Birthday sprinkle sheet cake
A soft vanilla cake baked in one pan, with sprinkles in the batter and fluffy buttercream on top, the kind that turns a Tuesday into a party.
- 130 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 15
- About $0.71 a serving
- 470 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. Whatever’s left keeps for tomorrow.
Ingredients
For 15 servings.
- 2 sticks butter, softened, for the frosting
- 1¼ cups milk, divided
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup sprinkles, divided
- 3 cups powdered sugar
From your pantry
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ tsp salt, plus a pinch for the frosting
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract, divided
Each serving has about 470 calories, 4 g protein, 66 g carbs and 22 g fat, and costs about $0.71 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No milk? Half-and-half works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Set the butter out on the counter to for the frosting, and the oven to 350°F.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
a 9 by 13 inch pan and with , leaving the paper hanging over the long sides.
Grease. Greasing means rubbing a thin layer of butter or oil over the inside of a pan so food doesn’t stick. Get into the corners, where batter likes to cling.
How you’ll know: The pan looks evenly shiny all over, with no dry patches and nothing pooling in the bottom.
Line a pan. Lining a pan means covering the bottom, and often the sides, with parchment paper or foil before the food goes in. Leave the paper hanging over two sides, and you can lift bars or brownies out in one piece to cut them neatly.
How you’ll know: The paper lies flat against the bottom, with flaps sticking up on two sides like handles.
Parchment paper. Parchment paper is a nonstick, oven-safe paper for lining pans. Food lifts right off and cleanup is easy, but don’t swap in wax paper or put parchment under the broiler.
How you’ll know: It lies flat in the pan, and the food slides off when you lift it.
the flour, then it with the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and ¾ teaspoon salt in a large bowl.
Spoon and level. Spoon and level is how to measure flour: spoon it lightly into the measuring cup, then sweep the extra off the top with the back of a knife. Scooping straight from the bag packs in too much flour and makes bakes dry and heavy.
How you’ll know: The flour sits flat and even with the rim, and you never pressed it down or tapped the cup.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
In another bowl, 1 cup of the milk with the oil, eggs and 2 teaspoons of the vanilla until smooth.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
Pour the wet mix into the dry and stir shows, then ¼ cup of the sprinkles.
Just combined. Mixing until just combined means stopping the moment the dry flour disappears into the batter. More stirring makes cakes, brownies and muffins tough, so a few small lumps are fine.
How you’ll know: No streaks of dry flour are left, but the batter still looks a little lumpy, and that’s right.
Fold. Folding means mixing gently by scooping from the bottom and turning it over the top, instead of stirring hard. It keeps light mixtures airy and soft things like berries or herbs in one piece.
How you’ll know: You use slow, wide strokes and stop as soon as there are no streaks left.
Dolly’s tip: Stop once the flour disappears. A few lumps bake out, and extra stirring makes the cake tough.Food safety: Don’t eat raw dough or batter, not even a lick of the spoon. Raw flour can carry E. coli and raw eggs can carry salmonella until they’re cooked. The one exception is dough with no eggs, made with flour heated to 165°F.
Spread the batter in the pan and bake 28 to 32 minutes, until at the edges and a in the middle comes out clean.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Toothpick test. The toothpick test tells you whether a cake or brownie is baked through: poke a toothpick into the middle and pull it out. Wet batter on it means it needs more time.
How you’ll know: For cakes it comes out clean or with a crumb or two; for fudgy brownies, a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. A thin knife works too.
Timer: 28 min
Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Cool the cake completely , about 1 hour, before you frost it.
Cool on a rack. Cooling on a rack means setting a hot pan or fresh cookies on a wire grid, so air moves underneath and the bottom doesn’t steam and turn soggy. No rack? The cool grates of your stovetop work the same way.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan feels barely warm when you touch it, and bars cut cleanly instead of crumbling.
Timer: 60 min
Dolly’s tip: Frosting on a warm cake melts and slides off. Fully cool is worth the wait.Beat the soft butter in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until creamy, then stir in the powdered sugar a cup at a time.
Dolly’s tip: Lay a towel over the bowl for the first few stirs, or the sugar puffs up in a cloud.Beat in the last ¼ cup of milk, the last teaspoon of vanilla and of salt until the frosting is fluffy and spreadable.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Lift the cake out by the paper, spread on the frosting, shower it with the rest of the sprinkles, and cut into 15 squares.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop picks a dessert for treat night, puts what you need on the week’s grocery list, and walks you through each step.
