Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake

This strawberry sheet cake is bursting with strawberry flavor. The cake is absolutely moist and delicious with creamy frosting that tastes like a strawberry milkshake. After nearly 20 years experience, I think it is my best tasting cake yet!
First, we blend real strawberries, cook them down to intensify the flavor, then added to the cake batter. Secondly, we use ground freeze dried strawberries to replace a portion of the icing sugar in the frosting to add a big punch of strawberry flavor.
I made a strawberry layer cake years ago. It's a huge hit, but has always lacked one thing: strawberry frosting. Redeveloped as a sheet cake, this was the perfect chance to double-down on the strawberry and give it a matching strawberry buttercream.
- 2 cups (300g) ripe strawberries halved
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- pinch salt
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 14 tablespoon (196g) unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon avocado or other neutral oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) whole milk
- ¾ cup (180ml) reduced strawberry puree
- pink gel food coloring optional
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (25g) freeze-dried strawberries
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 to 3 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract