The Homesick Texan's Strawberry Sheetcake & The Eggland's Best Giveaway Winner!!

This Strawberry Sheetcake is so rich, thick, dense, and satisfying that one little piece is all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.  The strawberry flavor is perfectly balanced.  It's neither too sweet or too subtle, but just right.  The cake itself has a wonderful thick texture with a lot of body to it.  And, let's not forget the frosting on the cake....a creamy pink strawberry cream cheese frosting.  As far as I'm concerned it really doesn't get any better than cream cheese frosting, especially if that cream cream frosting is pink with little chunks of strawberries running through it and just a hint of lime to wake things up a bit.

I made this cake for my Eggland's Best Pink Party in honor of Susan G. Komen for the cure.  While this cake would be great for any pink party, it would also be great for a little girl's party, or any other party where you need to serve a large number of guests.   I imagine it would be even better at the height of strawberry season.

 

Strawberry Sheetcake

Borrowed from Lisa Fain/Homesick Texan

Serves 16 (at least)

12 oz fresh strawberries, stems removed and chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cups of sugar plus 2 teaspoons
2 cups of flour
2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Method:
Over the chopped strawberries, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water. Let them sit for an hour at room temperature so they can release some of their juices. The berries should reduce to about 1 1/2 cups. In a blender of food processor, crush the berries on a low speed for a few seconds—you want them juicy but still with some texture. Take 1/2 cup of the strawberry mixture for the frosting and leave the remaining crushed strawberries for the cake.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift the sugar and flour together in a bowl.

Melt the butter on low in a saucepan and then whisk it with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and baking soda. Add the liquid to the flour and then stir in one cup of the crushed strawberries.

Pour batter into greased 9x13 inch pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cake is done when a knife comes out clean from the center. Let it cool and then frost with the strawberry cream cheese frosting (recipe below).

Note: The cake will be a little brown. This, I hear, is because of the alkaline reaction of the ingredients. Do not be alarmed!

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 pound of butter (1 stick) at room temperature
8 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
3 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup crushed strawberries
2 teaspoons of lime juice (about half a lime)
1/4 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:
Whip together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar until blended. Add the strawberries, lime juice, lime zest and vanilla. Spread over cooled cake.

Note: Depending on how juicy your berries are, your icing may be runnier than usual. If this is the case, I'd add more cream cheese to thicken it up.

Note: The strawberry cream cheese frosting makes quite a bit and could easily be cut in half depending on how thick you like your frosting.  While I did love the frosting I found that I only needed to use about half  to frost the cake. 
 

The winner of the Eggland's Best Giveaway is Mimi of Mimi's Kitchen!  Congratulations Mimi!
I will contact Eggland's Best and have them send out your prize package.