- 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
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.
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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.
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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!