a trio of ice creams for our family reunion a couple years agoβit's freaking awesome. Basically just like cow's milk dulce de leche, but with that goaty tang. π
OMG, yes cajeta is the besssssttttttttt. I made it here for the topping on this cake: https://adventuresincooking.com/2012/12/sugar-plum-pudding-with-anise-cajeta.html
I daresay I like it even more than dulce de leche, but goat's milk can be hard to come by sometimes (although they have it in trader joe's now which is awesome. The goaty tang is almost nonexistant in the TJ's one compared to the Meyenberg milk, I was reading up on it and apparently different goat varities have different flavored milk, some mild and some very tangy. Not gonna lie, kinnnnnnnd of made me want to become a goat dairy farmer.)
And I love sheet cakes for that exact reason, they're the easiest cake to make ever, and you can dress them up so easily. Nuts, syrup, fruit, glazes, honey….you can put almost anything edible on top of them. Amazing!!!!
well, frosting is now dead to me. topping a cake with some rich dulce de leche and flavorful nuts will always be better. π
Hahaha, agreed!!!! Thank you, Grace π
Gorgeous and tempting as always, Eva!
Thank you so very much Jennifer! π
Only you can make the most simple dessert look so incredible and salted dulce de leche is worth all the efforts. Fantastic photos!
Awww thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed the post! π
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