Welcome to the Free Recipe of the Month!
Each month I feature a free recipe for visitors and regular subscribers. Once the month has passed, the recipe is retired into the BB Recipe Archives. So bake while the oven's hot! These recipes are only here and free for four short weeks!
Strawberry Sundae Sheet Cake
I don’t know why I didn’t create this before -it’s so easy and rife with summery flavor of freshly cooked strawberries which get smeared into a cream cheese icing. It does take just like a strawberry sundae! A beautiful sheet cake.
Cake
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
Strawberry Sundae Frosting
2 cups sliced strawberries
¼ cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
4 ounces cream cheese
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
For the cake, generously spray a 9 by 13 inch rectangular pan with non-stick cooking spray. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the rectangular pan on it.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
For the cake, in a large mixer bowl or food processor, cream the butter and sugar until well-blended. Blend in the eggs and vanilla. In another briefly blend the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Fold, while drizzling in the buttermilk, the dry ingredients into the butter-egg mixture to make a smooth batter, scraping down sides and well of bowl or food processor to ensure the batter is evenly blended. Spoon into the prepared pan and baking 50-55 minutes until cake springs back when gentle touched. Cool very well (or after an hour, refrigerate in pan).
For the Strawberry Sundae Frosting, first make the strawberry preserves. Combing the berries and sugar in a medium pan and over medium heat, cook until berries dissolve and mixture reduces to about ¾ cup – it should be thick and darker in colour. Cool in fridge an hour or two. For the frosting, blend butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, salt and extracts in a food processor until fluffy as for a frosting. To frost cake, gently fold dollops of the strawberry mixture into the frosting and frost the cake with it – it will produce a marbleized effect.
Chill 30 minutes.
Serves 12-16
