Today we’re sharing a new delicious scratch Strawberry Cake Recipe!
This Strawberry Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Frosting (also known as White Chocolate Strawberry Cake) is DELICIOUS. It is super moist and if you love white chocolate, you will love this combination of flavors!
Even if you aren’t a fan of white chocolate, keep this delicious Strawberry Sour Cream cake in mind for all sorts of fillings and frostings! We just love it, and think that you will too.
How to Make Strawberry Sour Cream Cake
(For full recipe card scroll to the bottom of this post!)
This strawberry sour cream cake is made with the traditional creaming method of mixing (as opposed to the reverse creaming method), giving it a nice fluffy texture.
Advantage of Sour Cream: The boost of acidity from the sour cream in the recipe softens the gluten, making for a more tender cake. Sour cream also adds a richness to the cake batter. We love cakes with sour cream!
Combine Flour, Salt, and Leavening: In a medium sized bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to blend for 30 seconds. Set aside.
Combining Wet Ingredients: In another bowl combine the sour cream, strawberry puree, vanilla, strawberry extract, & oil- blend and set aside.In the bowl of your mixer blend the butter until smooth, Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and lightened in color.
Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
Alternating Dry and Wet: Add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2 additions of wet ingredients. Mix until combined and smooth, do not mix above medium speed or over mix.
Time to Bake! Divide the strawberry cake batter between the three 8 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes, then turn out.
Should I freeze My Cake Layers?
Freezing cake layers is an optional step but one that I try to make time for. After removing your cake layers from the oven, allow the cakes to cool (still in their pans) on a cooling rack for about five minutes before flipping them out.
While still warm, I place each cake layer on a foil-wrapped cake board (so that the boards can be reused). Then, I wrap the cake layer in plastic wrap & foil, and into the freezer they go.
The layers actually become more moist in the freezer thanks to the trapped moisture from the warm cake being placed in the freezer.
I freeze my cake layers even if only for a few hours (but they can be frozen for up to three months and will still taste as fresh as the day they were baked)!
When it’s time to assemble the cake, just thaw on the countertop, still wrapped. After condensation forms on the foil and the thawing is well underway, you can go ahead and remove the layers from the foil and continue thawing.
Many decorators prefer to assemble the cake while the layers are still partially frozen as they are easier to handle but that is up to you!
Fillings and Frostings for Strawberry Cakes
There are so many amazing pairing options for strawberry cakes. Today, we are using white chocolate frosting and a flavorful cooked strawberry filling for a fantastic White Chocolate Strawberry Cake, but the options are endless. Here are a few other favorites!
- Strawberry Buttercream
- Whipped Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Sweetened Whipped Cream Filling (coupled with sliced strawberries)
White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting- Yum!
Assembling our Strawberry Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Frosting!
Place the first cake layer on your pedestal or cake base. Spread with a layer of white chocolate frosting, and then spread on the cooked strawberry filling (YUM!). This strawberry filling adds so much strawberry flavor to every bite.
You can pipe a dam of your frosting before adding the strawberry filling if you’d like to make sure that the filling stays fully enclosed. My filling was pretty thick though and so I wasn’t worried– just keep it about 1/2 inch from the edge all the way around to be on the safe side.
Add the next strawberry cake layer and repeat.
Finally, add the third layer, fill in any gaps between layers with your frosting (I do this with a piping bag with the tip snipped away), and then frost the cake.
I like to frost my tier on a turntable when possible, so that I can easily spin it as I smooth the frosted sides with a bench scraper. Then, I like to chill the tier in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes until firm and then go over it once more with a hot bench scraper and spatula. This step is great for smoothing.
As a final touch, I added a few rows of shell border around the top of the cake using a piping tip 21, and then I filled inside of it with lots of chocolate curls! (Technically these are white chocolate candy coating curls, but you could use white chocolate also).
Rows of Shells Piped with a Tip 21
How to Make Chocolate Curls
I love mounding chocolate curls onto cakes for a little bit of fancy ;0)
I have a mini loaf pan that I like to use for creating curls (it is about 3×6 inches). First, I melted a few blocks of chocolate candy coating/bark coating (I used CandiQuik) in the microwave in small increments.
When the candy coating is almost completely melted, just let it sit for a couple of minutes and then stir to help any remaining pieces disappear.
Then, I poured my melted candy coating into a *foil lined* mini loaf pan and placed in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until firm. You can refrigerate also or even let it firm up at room temperature but it will take longer.
Do you have to use Strawberry Extract in this recipe?
We use strawberry extract to add a little boost of strawberry flavor in most of our strawberry cake recipes. Although this recipe does contain 1/2 cup of strawberry puree, the strawberry flavor of the cake layers alone is fairly mild.
We find that often the fruit flavor is baked out of our fruity cake recipes and extracts are a great fix for this. This is also the case with our lemon and cherry cake recipes.
