The Pioneer Woman's Skillet Chocolate Cakes Are Pure Holiday Decadence

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission.

The weather outside may be frightful, but the fire inside — and the sweet treats cooking in the kitchen — are oh so delightful. If there’s one thing that Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks—A Year of Holidays (available at Amazon and Target) gets, it’s that this is the time of year to swap cast iron skillet steaks for cast iron skillet cakes, and her rich, fudgy chocolate cakes recipe is one we’ve been dreaming about making all year long.

Drummond’s skillet chocolate cakes recipe is actually based on an old family recipe. She used to make a chocolate sheet cake recipe given to her by her mother-in-law Nan Drummond ever year, which she received after she and husband Ladd were engaged. But true to her love of cast iron, Drummond put a Pioneer Woman spin on the recipe, baking up four rich chocolate cakes each in a 6-inch cast iron skillet pan. It makes serving them super cute, too.

The cakes are topped with a chocolate icing that gets made ahead of time, so it has time to cool down before the cakes are out of the oven. It’s made with butter, cocoa powder, and milk, which are simmered together in a saucepan (like this pretty Pioneer Woman saucepan) before getting mixed to powdered sugar and being set aside to cool.

The cake itself is tender and moist, filled with cocoa powder, butter, vanilla, and buttermilk. Once the batter is mixed up and portioned out into the cast iron skillets, the cakes get baked for just 10-12 minutes.

Once the cakes are out of the oven, they get topped with the chocolate icing, with an optional garnish of toasted pecans. It’s the type of cake that taste nostalgic and cozy, especially when eaten right out of the skillet, and we love serving this type of chocolate dessert with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to help balance out the rich cocoa flavor.

Whether you’re just looking for a tasty new dessert idea or something to serve at a holiday party, the Pioneer Woman’s skillet chocolate cakes could be the recipe you’ve been waiting for.

Before you go, check out the gallery below:

Watch: How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet