This lightly sweetened sheet cake is the perfect dessert to serve all year long, since it uses either fresh or frozen berries. It’s easy to make and great for a crowd. Vegan friendly and gluten, dairy, and egg free with refined sugar free option.
We dropped my mom off at the airport yesterday to catch her flight back to North Carolina. She’d been here almost a whole month, although the brevity of it seemed more like a week. Each of us gave her a hug as we said our teary goodbyes and then watched as she zig-zagged her way through the airport security line. We’ve always stood around and waited until she clears the check point. She’d then look back, blow us a kiss, and give a big wave before disappearing down the long corridor to the terminals. Yesterday was no different. Our prolonged goodbye has become somewhat of an unspoken tradition. But, it gives us a few more minutes with her, which is worth it, even if it is from a distance.
My mom and I don’t have the perfect relationship. She can be stubborn and opinionated and I can be moody and insensitive. We get frustrated with each other…often! But, I do love her more than anything and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. I bet she’d say the same about me.
I came home to what all of a sudden seemed like an empty house and began baking. If you’re ever feeling low, baking is a sure-fire way to lift your spirits, especially if it’s cake. I mean, besides being distracted by the effort it takes to concentrate on a recipe and measure ingredients accurately, it’s hard not to feel at least a little happy around sugar, berries, and vanilla. And if that doesn’t do anything for you, just wait 40–50 minutes for the cake to finish baking and then dig in. It’s the preferred celebratory dessert for a reason!
Although I love a pretty layered cake to serve on special occasions, sometimes a lack of both time and energy calls for the more practical, and definitely more simple to make, sheet cake. The thing I love about this cake is that it still has that “wow” factor without the need for frosting or fancy piping. Berries are like makeup for food. The blackberries are the eyeliner, blueberries the eye shadow, and the raspberries that pop of color on the lips.
This cake is delicious and a great way to make the most of berry season. The patriotic color combo also makes it a festive treat for Memorial Day and 4th of July, although it really is the perfect dessert to serve all summer long. Feel free to use just one berry instead of the combo and make a blueberry or blackberry cake.
It’s lightly sweetened and vegan friendly, with gluten and refined sugar free options. I hope you give it a try and enjoy it as much as we did! 🙂
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Easy Berry Sheet Cake
- Total Time: 55 mins
- Yield: 12-16 slices 1x
Description
This lightly sweetened sheet cake is the perfect dessert to serve all year long, since it uses either fresh or frozen berries. It’s easy to make and great for a crowd. Vegan friendly and gluten, dairy, and egg free with refined sugar free option.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup milk of choice (I used almond milk)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (For gluten-free use: 1 3/4 cups Gluten Free 1-to-1 All Purpose Baking Flour
+ 3/4 cup blanched almond flour
)
- 1 cup pure cane sugar
or *coconut sugar
(can use an additional 1/4–1/3 cup sugar if you like it sweeter)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- zest of 1–2 lemons, optional
- 1/3 cup oil of choice (I use avocado oil
one !important; margin:0px !important;” /> or vegetable oil)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2–3 cups fresh or frozen berries of choice (I used a combo of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)
+ 
)
or *
(can use an additional 
one !important; margin:0px !important;” /> or vegetable oil)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease or line a 13×9 pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine milk with vinegar in a small glass dish. Let milk sour while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- In a large mixing bowl, blend together flour(s), sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.
- Mix in sour milk, oil, and vanilla extract until batter is smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
- Evenly top the batter with mixed fruit and place into preheated oven. Bake for 25-40 minutes, or until center of cake is set and a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean (time may vary depending on your oven and if you used fresh or frozen berries.) Let cool before slicing. Delicious served with **whipped cream and additional berries. (see notes for coconut whipped cream recipe)
Notes
*Using coconut sugar makes the cake more of a caramel brown color. It also has a richer flavor, but is still delicious!
**Coconut whipped cream: Chill 1 can of coconut cream (I used Thai Kitchen brand.) Remove hardened cold cream and place into a mixing bowl; discard liquid in can. Add 1–2 teaspoons sweetener of choice (I use maple syrup or honey) plus 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and beat together with a mixer until fluffy. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Category: Dessert, Gluten-Free, Vegan
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Vegan Vanilla Sheet Cake with Strawberries
Naturally Sweetened Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake
Fruit Cobbler
Hi, I haven’t made it yet, but I’m wondering if I can use oat flour instead of almond flour to make it GF or can I make this with just 1-1 GF all Purpose flour???
Hi! Looking forward to making this for Fourth of July! Two questions if I make it the night before what is your best storing recommendations? Also have you ever used applesauce instead of oil?
Hi Kristin, the cake should be fine left overnight for 1 night in a cool kitchen. If it’s warm though, I’d recommend refrigerating it and taking it out a couple of hours before serving to come back to room temperature. As far as the applesauce goes, I haven’t tried it before, but I think it would work for at least half of the oil. If you happen to try the full amount, please let me know how it turns out! Hope you enjoy it!