However, if you do not wish to use strawberry extract, the strawberry filling in this recipe is wonderful and lends a really nice strawberry flavor.
Other Strawberry Cakes to Try!
If you love strawberry cakes, don’t miss these other favorites from our Recipes Section!
- Homemade Strawberry Cake
- Strawberry Cake from Scratch
- Strawberry Cake- Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
- Strawberry Lemon Cake
- Strawberry Champagne Cake (Doctored Cake Mix)
- Champagne and Strawberries Cake
- Strawberry Pound Cake
- Berry Chantilly Cake
We hope that you love this White Chocolate Strawberry Cake as much as we have, and definitely keep this strawberry sour cream cake in mind for all sorts of fun filling and frosting combinations!
If you make this recipe, we’d love to know what you think! Leave a note and/or photo in the comments below. Enjoy!
Strawberry Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Frosting
Delicious Strawberry Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Frosting! This moist scratch strawberry layer cake is sure to please a crowd!
Ingredients
For the Strawberry Sour Cream Cake
- 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour - if you do not have cake flour see Notes below
- 2 teaspoons ( 8g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (227g) sour cream
- 1/2 cup (129g) strawberry puree (Puree fresh or frozen strawberries)
- 1/4 cup (54g) vegetable oil ( I use canola oil)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) strawberry extract
- *Pink Coloring Gel- Optional. We just used a small amount.
For the Strawberry Filling
- 2 cups chopped strawberry (fresh or frozen — chop in rather small pieces)
- 1/4 cup (50g) sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (18g) cornstarch (cornflour in the UK)
- 1 Tablespoon (9g) water
White Chocolate Frosting
- 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened (do not soften in the microwave)
- 8 ounces (227g) white baking chocolate (I used 2 Ghirardelli Premium Baking Bars)
- 5 cups (575g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons (42 g) milk or cream
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt (optional to cut the sweetness)
Garnish
- Whole fresh strawberry or strawberries for top
- White chocolate candy coating for curls (You could also use a white chocolate bar)
- *I also piped three rows of shell border around the top with a piping tip 21.
Instructions
For the Strawberry Sour Cream Cake
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8 inch x 2 inch round cake pans. You can use two 9 inch pans, just lengthen the baking time a bit.
In a medium sized bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to blend for 30 seconds. Set aside.
In another bowl combine the sour cream, strawberry puree, strawberry extract and oil, blend and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer blend the butter until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and lightened in color.
Add the eggs 1 at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
Add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2 additions of wet ingredients.) If adding a little pink coloring gel, you can do so at this time.
Mix until combined and smooth, do not mix above medium speed or over mix.
Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes, then turn out.
For the Strawberry Filling
Add all ingredients to a small saucepan. On medium/high heat allow mixture to come to a boil.
Stir as the sugar begins to melt and the strawberries soften. When the mixture begins to boil, lower the heat and stir constantly until the mixture begins to thicken.
You can press some of the strawberries against the side of the pan as they soften. Pour into a heat proof bowl to cool. It can be refrigerated in an air-tight bowl until ready to use. Use within 5 days. This makes enough filling for a 3 layer cake.
For the White Chocolate Buttercream
Cut/chop the white chocolate into very small pieces, put into a microwave safe bowl and add 4 Tablespoons milk or cream.
Microwave for 15 seconds let sit for a minute or two, stir and microwave again 15 seconds letting it sit a minute to soften further, stir. Be careful not to over heat the chocolate. The chocolate will continue to melt as it is stirred. Let the chocolate cool down before using.
Beat the butter until softened and smooth, add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Add the white chocolate and milk mixture. Add vanilla and salt. Add another Tablespoon milk if needed. Beat on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes and it will become smooth and creamy.
Makes 5 cups frosting. Makes enough to frost a 2 or 3 layer eight inch cake. If you will be doing a lot of decorative piping, you will need additional frosting.
Assembling the Cake
Place the first cake layer on your pedestal or cake base.
Spread with white chocolate buttercream within about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch from the edge of the cake. Then spread with about half of the strawberry puree filling on top of that (if you are frosting a three layer cake).
Add next cake layer and repeat.
Fill in any gaps between the layers frosting, then frost the cake with white chocolate frosting. Garnish with white chocolate curls & strawberries.
Notes
Substitution for cake flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in the UK) for each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
This recipe makes 7 cups batter. Works well for cupcakes, for standard size cupcakes bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.
Looks and sounds delish! :-)
Which brand of strawberry extract do you recommend?
Hi Marisol, We use McCormick and Watkins brands Strawberry Extract
This cake looks absolutely delicious. I am making it as soon as my strawberry extract arrives.I ordered the Watkins brand on Amazon even before I saw you posted that is what you use. I purchase all my extracts in the watkins brand. I will post a pic after I make this piece of delicious art.
Would it be ok to use my kinda runny strawberry freezer jam? It didn’t set up very well and now, other than ice cream topping, I’m looking for useful uses for it.
can I use frozen strawberries
How do you make the purée? Should I blend the strawberries and then pour it through a strainer to get the juice out? Help!!
