Samoa Sheet Cake

Every now and then, with all the yummy recipes I make for this blog, one recipe stand out more than the others…  a recipe I claim to be one of my top favorites from the blog. Top favorites meaning within the Top 5 of almost 1000 recipes…

Today, I am sharing one of those recipes that made my personal favorites list.

Samoa Sheet Cake... this has been deemed one of "Chef in Training"'s Top 5 favorite recipes on her blog! It is one of the best desserts you will ever taste!

I thought I was in love with this Chocolate Sheet Cake

And then changed things up to make this Coconut Sheet Cake which turned out to be amazing…

but then, this masterpiece was born!

Samoa Sheet Cake... this has been deemed one of "Chef in Training"'s Top 5 favorite recipes on her blog! It is one of the best desserts you will ever taste!

Samoa Sheet Cake… WOW! This has a warm Caramel Glaze Frosting that is perfection. Then as if that was amazing enough, you then top that glaze with toasted coconut and drizzle with melted chocolate and caramel sauce. I am telling you, this is absolutely one recipe you HAVE to make from the blog!

This went to a party where everyone was raving about it! I then made a second one and sent some of its remains (and by remains, I mean what I had to forcefully get out of my house before I lost all self control) to my husband’s work where it then proceeded to amaze his coworkers.

Don’t pass up this recipe. You, and whoever else gets the privilege to partake, will be in heaven with each and every bite consumed!

Samoa Sheet Cake... this has been deemed one of "Chef in Training"'s Top 5 favorite recipes on her blog! It is one of the best desserts you will ever taste!

4.1 from 14 reviews
Samoa Sheet Cake
 
This is one cake you will want to make over and over again! It is amazing!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 Tablespoons cocoa
  • ½ cup shortening
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
FROSTING
  • ½ cup butter
  • 6 Tablespoons milk
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ⅛ cup caramel sauce, I used caramel ice cream topping in the jar
Additional Toppings
  • 2½ cups toasted coconut, See instructions below for how to make it
  • 7 to 8 ounces caramel, either Kraft Caramel Cubes or from a block of Caramel. I used a block of Peter's Caramel.
  • ⅛ cup evaporated milk
  • ¾ cup milk chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon shortening or oil
Instructions
  1. Before making the cake, line an 18x13x1 inch cookie sheet with foil and spread shredded sweetened coconut evenly over cookie sheet.
  2. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes, checking and tossing coconut regularly, every 2-5 minutes, to make sure all the coconut gets toasted evenly and does not burn. Coconut is done when it is golden brown.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, measure flour and sugar. Set aside.
  4. In a medium sauce pan, combine butter, water, cocoa and shortening. Bring to a boil. After mixture reaches a boil, add it to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
  5. Add buttermilk, then baking soda, then eggs, then vanilla in that order, mixing in-between each addition.
  6. Pour into a greased 18x13x1 inch cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.
Frosting
  1. In a medium microwave safe bowl, combine butter and milk and bring to a boil. Stir caramel sauce and then add powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth.
  2. After cake has cooked, remove from oven and poke holes in hot cake with a fork. Pour frosting evenly over top. Immediately sprinkle with top of warm frosting with toasted coconut.
  3. In microwavable bowl, add caramel and evaporated milk and cook on high in 30 second increments, string in between each increment. Continue to cook and stir until caramel is smooth. Drizzle over coconut.
  4. In another microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips and shortening (or oil). Microwave on high in 30 second increments, stirring in between each increment until the chocolate in melted. Drizzle over caramel.
  5. Let Caramel and Chocolate drizzle set before cutting into it.

Enjoy!

If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #chefintraining and/or #chefintrainingblog. I would love to see how these recipes take shape in your kitchens.

Filed under: cake, dessert, frosting

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Comments

  1. Jess Knight

    YumMmMm! Absolutely love this idea, so much to go around! Pinned this recipe!

  2. marthe

    I'm so not making this recipe.. I would eat it all. What a pity. Would love to try a piece

  3. Averie @ Averie Cooks

    If it's in your top 5 of almost 1000 recipes, it's amazing. I know you love Samaos and I just made a Samoas-ish recipe for a future post and thought of you the whole time I was making it and eating it :) This is incredible looking and I would love a huge piece! Pinned of course!