Hi Joscelyn!
Novice baker here 🙂 I tried out this recipe, and even my picky, lactose-intolerant fiancé liked it!
I’d like to make this recipe to serve to my vegan guests at my afternoon wedding. What’s the best way to store this cake, and how long will it keep for?
Thanks,
Jessa
★★★★★
Hi Jessa! Happy you and your fiancé enjoyed this cake! It is best if consumed within the first 2 days, but it should last 4-5 days in the refrigerator. I’d say it will keep for a day at a cool room temperature, but I’d refrigerate if longer than that. Just take it out a couple of hours before you plan to serve it and let it sit at room temperature so that it’s not cold. Hope everything goes well for your upcoming wedding! Congrats to you both!
Hi Joscelyn,
Thanks so much for your advice! I think instead of a 13 x 9 pan, I’ll make it round instead so it can sit on the top tier of our cake pop “wedding cake”.
Appreciate your kind words, I will send you some photos of the cake after our September wedding 🙂
Jessa
That’ll be so cute! What a creative wedding cake idea! Can’t wait to see the finished cake! I know it will be beautiful! ❤️
Hi. Is this cake dry or moist? Im trying to make a cake that my grandmother use to make.. Which looks just like this. Hers was always moist… Almost a little wet. But maybe that was because it was in the fridge? Not sure! Let me know!
Hi Heidi, it’s a moist cake, but not “wet”. I think you might be referring to a poke cake, which is a sheet cake that you poke holes into then pour gelatin (like jello) all over the cake before refrigerating it. I don’t have a recipe for that, but you could easily google one! They’re very easy to make!
Hi Erica, thanks for the feedback! Bake times will vary based upon the oven, pan used, and whether you use fresh or frozen fruit (frozen fruit tends to take longer to bake) I’ll update the recipe with the new time in case someone else has the same experience as you. Thanks for giving this cake a try and I hope you enjoy it!
Just in hopes of sparing someone a disaster, I used cow’s milk and a metal 9×13 pan, and my cake was probably done at about 25 minutes. I managed to grab it at 30 minutes, and it’s nearly burned. Not sure why mine took so much less time. On another note, I measured out 3 cups total of a combination of fresh blueberries and cherries, and it completely covered the top of my cake, nothing like in the photo. Perhaps that had something to do with the lesser cooking time as well. Many of the blueberries burst. Hopefully it will still taste good. I loved the recipe!
This recipe sounds great, but I have one question – do you use sweetened or unsweetened almond milk?
Thanks
Hi Beth! I always use unsweetened original almond milk, but if you have sweetened milk feel free to use that too. You can reduce the sweetener in the recipe a tad to compensate, but the recipes generally aren’t too sweet to begin with. Hope this help!! 🙂
Hi there 🙂 I’m planning to make this for the guests at our daughter’s birthday party. We may need to use frozen berries and I wonder if I should thaw or rinse them or just mix them in like fresh berries. What do you think? I would love your advice! Thanks 🙂
Hello, I am so sorry for the delayed response! I haven’t been getting notified that I have messages, so I am just seeing all of these new questions! I’m sure your daughter’s birthday party has probably passed, but for future reference, I would just mix in the frozen berries without thawing them first. Keep in mind it will also need extra time in the oven to fully cook the frozen berries!
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Hi! I made this for the 4th and it was very nice! I did make a few changes. I didn’t use as much baking powder and added 1 large egg. I used whole milk with half a lemons juice instead of vinegar and put the other half of the lemons juice and zest in the cake batter! I’d definitely make it again 🙂 I’ll send a pic to your twitter!
Thanks for sharing your adjustments, Shannon! So happy you enjoyed this cake! Will go look for your pic now! 🙂
I used regular cane sugar. I love berries and I don’t like cake that is too sweet, so this is a perfect cake for me. I’ll go get some whip cream later to serve with this berry cake too!
Thanks!
Happy 4th to you too!
This cake is definitely more subtly sweetened compared to most cakes. I think whipped cream would be the perfect addition too! Enjoy and thanks again for giving it a try!
I just made it for the first time for a July 4th lunch. I haven’t tried it yet. But it looks and smells amazing! Though next time I think I should bake it at 45 minutes instead of 50 minutes. It’s a bit more brown than I want it to be.
If I leave it overnight before serving, do I need to refrigerate it?
Thank you for an easy and beautiful recipe! I can’t wait to try it later with my family!
Lynn
Hi Lynn, thanks for giving it a try! It can be left out on the counter if your home is cool, but with the berries, it’s probably better to refrigerate. Did you use the coconut sugar or cane sugar? I know the coconut sugar will make it more of a caramel brown color. Either way, I hope you enjoy it! Happy 4th!