Sheet Cake

July 5, 2021
“The goal of these cake recipes is not to create something perfect... what you baked with care will still taste delicious,” writes Dodge (The Everyday Baker), a James Beard–finalist for baking and dessert, in this delightful guide that relies on a single pan to deliver 50 delicious recipes and showcases her talent for tailoring pro advice to the kind of projects even a novice can master. Familiar flavors of chocolate and peanut butter, carrot, butterscotch, gingerbread, red velvet, and classic yellow that are baked and decorated in a single layer are also rolled with fillings and carved into rounds that stack to become layer cakes. Dodge cleverly transforms leftover bits into crumbs for toppings and coatings, and “croutons” for decoration, as with the artfully stacked cubes atop her ginger-apricot angel food cake. To keep the goods moist, she offers the option of soaking syrups—including cream, chocolate, and coffee variations—and sprinkles in “flavor swaps” and fruit curd recipes to mix up creations. Instruction comes by way of Dodge’s fuss-free best practices, such as preferring table salt for its fine grain and measuring consistency and providing foolproof tips for assembling a jelly roll (the “roll” should take place while it’s still hot). This is an all-around treat.