I wish I had more time to bake. I love to read cookbooks and watch baking shows, but I don’t have a lot of time to hang out in the kitchen and experiment with recipes. Maybe at some point, because I do love cake. I’m always looking for ways to make a quick cake that will be moist and delicious, and not at all fussy. Based on that, Sheet Cake is for me.

Abigail Johnson Dodge is someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. She has spent decades baking and cooking, developing skills and creating recipes. She understands that sometimes bakers need something easy for a weeknight dessert or a bake sale you didn’t find out about until the last minute. So she shows us how to use a half-sheet pan to bake cakes that can be served in the pan, cut and stacked into a layer cake, or rolled with a delicious filling or two.

Dodge starts by getting us prepped with the right equipment and ingredients, teaching us how to prep the pans, how to measure ingredients, and how to store and cut the cake. And then it’s right in to the Classic Cakes. There’s a Yellow Butter Cake with Vanilla Mascarpone Cream Frosting, Carrot Cake with Orange Buttercream, Double Chocolate Mousse Cake, Peach-Studded Cream Cheese Pound Cake, and a Red Velvet Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting. But each of these recipes also has ideas for different flavor variations. For example, there is a Chocolate Cake with Orange Buttercream, but she offers up ideas to turn it into a Double Stuffed Oreo Cake or a Chocolate Raspberry Cake.

And if those classic cakes seem a little tame, there are also recipes for a Chai Mango Cake, Pumpkin-Ginger Cream Cheese Cake, Spice Cake with Walnut Buttercream, Cinnamon-Bun Swirl Cake, Pretzel-Crusted Caramel-Vanilla Cheesecake, and a Cinnamon-Apple Upside-Downer. And those are just the basic flat sheet cakes.

Moving on to the Stacked Cakes, there are delicacies like a Banana Buttermilk Cake, Black Forest Olive Oil Cake, Frozen Mexican Brownie Cake with Toasted Marshmallow, Boston Cream Cake, Gingerbread Cake, and Raspberry Shortcake Stacked Cake.

And then it’s on to the Rolled Cakes, like the Butterscotch Pudding Cake, Mocha Cake (which can easily be turned into a Buche de Noel, the chocolate yule log cake traditional for Christmas), Matcha Cake, Maple Walnut Cake, Lemon Cornmeal Cake, or the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.

There is also a chapter of fillings and frostings to bring more flavors to the party. There is a Classic Cream Cheese Frosting and Whipped Chocolate Ganaches, Marshmallow Frosting and Lemon Curd, American Buttercream Frosting and Double Berry Sauce, and a Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze, Caramel Sauce, and a Classic Soak that can be painted onto any of the cakes for some extra moisture and flavor.

Sheet Cake is filled with recipes that are playful and tasty, simple and yet satisfying. Busy bakers can find an easy path to a delicious dessert, and beginning bakers can learn the basics in ways that are fun and inviting. These recipes will give a beginning baker a handful of solid cake recipes to start with and a wealth of mix-and-match ideas to makes these cakes their own.

I love the idea of baking cakes in a sheet pan. It offers a quick solution to get to cake, and shortcuts for building an impressive dessert with ease. I love Sheet Cake, and I can’t wait to find more time to bake some of these cakes, starting with the Crumb Cake that I’m hoping becomes a family favorite.