Recipe Corner: Strawberry sheet cake

There is something about foul days in spring that make me long for a nice warm meal of chicken and biscuits, and it just so happens that I know Saveur has such a recipe and that I can access it online. Woot! When I went to their site to look it up, I found another recipe online that intrigued me - strawberry sheet cake. Hmmm...weird, right? So I had to make it. And good thing, too, because this recipe is awesome. It's got strawberries and is cake and there is a strawberry cream cheese frosting. Yummy!

Ingredients:

Cake

12 oz fresh strawberries, stems removed and chopped

2 cups sugar, plus two teaspoons

2 cups flour

2 sticks butter

2 eggs lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter at room temperature

8 oz cream cheese at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup crushed strawberries (reserved from above)

2 teaspoons lime juice

1/4 lime zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Cake

Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar and 1/4 cup of water over chopped strawberries and let sit at room temperature for an hour. Blend in food processor at low speed for a few seconds. Take 1/2 cup of strawberry mixture for the frosting and use the remaining crushed strawberries for the cake.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease 9"x13" pan.

Sift the flour and sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter on low and then whisk it with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and baking soda. Add to the flour mixture and then stir in cup of crushed strawberries. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cake is done when knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let it cool and top with strawberry cream cheese frosting.

Note: The cake will be dark.

Frosting:

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