Simple Sourdough Vanilla Sheet Cake

A good sourdough vanilla sheet cake recipe is essential. It's such a versatile recipe that can be used for so many occasions and celebrations. Slicing this cake is an absolute dream!

If you love my sourdough vanilla cupcakes, then you are going to love this sourdough vanilla sheet cake recipe, topped with the most indulgent vanilla cream cheese frosting. A classic yellow cake recipe you're going to want to save and make again and again.

If you're looking for sourdough celebration cakes, you might also like this sourdough chocolate cake or sourdough apple cake.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

So Quick & Easy - with no fancy equipment, you can make this sourdough vanilla cake with a bowl and whisk. No stand mixer or electric beaters necessary. It really is the perfect dessert!

Perfect To Decorate - while you can leave this lovely sourdough vanilla sheet cake plain, it's flat surface makes it so easy to decorate for a special occasion using fruit, sprinkles, frosting or whatever you like! As you'll see in the photos of this cake, it's the perfect sourdough cake to decorate for 4th of July celebrations. But it's also the best birthday cake or even Christmas cake. That's what so awesome about this easy vanilla sheet cake made with sourdough starter.

Use 200g of Sourdough Starter - using a hefty 200g of sourdough discard, this easy sourdough discard recipe is a perfect way to empty your sourdough discard jar if you have lots of extra sourdough discard on hand.

Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard?

You can use either sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard to create this simple vanilla sheet cake recipe.

Given that the recipe uses 200g of starter, using discard is sometimes easier if you always have it on hand in the fridge (just make sure you allow the discard to come to room temperature before you add it to the other ingredients).

Because this is a sweet recipe, I also recommend not using sourdough discard that is too old and sour as it will taint the sweet flavor of this recipe.

You can read more about the differences between sourdough starter and sourdough discard here.

How To Make Sourdough Vanilla Sheet Cake

I've used my classic sourdough vanilla cupcake recipe as the basis for this sourdough vanilla sheet cake recipe. The difference is, I've increased the measurements so that it comfortably fits in a 9" x 13" baking dish (this is so easy when you use a kitchen scale to weight ingredients rather than volume measurements).

I've also chosen to use vanilla cream cheese frosting for this cake. But if you prefer vanilla buttercream, you can easily use the homemade buttercream icing recipe here.

I have just used a bowl and whisk to make this sheet cake, but you can use a stand mixer or electric beaters if you prefer. I find that it's easier not to as it creates less washing up (always a win in my book).

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with cooking spray. Set this aside.

In a medium bowl or batter jug, combine the melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract, milk and sourdough starter and whisk until well combined. Now set the wet ingredients aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Stir them together until everything is well distributed.

Now pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and whisk together to create the vanilla sheet cake batter. I find the consistency is kind of like a thick pancake batter.

Pour the cake batter into the baking dish. Bake at 180C (350F) for approximately 30 minutes or until the cake is golden brown. It should stay fairly even while baking, but don't worry if it goes up in the middle, you can cut a little off to flatten it.

Remove from the oven and allow the sheet pan cake to cool in the baking dish. If you've used a half sheet pan or jelly roll pan, you can allow the cake to cool for around 5 minutes in the pan before carefully flipping on to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Add all of the frosting ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on speed 8 until light and fluffy (this will take around 2 minutes). Alternatively, you can use a large mixing bowl and electric hand mixer.

This vanilla cream cheese frosting is a double batch of the frosting featured in my sourdough cinnamon rolls recipe. It has a little extra powdered sugar to stiffen it a little.

Once the cake has cooled, spread the frosting onto the cake using an offset spatula and arrange the berries into flowers (if using). Allow to sit for 15 minutes for the icing to set before slicing.

What Cake Pan To Use For Sourdough Vanilla Sheet Cake

I have chosen to bake this sourdough sheet cake in a 9" x 13" baking dish. This gives a thicker cake and slices beautifully. This recipe will also work in a standard half sheet pan or jelly roll pan.

I just grease my pan or baking dish rather than putting a piece of parchment paper in. I find that the cake doesn't stick to the pan and is easy to slice and remove. Parchment paper can sometimes make the edges of the cake a little uneven so I choose not to use it.

This sourdough vanilla cake recipe will also work in round cake pans if you would prefer.

Flavor + Frosting Alternatives 

This cake is delightful in it's simplicity, but if you are wanting some ideas to make it extra special, then here are a few ways that I have adapted this sourdough vanilla sheet cake recipe:

• Chocolate Chip Sourdough Sheet Cake - Add up to 200g of semi sweet chocolate chips to the cake batter and frost with a chocolate buttercream frosting.
  
• Funfetti Sourdough Sheet Cake - Add sprinkles to the cake batter and then top the cake with homemade buttercream frosting and more sprinkles.
  
• 4th of July Celebration Cake - add sliced strawberries, blueberries and raspberries to the top of the vanilla frosting for red, white and blue decorations. You'll find more 4th of July sourdough ideas here.
  
• Coffee Pecan Sourdough Sheet Cake - Add 2 tablespoons of instant coffee to the melted butter before adding to the cake. Then add a little coffee essence to this homemade butter frosting and top with chopped pecans.

How To Store + Freeze

This sourdough vanilla sheet pan cake is easy to make and lasts for quite a few days. It's delicious moist and tender crumb stays fresh for at least 3 days at room temperature, especially if frosted. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. You can store in the fridge, but I recommend bringing the cake to room temperature before serving.

This cake freezes really well. I have frozen it both with and without frosting and it thaws easily without loosing texture or flavor. I have frozen it up to 3 months with no issues. 

The only thing I will say is that if you are decorating the cake with fruit, the fruit can bleed into the frosting, which doesn't affect the taste, but can affect the texture and life of the cake if you are storing at room temperature.

Share the sourdough love!