Strawberry Sheet Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Strawberry anything is a favorite around here and I try to come up with a new recipe every once in a while.  The first time I made this was in a 9x13 pan, not a good choice.  It was still tasty but a little too banana bread like for a cake in my opinion. We are just now starting to get local strawberries but gosh there have been some incredible sales on California strawberries and they are really sweet too!

Needed:
3 cups fresh strawberries-cleaned and chopped 
2 1/2 cups sugar 
2 cups  flour
2 sticks of butter
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs-beaten
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

Over the chopped strawberries, with  1/2 cup of sugar. Let them sit for an hour at room temperature so they can release some of their juices. The berries should reduce to about 1 1/2 cups. Hand  crush the strawberries, you want them juicy but still with some texture. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Sift 2 cups sugar and flour, and baking soda together in a bowl.

Melt the butter on low in a saucepan and then whisk it with the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla. Add the liquid to the flour and then stir in the crushed strawberries.

Pour batter into a parchment lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. Cake is done when a knife comes out clean from the center. Let it cool completely and then frost with whipped cream!!!

Note: The cake will be a little brown. Still tastes great!