  4. Tawnni Forbush

    I'm so excited! I have everything in my pantry to make this right now! It's definitely getting baked today. Thanks for the recipe Nikki! :) it looks delicious.

  5. Beth Rhoades

    I want to make this, wonder how it would be using cake flour.

  6. Michelle--Grocery Gypsy

    5

    Wow, this looks great! Thanks for this! I will save this for a special occasion where other people will be there to eat some and/or pry it out of my hands before I eat the entire pan.

  7. Anna

    I canNOT wait to make this!! Question for you - what type of shortening do you use? I never know what to go with (crisco, marg, coconut oil, butter), and usually opt for butter, because YUM, but you've already got butter in the recipe, so I'm thinking it has to be one of the others?

  8. chris

    What is shortening?

    1. M Spindler

      It's fat in a can....lard.

    2. Juliana T

      Lard is NOT shortening. Lard is animal fat. Shortening is made from vegetable oils.

  9. Della

    What kind of flour did you use Plain or Self-Rising?

  10. Gaye

    My oven is not big enough for a 18x13 pan can this be made in a small pan like 9x13 and how much long would you bake? Thanks

    1. Marilyn Abeln

      She didn't a microwave.

  11. Diana

    How did you come up with the name *Samoa" sheet cake?

    1. Chef in Training

      it resembles the Samoa Girl Scout Cookies :)

  12. Pam

    Sorry folks! I made the recipe exactly as it said and it came out a big over syrupy over sugar mess. Tastes nothing like the cookie. It was layer upon layer of a sticky over sugar taste. I think adding all the sugar on the cake plus then adding more chocolate and Carmel over it was overkill to a soft chocolate cake. I think the recipe needs a more cookie based crust and a whole lot less sugar paste!

    1. Ameli

      1

      I totally agree. I was really disappointed with the results!

  13. Stephanie Bauer

    Any tips for the chocolate drizzle? I just made it and it wouldn't pour nicely like the caramel, instead I had to "plop" it all over. Not as pretty as yours!

  14. Lisa

    This IS wonderful. It's sitting on my counter ready to be devoured! I salivated over it so long waiting for company that I just had to cut a piece before they got here... Is that rude? Oh well, it was worth it! Looks like a lot of work, but was simple and pretty quick to make.

  15. zahra

    This recipe looks amazing. I have just one question what can I use instead of shortening.

  16. marcella

    inthe samoa sheet cake recipe when you say shorening what do you mean

  17. Bonnie O'Hara

    This sounds soooo Good. I Can't wait to try it. I won't even wait for a Special Occasion. The Time Is Now. Sounds Too Good To Wait.

  18. Vicki

    i do have the same question as others. What do you mean by shortening? Crisco? (Which is lard?). Or butter? Or can you use oil?

    What would happen if the sugar was reduced to 1 cup?

    1. Susan

      Shortening is a fat that is solid at room temperature and has come almost exclusively to mean hydrogenated vegetable oil. Crisco is made of a blend of partially and fully hydrogenated soybean and palm oils. Lard is rendered pig fat.

  19. Jessica

    3

    Is there a substitution for shortening? I really don't like the idea of vegetable oil in my cookies.. maybe coconut oil instead?
    Is there an organic version for this?

  20. Sarah

    5

    This is an excellent cake. I made this for the first time last week and already have been asked to make it again twice since then! Huge hit at a Mardi Gras Supper last night! What's really nice about it is it serves a lot, so it's great for crowds. Thank you, Chef In Training, for sharing this deliciousness! I look forward to trying more of your recipes!

    1. Cheryl

      I would have posted an answer sooner if I'd seen your question. But the answer is, yes. It's called Spectrum. It's organic, vegan, non gmo, kosher, non hydrogenated and so on.

  21. Debbie

    So, do you let the cake "cool" after you poke the holes in it before you frost it???

    1. Chef in Training

      nope, pour the frosting on warm :)

  22. Jacque

    What happens if you don't have a microwave? :-(

  23. RJ

    Looks decadent and awesome (they go hand in hand with food).

    Anyone made this with cocunut flour and coconut oil instead of shortening/butter?

