Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake
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Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit
You’ll also find my article on How to Soften Cream Cheese useful.
Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting
The perfect breakfast…er, because grapefruit is great for breakfast, am I right?
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
This cake is wonderfully dense and moist. The batter is very wet resulting in an almost brownie like cake.
It has a delightful citrus flavor that is clearly grapefruit. There’s no mistaking it for orange, lemon, or lime. It has a unique, mild grapefruit flavor. It’s actually a refreshing cake flavor that you grow to like more and more with every bite!
I smothered this cake in a smooth
Fresh grapefruit is available to me all year, so I consider this a year-round dessert. It makes a memorable and pretty cake for birthday celebrations as well as potlucks or entertaining.
Tips
- I recommend using real
butter and not margarine. - You can substitute sour cream or Greek yogurt for the buttermilk. You’ll use 1/2 cup for substitutions.
- Additionally, you can use a plain
cream cheese frosting, like my Best Cream Cheese Frosting, if you’re concerned with grapefruit overload. - You may also consider adding 1 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds to the cake batter.
You may also like my Grapefruit Mojito and my Grapefruit Brulee recipe or these recipes.
- Fresh Peach Cobbler Bread
- Moist grapefruit cake
- Healthy Oatmeal Date Breakfast Cookies
- Healthy Breakfast Cookie Recipe
- Brownie Batter Protein Balls
- Healthy No-Bake Chocolate Cookies
Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting
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Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 ruby red grapefruit 3 tablespoon zest, divided, and 1/2 cup juice from grapefruit. You will use 2 tablespoons zest in the cake and 1 tablespoon in the frosting.
- 1 cup butter melted
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FROSTING
- 8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar (aka confectioners)
- *1 tablespoon grapefruit zest from 3 tablespoons listed above
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Spray a 9×13 inch sheet pan with non-stick spray or spread a thin layer of vegetable shortening inside the pan.
- Stir together the melted butter, 2 tablespoons grapefruit zest, and water.
- In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk to combine.
- Add buttermilk, 1/2 cup grapefruit juice, eggs, extract, and butter mixture.
- Stir to combine.
- Pour batter into the prepared 9×13 inch pan.
- Bake 25 to 32 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool 1 hour before frosting.
- FROSTING
- In the bowl of a mixture, combine cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add sugar.
- When sugar is incorporated, add 1 tablespoon grapefruit zest.
- Spread evenly over cool cake.
- Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
Okay….I made this yesterday. This is a very moist cake…doesn’t appear like it will be, until you eat it. Tastes great but it wasn’t “grapefruity” enough for me. If you didn’t know it was a grapefruit cake, you would probably think it was a yellow cake with a little something added. All of my “tasters” said the same thing. I will double the rind, and use grapefruit juice to replace the water. I used sour cream instead of buttermilk. Icing was great, just needed more rind. Overall I would give this a B+ or 4 stars.
Your cake looks and sounds wonderful… 🙂
The ingredient list says 1/2 cup grapefruit juice and then the instructions mentions 2T in the cake batter. Does the rest go elsewhere?
Brenda, thanks for catching my error. I have it corrected now in the recipe. 1/2 cup juice and 2 Tablespoons zest goes in the cake. 1 tablespoon zest goes in the frosting. Sorry for the confusion. Paula
Thank you for your quick reply, I look forward to trying this!
I totally agree a breakfast dessert with a healthy kick to start the day! This really sounds interesting. Everyone would be surprised to find grapefruit it their newest favorite cake! Thanks for sharing, Paula.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
People eat grapefruit for breakfast so I see no reason why I should have a slice of this cake! It looks so moist and delicious, totally worth running a few extra miles for. 🙂