Chocolate Sheet Cake With Brown Butter Frosting

Come for the chocolate sheet cake recipe—no mixer needed! practically one bowl! big chocolate flavor!—stay for the brown butter frosting. The delicate nutty taste of brown butter shines through this rich buttercream due to dry milk powder, commonly found in the baking aisle of almost every grocery store. Toasted until deeply golden, milk powder becomes a concentrated source of milk solids (the same component responsible for brown butter’s signature taste), making the flavor that much bigger, bolder, and better.

Stirring the cocoa powder with hot water before whipping it into the cake batter does two important things: 1. The heat “blooms” the powder, bringing nuanced flavors to the surface; and 2. It sidesteps the need to sift your cocoa, an extravagantly messy and annoying step. You’re welcome.