Lemon Sheet Cake

Lemon Sheet Cake - made December 6, 2015 from Back for Seconds

I’m blogging out of order because I had made this earlier but didn’t want to put it up ahead of the other recipes since this one didn’t turn out as well as it should have. That was entirely my fault. I didn’t bake it long enough because the toothpick came out clean when I poked it in the center of the cake yet I knew it wasn’t done. The cake looked too heavy and didn’t have a spring to it when I touched it lightly on top. But I have such a habit of relying on the toothpick test because I didn’t time it when I put it in the oven so I didn’t know how long it had been baking for and I have an abhorrence of dry, overbaked cakes that I decided to err on the side of caution and pulled it out.

Since the recipe calls for glazing the cake while it’s still warm, I couldn’t even rectify my mistake once I’d discovered it with the taste test. Because you can’t re-bake a frosted cake. In my defense, those first few bites were amazing. I shared forkfuls with my nieces after the warm cake had been newly frosted and we all had big eyes and our forks ready for the next bite. We started at the corner and edges which were the most baked so my underbaking failure wasn’t immediately apparent.

But once the cake had cooled, it was apparent I should’ve left this in the oven awhile longer. The texture once you go towards the middle of the cake becomes more dense. It wasn’t raw but it didn’t have a cakey texture either, more like a fudge texture. Which would’ve been okay if I had been baking fudge brownies but not so good with a cake.

Which is a shame because flavor-wise, this was a very good cake. Very good. So good that I need to make it again and bake it properly this time because, seriously, did I mention it was really good?

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Icing
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 ounces softened cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large saucepan, melt butter with water. Turn off heat and whisk in lemon juice, sugar, flour, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder and cornstarch.
3. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean and cake springs back when lightly pressed.
4. While the cake is baking, make icing. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and cream cheese. Remove from heat and whisk in lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Pour over warm cake.