Old-Fashioned Vanilla Sheet Cake

This cake is an old-fashioned cake, just like grandma used to make. It’s moist and sweet with a buttery icing that makes it irresistible. I love how simple it is to make with just a few quality ingredients and no special kitchen gadgets. Tray bake recipes are perfect for summer! Add a few blueberries and strawberries for a beautiful flag cake!

HOW I MADE IT
With a hand-held electric beater or whisk, cream together a stick of soft butter with a cup of granulated sugar. Add vanilla extract and two large eggs. Beat until creamy, about two minutes.

Alternate mixing the sifted flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. So add a third of the flour and when the flour is just incorporated, add half the buttermilk. Repeat step alternating between flour and buttermilk and mixing just to combined. If using a standalone mixer like I did, scrape the sides of the bowl down after incorporating each ingredient.

Pour and spread evenly into a prepared 9X13 baking tray and bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes, depending on your oven. My cake was done at 25 minutes. The cake will be golden, moist and spring back when you touch it, similar to a sponge cake.

MAKING THE ICING
While the cake bakes, start the icing. This icing has clarified butter (ghee). What’s clarified butter? Clarified butter is what remains when the water and milk solids have been removed from whole butter. This step is very important and gives the icing its buttery flavor.

Melt a stick of butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. As the butter melts, lower the heat to low. As the liquid evaporates, you’ll see the milk solids start to form. Stir continuously so the milk solids don’t burn. Turn off the heat and let the solids completely settle to the bottom before transferring to a Pyrex cup or your storage container. Yield 1/2 cup.

In a mixing bowl, combine the clarified butter with buttermilk. You’ll add 4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, but you’re going to add them a cup at a time. Half way, add corn syrup, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. When it’s all combined, beat on high for a minutes to ensure it is well blended and fluffy. The icing will be done before the cake comes out of the oven.

I love to pour the icing right over the warm cake and smoothing it over the cake and to the edges. The warm cake soaks up the icing making this sheet pan cake a melt-in-your-mouth delicious cake! Since I was making a flag cake for our 4th of July celebration, I only poured a third of the icing over the warm cake. I grabbed a handful of blueberries and strawberries to make the flag design and piped the remaining icing with a star tip. Note: I didn’t take any pictures because I had too much going on and a low battery, so I set the phone to charge.

Get the kids involved and have them decorate the cake – have the strawberries already hulled and cut for smaller children. What a festive cake to celebrate our country! Happy birthday America!