  24. Katie

    Unfortunately, I agree with the other reviewers- the cake was flavorless, frosting just tasted like powdered sugar, and the combination was overall pretty blah. It looks pretty, but wasn't anywhere close to a Samoa. Maybe you can refine the recipe and it will be better.

  25. hksedwick

    4

    I made this cake last night and served it today. I had people hoping for leftovers and there weren't any (luckily I got my piece before then...whew!) I loved the gooey cake and will make it with a little extra caramel next time because I Love caramel so much!! My husband just said next time he wants to crush some pretzel pieces over the top for a salty crunchy texture (not a bad idea). I did reply to somebody else's question on the chocolate chips I had to use vegetable oil (and a touch more than the recipe called for) and not shortening to get them to melt to the drizzle stage.

  26. Ashley

    How much batter does this make? I would like to do it in a round pan instead, but will I need to double the recipe?

  27. Linda

    5

    Made the Samoa Sheet Cake this afternoon with slight changes. I subbed out 1/2 c. flour and replaced it with coconut flour. Next I used 1 &1/2 c. sugar instead of 2 c. For the shortening, coconut oil was used. These are the changes to the cake batter. In the frosting I had some coconut milk already opened so 3 T were used with 3 T milk for the frosting. Alas to melt the caramels I had no evaporated milk so once again I gave the coconut milk a whirl and it worked nicely. The cake tasted great! I did end up using less caramel and chocolate for drizzling and all was still very yummy without being overly sweet. You might think that with the coconut products I used the cake might be too coconut but it was fine. I would definitely make this again. I've been waiting to make this for a while as it feeds a crowd. Tomorrow cake will go to an event so we will see what the public thinks! Great job Nikki!

    1. Linda

      5

      This cake went over extremely well, making it again for another event. Works good with the less sugar and coconut flour and oil as I had posted above. Using same subs looking forward to eating it again!

  28. Melissa

    5

    I've made a variation of this a couple times, with a few shortcuts: for the additional toppings, I substitute chocolate syrup and the caramel ice cream topping with toasted coconut. This cake gets requested often for work, I work overnights, so its a great pick us up when we have busy weeks.

  29. Beth G

    Made this tonight for dinner with friends - WOW! So good! I made only a half recipe (because there were only 4 of us) in a 9x13 pan, and we ate over half of it! I used all butter (no shortening) and took a shortcut by using premade chocolate and caramel toppings; because those are so sweet, I decreased the sugar in the cake to counteract it. It was the PERFECT sweetness, and the toasted coconut was the perfect crispy texture contrast to the fluffy cake. Best of all, I already had everything I needed on hand! This will definitely be a new go-to when I need a guaranteed crowd pleaser (especially at the end of the month when the budget is tight)!

  30. Hazel Byington

    What do you think about using toasted pecans instead of coconut?

  31. Sheryl Chiaramonte

    5

    You are KILLING me. This looks amazing. Going to make it and like you, take a piece and send the rest to my husbands office. Thanks for making a printable version!

  32. Ann

    5

    Great recipes. I love girl scout Samoa cookies.

  33. Terri la Chance

    You lost me at shortening.

  34. Carol Swaim

    Am going to try this tomorrow.

  35. Fun size wife

    5

    Nikki, I just want to put my face in this! I love sheet cakes and this is definitely a keeper!

  36. Linda

    5

    My son made this and OMG. It is so good, told him the next time he made it, to hide it.

  37. Lynne

    Anyone tried cutting g down the sugar and powdered sugar? That sounds like a lot for the amount of other ingredients. Also, I am think of using almond milk.

  38. Kate

    Can I make this in a 9 x 13 pan?

  39. Renee

    Hello! I just made this cake and it looks great. Should I refrigerate it if I'm not serving until tomorrow or leave at room temp?

  40. Kate

    Can I make this in a 9 x 13 pan? Thanks.

  41. Marie Ekren

    Question can you substitute butter for the shortening will will greatly it alter the final cake product? Thank you!

  42. Jane

    4

    Recipe turned out great. Except for 1 thing.... Melting the milk chocolate chips. Your recipe says to melt on high in microwave with the shortening. Did this twice and both times the result was a dry mass of inedible chocolate. Did a little research. Nestle's website says to melt at 50% power. Third time I melted the chocolate I did according to Nestle's directions and the chocolate melted like it should.