Yellow Sheet Cake With Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

By Samantha Seneviratne

Published Oct. 21, 2025

Yellow Sheet Cake With Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
1 hour 40 minutes
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes, plus about 45 minutes' cooling
Rating
4(231)
Comments
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This may seem like a humble, everyday yellow cake. The kind you see at every birthday party. But this one is special. The texture is perfectly downy-soft and tender thanks to the reverse-creaming technique made popular by the cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum. Here, the butter is mixed with the dry ingredients first, which coats the flour and inhibits the formation of too much gluten when the wet ingredients are mixed in. Rich with vanilla and butter and topped with a slightly tangy chocolate sour cream frosting, the cake hits the mark. Make it as a simple sheet cake, or bake the batter in two buttered and floured 9-inch round cake pans for about 25 minutes for the perfect layer cake.

Featured in: I’ve Baked Hundreds of Cakes. These 3 Tips Made All the Difference.

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Ingredients

Yield:One (9-by-13-inch) cake; 12 servings

    For the Cake

    • ¾cup/170 grams salted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
    • 3cups/384 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
    • 1½cups/360 milliliters whole milk, at room temperature, divided 
    • 4large egg yolks, at room temperature 
    • 2large eggs, at room temperature
    • ¼ cup/60 milliliters vegetable oil
    • 1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
    • 1½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar
    • 4teaspoons baking powder
    • 2teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

    For the Frosting

    • 8ounces/226 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled slightly (see Tip)
    • ½cup/113 grams salted butter, at room temperature 
    • 1cup/123 grams powdered sugar
    • 1cup/240 milliliters sour cream, at room temperature
    • 2teaspoons pure vanilla extract
    • Sprinkles for topping, optional
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

658 calories; 37 grams fat; 19 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 12 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 77 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 50 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 430 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.

  2. Step 2

    In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together ½ cup of the milk, the 4 egg yolks, 2 whole eggs, oil and vanilla.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat in the butter until the mixture looks sandy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining 1 cup milk and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. The batter will be thick.

  4. Step 4

    With the mixer running, add the egg mixture in 2 parts, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.

  5. Step 5

    Increase the speed to medium-high and beat the batter for another 2 minutes.

  6. Step 6

    Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula.

  7. Step 7

    Bake until the cake is puffed and light golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes.

  8. Step 8

    Make the frosting: In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the chocolate and the butter until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar. Beat in the sour cream and the vanilla. (If the mixture is too loose, refrigerate for about 20 minutes, until just firm enough to spread. Beat until smooth before spreading.)

  9. Step 9

    Invert the cake onto a serving platter, if desired. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake. If desired, top with sprinkles. The cake is best the day it’s made. Store leftovers in the fridge, well-wrapped, for up to 3 days.

Tip
  • In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate in 15-second bursts, stirring often.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
231 user ratings
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Comments

Jennifer

Glen, various bakers use various weights for a cup of flour--King Arthur uses 120 g; Martha Stewart uses 125 g; America's Test Kitchen uses 142 g. The "standard" that I use when converting old recipes to grams is 130 g, but if I'm following a recipe that uses a different weight, I go by the recipe's weight, for best results.

Glen

Advice welcome here. I always weigh with a scale and keep a chart of proper weights. (Probably a combination of info gathered over years from sources such as King Arthur Flour and Rose's Cake Bible). My list states that 3 cups of flour equals 360 grams; this recipe states 384 grams. Hey, this can happen, but when following a new recipe do you stick with the standard weights or just use whatever the recipe states?

Anne Pelak

@Cilantro Dame 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal is roughly equivalent to 1 teaspoon of table salt.

Claire E.

Came out really heavy and dense. Perhaps I didn't cream the butter and flour mixture long enough, but it did look sandy, so I'm not sure what went wrong.

Sharon

Reading some of the comments… wish I did before committing to the recipe. The cake took 10 minutes longer to bake than the indicated time.

GRHartz

Has anyone tried this as cupcakes? Can you share how it went? how many it made and how long you cooked it for? thanks in advance!

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