I’ve had sheet caking on the brain ever since Tina Fey inspired the devil’s food sheet cake a couple of months ago. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore making layer cakes, but sheet cakes are just so innocuous. A slice of layer cake for snacking? No way! A harmless little square of amazing sheet cake? Don’t mind if I do.
This recipe has ALL OF THE GOOD THINGS. Super tender and moist pumpkin spice cake, fluffy brown butter frosting that brings to mind the term “foodgasm”, and a drizzle of vanilla bean caramel sauce because when has that ever made anything worse? Believe me, if you stop right there with those three things you will still have a phenomenal cake. However, I decided to take it one step further by adding hazelnut crunch.
This stuff may seem unnecessarily involved but here’s the thing – it’s insanely delicious and it stores beautifully. Make a batch (you’ll have way more than you need) and sprinkle it on ice cream, add it into layer cakes, pour directly into your mouth – whatever floats your boat. I think it adds a really nice textural contrast and a nice warm nutty note to the overall flavor.
Whichever way you decide, with or without the crunch, you’ll love this cake. This would also adapt beautifully into cupcakes. The cake recipe should yield about two dozen cupcakes. I would at probably up the frosting by 50% to make sure there is plenty for a nice dome on top, and garnish as desired with caramel sauce and/or hazelnut crunch.