We have fallen in love with this flavorful scratch Strawberry Cake recipe. If you've been searching for "the one", this is it! The search is over ;0)
This homemade strawberry layer cake has become one of our favorite desserts, with it's moist and soft cake layers and big strawberry flavor.
There are so many frostings that would pair perfectly with this cake, but cream cheese frosting may be my favorite.
Frostings that Taste Great with Strawberry Cake
This moist strawberry cake is bursting with wonderful strawberry flavor, and tastes amazing with these frostings and fillings (and many more)!
A Strawberry Cake Recipe with Frozen Strawberries
Not only do I absolutely LOVE the flavor of this strawberry cake, I also love that it calls for frozen strawberries!
This means you don't have to wait for strawberry season to roll around in order to enjoy the BEST strawberry cake recipe. You can make it year-round, and you should!
Of course, if you would rather use fresh strawberries for a fresh strawberry cake, you absolutely can- and we often do during strawberry season. We think you'll love the fresh strawberry flavor that more than a cup of strawberry puree lends to the cake.
Thanks to Mom (our BeBe) for making sooo many versions of strawberry cake until we found our favorite. I have to admit though, it was fun sampling all of those different versions of strawberry cake along the way!
Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
*This cake calls for the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing, for a moist & tender cake. The ingredients are added in a different order than the traditional creaming method, resulting in a slightly tighter crumb and velvety texture.
We explain the steps in our recipe instructions, but you may find it helpful to watch our free video tutorial on the Reverse Creaming Method, which you can find here: The Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.
*If you would prefer to use the traditional creaming method for this fresh strawberry cake recipe, you can find it in the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake recipe linked below!
How to Make Strawberry Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (This recipe uses the reverse creaming method as is explained above.)
Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round cake pans - I like three layers because it gives us an extra layer of filling. *We also like to line our prepared pans with parchment circles.
- In a separate bowl, combine room temperature eggs, strawberry puree, vanilla, strawberry extract, pink food coloring (if desired). Blend together with a fork.
- In the mixing bowl for your stand mixer, hand whisk the dry ingredients (cake flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt) for 30 seconds to combine. With your mixer on low to medium speed, and using the paddle attachment, add the pieces of butter, a few pieces at a time, also add the oil at this time. Mix until the dry ingredients form moist crumbs that look like coarse sand.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on LOW speed, SLOWLY add ½ of the egg mixture/wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, increase the mixer to medium speed and beat for 1 ½ minutes, the batter will be thick and fluffy.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating 20 seconds after each. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and pour the cake batter into prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake layer comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. then turn out. This recipe makes about 7 ½ cups of batter.
Will this Strawberry Cake Recipe work for Cupcakes?
Yes, you can make strawberry cupcakes with this recipe, however they will have little to no dome. This true for many of our scratch cake recipes.
Decorating the Strawberry Cake
Decorate the Strawberry Cake however you like with your favorite strawberry frosting or a recipe that pairs well with strawberry flavor. We crumb coated our cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and then immediately piped the spiral patterns that you see in the photo using a star tip 21.
I love the piped-all-over look and it is also very forgiving! Simply start piping in the center and spiral outward, clockwise as many until you reach the size that you want. Repeat until the cake is finished ;0)
Doctored Cake Mix Version of Strawberry Cake
If you prefer a doctored boxed cake mix recipe, we have a great one for you: Strawberry Cake: Doctored Cake Mix Recipe.
This easy strawberry cake always gets rave reviews and uses real strawberries along with other flavorings for a delicious strawberry flavor.
More favorite strawberry cake recipes!
We've made so many strawberry cake recipes and strawberry frostings & fillings over the years! Here are some of our favorites--
- Homemade Strawberry Cake
- Berry Chantilly Cake
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
- Strawberry Sour Cream Cake
- Strawberry Whipped Cream Cheese Filling
- Strawberry Champagne Cake (Doctored Cake Mix)
- Champagne and Strawberries Cake
- Strawberry Pound Cake
- Strawberry Lemon Cake
- Fresh Strawberry Filling for Cakes
- Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- Strawberry Daiquiri Cake
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Strawberry Cake from Scratch
This moist and flavorful Strawberry Cake from scratch is a favorite year-round!
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs, room temperature ( can warm the eggs by putting in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
- 1 ½ cups (340 g) strawberry puree ......I used frozen strawberries that were lightly sweetened, you could also use fresh.....puree the strawberries in food processor or blender
- 1 teaspoon (4 g.) vanilla
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) strawberry extract
- 2 to 3 drops AmeriColor Pink or your pink coloring of choice (optional but makes for a prettier shade of pink)
- 3 cups (342 g) cake flour
- 1 ¾ cups (350 g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon (14 g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) salt
- ¼ cup (50g) vegetable oil
- 1 stick (½ cup) (113 g) unsalted butter, cut butter into small pieces so it can be added slowly during mixing process. I cut mine into ½ to 1 inch slices onto waxed paper on the countertop, letting it soften only about 5 to 6 minutes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (This recipe uses the reverse creaming method.)
- Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, strawberry puree, vanilla, strawberry extract, pink coloring (as desired). Blend together with a fork.
- In the bowl of your mixer, hand whisk the dry ingredients (cake flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt) for 30 seconds to combine. With your mixer on low to medium speed, add the pieces of butter, a few pieces at a time, also add the oil at this time. Mix until the dry ingredients form moist crumbs that look like coarse sand.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Method is important when using Reverse Creaming, so with the mixer on LOW speed, SLOWLY add ½ of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, increase the mixer to medium speed and beat for 1 ½ minutes, the batter will be thick and fluffy.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating 20 seconds after each. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and pour into prepared pans.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pans 10 min. then turn out.
- Makes 7 ½ cups batter IF USING FONDANT: If using fondant to cover the cake, our first choice is to cover the cake in ganache for a nice firm shell before laying on the fondant. You could also use all butter buttercream, that is well chilled to firm it up before the fondant.
- Cupcakes: This recipe will work for cupcakes, they will have only a slight dome**We frosted our cake with this Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe. (I piped spirals of frosting in varying sizes with my Wilton star tip 21.)
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Delicious Cake Recipes, Online Cake Decorating Tutorials, and More!
We hope that you enjoy this Strawberry Cake! It has become a personal favorite over the years, especially in the warmer months when we're craving light and fruity cakes and cupcakes!
If you give this strawberry cake a try, we would love to hear what you think! Make sure to leave a comment or photo in the comments below!
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What if I used only 1 tsp baking powder ? I didn’t read recipe well Do u recommend making the cake over ?
Hi Beth, I'm sorry! You have probably baked your layers by now - my guess is that they would not rise very much with that amount of leavening although I'm sure the flavor would still be good.
Ok. Thank you for the response Yes they are baked and in the freezer On another note your pumpkin cake is wonderful!
Thank you! And I hope that you enjoy the strawberry cake too! xo
You’re welcome