- Butter and flour for the pan
- 3 cups sifted Swans Down® Cake Flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup milk (whole or low fat)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- Frosting and toppings, as desired
Swans Down sheet cake is the simplest kind of cake to make at home from scratch. You can opt to keep this cake in the pan for serving, making it easy to transport to parties or potlucks, and use any spatula to serve the flat slices. Choose your frosting and go!
Ingredients
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F, then grease a 9×13-inch rectangular baking pan with butter and lightly dust with flour.(For a larger, flatter sheet cake, use a 13×18-inch baker’s half-sheet pan, and expect a faster baking time.)
- Add the already sifted flour, the baking powder and the salt into the sifter and sift the mixture into a bowl; set aside.
- Place the butter in a bowl (or stand mixer if you have one) and mix until creamy. Gradually add sugar, mixing until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted flour mixture alternately with milk and extracts, blending after each addition until smooth. (Do not overbeat!)
- Spread batter evenly in pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until tester inserted into cake comes out clean. (If using the larger 13×18-inch sheet pan, baking time will be faster; begin to check for doneness starting at 18 minutes.) Remove from oven and cool; after 10 minutes you can remove cake from pan, if desired.
- Frost and decorate however you want, with homemade frosting, flavored whipped cream, sprinkles and candy.
- Kitchen Tips:
- To make it chocolate: Add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder to dry ingredients.
- To make it strawberry: Add a box of strawberry Jell-O® to dry ingredients + 1 cup mashed strawberries to eggs.
You May Also Like
Can your cake recipes be made with oil replacing the butter? If it’s good, what is the ratio please? Thank you.
Hello Kevin,
In general, I would not suggest this swap since it can change the texture, character, and flavor of the finished cake. Most of Swans Down’s recipes (like the classic 1-2-3-4 cake) rely on creaming butter with sugar to trap air and give the cake its light, tender crumb. That’s a big part of what makes cake flour recipes work so well. Oil can’t be creamed the same way, so swapping it in will typically give you a denser, moister, more pound cake like texture with less rise, rather than the light, fluffy crumb the recipe was designed for. It won’t ruin the cake, but it will noticeably change the result. That being said, it can be done.
The general baking-industry rule of thumb is to use about 3/4 the amount of oil as the butter called for, since butter contains some water and milk solids that oil doesn’t. So for 1 cup of butter, use about 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons) of a neutral oil like vegetable or canola. A compromise is only swapping a portion of the butter for oil.
Another suggestion would be to use shortening which can be swapped out with a 1:1 ratio. You would want to add a little extra milk when using shortening because it is just fat and doesn’t contain milk solids. I would suggest adding 2 tablespoons of milk for every cup of shortening to make up for it. Shortening can be lovely in a cake leading to a very light, tender, fine crumb which can be even more delicate than the butter version. What you’ll lose is flavor. Butter brings richness and that characteristic buttery taste that shortening cannot provide. Again I think a good compromise is to use some shortening and some butter.
One of my favorite cakes that uses only shortening is the Vintage White Cake.
https://swansdown.com/recipes/vintage-white-cake/
“Also known as the “Front of the Box Cake” (because it’s so popular we featured it on the front of the Swans Down Cake Flour box), our Vintage White Cake is a tradition for any celebration – light, snow white and fluffy with an ultra-fine crumb.”
Not creaming long enough will make it dense also!
Followed recipe. Cake came out so dense, not soft or fluffy. Is there a recipe for a softer cake?
Hi Maria,
There can be several reasons why a cake will be dense. The primary reason is over mixing. If the batter is overmixed it will work the gluten in the flour for too long resulting in a dense cake. The other thing could be that the leavening has expired. Be sure to check the date on your baking soda and baking powder.
Most of our layer or sheet cake recipes are “soft and fluffy” so if you wanted to try a different cake you could try the 1-2-3-4 Cake (Back of the box recipe) or the Celebration Cake. Be careful not to overmix the batter and check the expiration dates on your leaveners.
I hope this solves your problems. Good luck and keep us posted.
Happy Baking!
Why can’t you share the recipe for any of these recipes? I click on the picture and the title and all I get is just a little info about each one. Disappointing. I want the recipe.
Hi Lindsay, When you click the PRINT button that is located on the right hand side under the photo you get a pop-up window. In the window you should have a Save as PDF option in the dropdown under Destination. This is where you can see your printer model listed. Hope this is helpful. Happy baking!
Right before we got married, my hisband’s granny told me she was going to teach me how to bake his favorite cake. She pulled me into her kitchen and whispered “they all think it’s a big secret.” Then she pulle out her Swans box and we made the 1-2-3-4
Cake! We had a good laugh. It’s my favorite memory of her.
Awww, we love hearing these sweet memories of passing down family secrets! Thanks for sharing. 1-2-3-4 Cake is without a doubt a Swans Down favorite. Happy baking!
Baanana Cake?????????????????? For crying out loud its no that rare but Swansdown.com comes up with nothing for me My wife and I are both sick thought it would be appetizing to smell the cake baking I know how to make the creme cheese frosting Been over a 1/2 hour frustrating search guess I will have to pull oust my Grandma’s Fannie farmer I know its in that book but am using YOUR flour and thought you would have it.
Hi Johnny, We’re sorry to hear that you are frustrated with the recipes selection that are available on SwansDown.com. We do have a delicious Banana Cake recipe. Have you tried it? Happy baking!
Only use Swans Down to bake my cakes .love it.
Can’t wait to start baking!!!
Nothing like the wonderful aroma of fresh baked goodies to kick off the holiday baking season! The Swans Down Sheet Cake is an offspring of our Famous 1 2 3 4 Cake. It’s an all time favorite. Happy Baking!