Sourdough Discard Texas Sheet Cake from Little Home in the Making

Sourdough Discard Texas Sheet Cake - made June 12, 2025 from Little Home in the Making

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup salted butter

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sourdough discard, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

1 cup pecans, lightly toasted, roughly chopped

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

6 tablespoons buttermilk or whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt, mixing to combine.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk well to combine. Add boiling water and whisk to combine until mixture is uniform.
4. Pour chocolate mixture over dry ingredients and stir until smooth and well combined.
5. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk with sourdough discard. Whisk in eggs, vanilla extract and baking soda until combined.
6. Pour buttermilk mixture into the chocolate mixture, mixing until smooth and lump-free.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth to an even layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. 
8. While cake is baking, make frosting: melt the butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa powder and stir until smooth and combined. Remove from heat and add buttermilk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Whisk until completely smooth. Fold in pecans.
9. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then pour frosting over warm cake. Serve immediately.

Here's another recipe for Texas sheet cake; the difference with this one is it uses up sourdough discard. At this point, I think I'm only feeding my starter to make these discard recipes rather than using it for sourdough bread. But it's easier to give away these kinds of baked goods than slices or half-loaves of sourdough bread (because I've got to keep half a loaf for me, naturally).

Case in point, I baked this cake and shared it with the people I go to Trivia Night with (we don't win but it's still fun). They liked it as did I. But it's hard not to like a Texas sheet cake. It's easy to throw together and always yields a soft, fluffy cake with the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. If you don't have a sourdough starter or any sourdough discard, you can use any other recipe for Texas sheet cake to get similar results. Because I have to admit, I couldn't taste any tang from the starter and this seemed like any other non-discard Texas sheet cake. Which is fine because that means it was still good.

And I kept my starter alive for another week/month.