by: Adrianna Adarme
Cook Time
28 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes
Yield
9–12 servings
Total Time
28 minutes
Prep Time
20 minutes
Yield
9–12 servings
summary
This mini lemon-strawberry sheet cake recipe makes a perfectly tart lemon cake topped with a naturally flavored—and colored—strawberry frosting. Serve this for your spring brunch for a burst of seasonal flavor and delight. For an adorable infusion of spring, top the frosted cake with piped buttercream lemons and strawberries.
ingredients
- Lemon Cake
- 1¾ all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1¼ cups white granulated sugar
- Zest from 1 lemon
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil (canola, vegetable and avocado all work well)
- ½ cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- Frosting
- 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
directions
Cake
- Start by preheating your oven to 350ºF. Prepare a 9x9" baking pan by spraying it with non-stick cooking spray and lining it with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar and lemon zest and rub it together with your fingertips. (This helps infuse the sugar with the lemon oil, which will result in a brighter lemon flavor.) Add the softened butter and oil; using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed for about one minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again for an additional three minutes, until the mixture is light in color and creamy in texture.
- In a large liquid measuring cup, beat together the milk, eggs and lemon juice. With the mixer on low, alternate between adding the wet and dry ingredients to the mixer bowl, about a third of each at a time, until everything has been added. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once more, then turn the speed to medium-high and beat the batter for about 30 seconds, until the batter is fully mixed and is lighter in texture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top to make sure it’s even. Bake for 28–30 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Place the pan on a cooling rack and let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- Place the freeze-dried berries in a small zip-top bag and use a rolling pin (or something similar) to crush the berries into a mostly fine powder. Some little bits of berry are fine and will add to the frosting. You should be left with about ⅓–½ cup of crushed strawberry powder. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds to make sure it's free of any lumps. Next, add the butter, salt and vanilla and mix to combine. Add the powdered sugar with the mixer running on low speed, ½ cup at a time so you don't make a mess. Once all the powdered sugar has been added, scrape down the sides, pour in the heavy cream and beat on high speed for 30 seconds, until fluffy.
Assemble
- If you’d like to decorate the sheet cake with buttercream lemons and strawberries, scoop out about ½ cup of the buttercream and set aside; see Note for decorating instructions. (If you'd rather not decorate the cake, skip this step and just add the strawberry powder to the full batch of buttercream.)
- Add the crushed strawberry powder to the mixer bowl with the remaining frosting and beat on high speed until combined. Scoop the frosting onto the top of the cooled cake and smoothe it around in one even layer. Decorate if you desire, and serve.
notes
To decorate the cake with small buttercream lemons and strawberries, add a few tablespoons of frosting into each of 3 small bowls. Add green food gel paste to the first bowl, red food gel paste to the second and yellow food gel paste to the last bowl. Mix them each up and transfer to piping bags that are fitted with small round tips. Decorate your mini lemon-strawberry sheet cake with yellow frosting lemons and red frosting strawberries adorned with green frosting leaves.
The strawberry flavor does increase in the buttercream as it sits, so I recommend wrapping the cake pan with plastic wrap and storing the frosted cake in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before serving.
