High Altitude Strawberry Sheet Cake
An easy, moist, fluffy, made-from-scratch strawberry sheet cake made with fresh strawberries, frosted with strawberry cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Strawberry Reduction
- 6 oz fresh or frozen strawberries
Cake
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp lemon juice
- ¼ cup strawberry reduction, completely cooled
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white only (save the extra yolk for another use)
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (do not substitute with melted butter)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 small drop pink or red gel food coloring, optional
- 1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
Buttercream
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 oz full fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 tbsp strawberry reduction, completely cooled
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- sprinkles
Instructions
Strawberry Reduction
- Wash and hull the strawberries, then use a small food processor to puree the strawberries.
- Scrape the pureed strawberries into a small saucepan. Over medium low heat, simmer the strawberries, stirring frequently to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pan, until reduced to between 1/3 - 1/2 cup. This may take up to 20-30 minutes.
- Once reduced, transfer the strawberry reduction to a container, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until needed. You can make the reduction up to 2 days in advance. You'll be using the strawberry reduction in both the cake and the buttercream.
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick baking spray, if you'll be serving the cake from the pan. If you'll be removing the cake from the pan to frost it on a plate, then line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, whisk together the milk, lemon juice, 1/4 cup strawberry reduction, egg, egg white, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until well combined. Whisk in the food coloring, if using.I added 1 small drop super red gel food coloring; without the food coloring, the cakes will be a paler pinkish tan color.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, then whisk until everything is evenly distributed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and whisk briefly, just until combined.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then bang the pan on the counter a few times to pop any large air bubbles.
- Bake the cake until the top springs back when gently touched, or a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean, about 28 minutes.
- Set the pan on a cooling rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and cream cheese for 1 minute until smooth. Add the strawberry reduction, powdered sugar and vanilla.
- Increase speed to medium (#6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer) and beat for several minutes, until smooth and creamy.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Scatter the sprinkles over the frosting.Instead of sprinkles, you can also dollop any remaining strawberry reduction (or strawberry jam) on top of the frosting and swirl it around for a pretty finish.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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