I love a sheet cake. You can feed a crowd, it’s easy to make, leaves a lot of room for creative decorating and is adaptable to so many flavors. And it’s not fiddly like a layered and frosted cake, which I have never been good at creating. I make sweet potato version for Thanksgiving, egg nog for Christmas, and a spice cake for anytime. And here is my summer version, redolent with fresh peak season peaches and nutty, rich brown butter. It’s perfect for summer entertaining. This recipe started with an idea from an old community cookbook and is inspired by my peach brown butter cake (you know how I am about that brown butter).
Yes, you put all of half of a lemon in the blender (except the seeds). The acid keeps the peaches from browning and the rind adds an extra boost of flavor. I generally peel the peaches, but it is just fine if you choose not to. The buttermilk is important to the structure of the cake so don’t skip it – you can use the rest to make biscuits!
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Ingredients
- For the Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 ripe peaches
½ a regular lemon
2 -3 Tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
- For the Icing
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
5 Tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons peach puree
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions
- For the Cake
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of an 18 by 13 by 1-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper then spray the paper and the sides with cooking spray.
- Cut the butter into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan (light colored or stainless is best so you can see the butter as it browns). Heat over medium high heat, watching constantly, until the butter is melted. It will start to spit and hiss, then you will see brown speckles appear. Swirl the butter around to distribute the browned bits, and as soon as the butter has an even brown color and a nice nutty smell, pour it into the bowl of a stand mixer and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Wash and dry the pan.
- Cut the peaches from the pit (peeling it up to you) and drop in a blender. Cut the lemon half into chunks, remove the seeds and add to the blender (peel and all). Puree until smooth. Measure 2 Tablespoons of puree and set aside, then pour a little under 1 ½ cups into a 2 cup measuring jug. Add enough buttermilk to make 1 ½ cups. You need to have some buttermilk for structure and tenderness, so do no use all puree if your peaches make that more.
- Add the puree buttermilk mixture to the mixer bowl and beat on medium to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth and thoroughly combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the sugar and beat on medium high until smooth, combined and a little creamy. Add the 1 cup of the flour, the baking soda and salt and beat on low to combine, scraping down the bowl then add the remaining flour and beat to combine. Scrape down the bowl, then turn the mixer to high for five seconds. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out into an even layer. An offset spatula is the best too for this. Spread from the center to the edges to create an even cake. Bake for 15 – 18 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Wash and dry the mixer bowl.
- For the Icing
- When the cake comes out of the oven, start the icing. Brown the butter as before, pouring into the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the remaining 2 Tablespoons of peach puree, the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Beat with the whisk attachment on medium to combine, then, at low speed, beat in the confectioners’ sugar, scraping down the bowl as needed. . When it is incorporated, raise the speed to medium high and beat until smooth and incorporated. Spread the icing over the warm cake, spreading it out evenly with the offset spatula. Work quickly, spreading from the center out to completely cover the surface of the cake. Leave to cool completely.
- The cake can be made a day ahead. To store, I invert another jelly roll pan and place it carefully over the top, but you can also loosely cover with foil.
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