Kimberly, I look forward to seeing your cake!
Hi April, I am not sure about using freezer jam in the cake batter, it has much more sugar than the strawberry puree. You may be able to use it in the filling, is it so runny that it is going to run over the sides as you stack the layers? Is there a way to thicken up the jam a bit? If it is very thin, you could brush it over the layers and a bit more over the frosting that is used for the filling. Hope that is clear.
Hi Hope, Yes, you can use frozen strawberries. They do not need to thaw completely, just a bit then slice and puree.
Hi Charlene, We use a Bullet smoothie maker but you could also use a blender, food processor. If you don’t have any of those, you could just chop them up very fine, then press with a fork until they become a thick paste. I don’t put it through a strainer.
I take a pound of strawberries, blend them down into a puree, and finally put into a saucepan and reduce to half a cup of puree. It concentrates the strawberry flavor without using anything artificial.
I made this cake today for my daughter’s birthday. It was a huge success, they loved it and so did I.
My cake
Hi Charlene, Your cake is so pretty! I’m happy you tried the recipe and enjoyed the cake!! Thanks for posting your pictures.
I made this last night and brought it into the office today. Absolutely a keeper! It was delicious.
Hi Kelli, Thank you so much for your nice review of the recipe.
I have on hand a Betty Crocker strawberry cake mix. Can I use this to make the strawberry sour cream cake ? If so what do I add and omit ? If I have to I’ll make from scratch. Thank you.
Hi Cindy, You could use our (doctored) White Almond Sour Cream Cake recipe. Replace the the mix listed with your strawberry cake mix. For the 1 cup water, use 1/2 cup strawberry puree and 1/2 cup water. Use 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp strawberry extract. I am not sure how strong the flavor of your strawberry cake mix is so you could possibly leave out the strawberry extract……and of course no almond extract. This recipe makes 7 cups of batter so that is enough for three 8×2 inch round pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes.
Our Strawberry Cake (doctored) recipe in the recipe section is very good but has no sour cream, if you would like to check it out.
Hope all goes well
Can the strawberry extract be omitted? I’ve looked in local grocery stores and there is none to be had. It’s only 2 teaspoons, so it doesn’t seem it would throw the liquid off balance.
How do you make the strawberry filling..??
Hi Jeffrey, The strawberry flavor in the cake will be milder without it, but the strawberry filling will help add more flavor.
Hi Dana, The Strawberry Filling recipe is just under the cake instructions.
How do you make the strawberry purée that goes in the cake?
Has anyone used raspberries instead of strawberries?
Hi Dana, To make strawberry puree you can use fresh or frozen strawberries. If using frozen strawberries, they do not need to be completely thawed, just enough to slice easily. Slice the strawberries so they will puree more easily. You can puree in a blender, food processor, we use a Bullet smoothie maker. If you don’t have any of these, you could chop the the berries in small pieces then press with a fork . This would take a while, but it can be done.
Hi Deb, We have not used raspberries in a cake, only in Raspberry Frosting on our Devil’s Food Cake. It does take a long time to strain the raspberries. Here is a link to that recipe.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/devils-food-cake-with-raspberry-recipe/
I’m not a baker; can’t recall how long ago it was since I baked a cake. Your directions were spot on! Success! I surprised my mom for her birthday with the cake she kept commenting on!
Hi Tori, Wonderful! I’m happy that your mom enjoyed the cake!! Thanks for letting us know.
Looks delicious! Can’t wait to make this for Mother’s Day.
I am going to try this cake! It looks yummy and so pretty…Thank you for sharing this recipe for us…
I love to bake and I can’t wait to try this one ?
I would love to have some of your recipes
Scratch strawberry cakes are the best. I had a heck of a time finding one awhile back that didn’t use jello (yuck) and developed a really similar recipe 10 years ago! :) Mine is also a sour cream cake and I also use a strawberry puree and optional food coloring. Great minds must think alike!
https://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/15348/summers-scratch-strawberry-cake
Hi JoAnn, Visit Melissa’s site at mycakeschool.com. Her recipes are free and printable.
Hi Summer, Yes, we also love strawberry cakes, especially this time of year.
I absolutely had fun creating your cake. I love the flavor and texture. Here are my pictures
Hi Kimberly, Your cake looks delicious! I’m so happy you used our recipe and enjoyed the cake. Thanks so much for your nice comments and for the pictures.
Ultimate cakes! I used to try all your new desserts’ these days and all my family members love them. Now, this weekend I’ll try this recipe and I hope it will be a hit again.
Hi there! I made your strawberry cake and the flavor was delicious. Unfortunately the cake was very dense and almost had more of a bread like texture. I followed the recipe exactly and substituted the cake flour for regular with cornstarch. Do you have any suggestions for next time?
Looking forward to making this cake.Thanks for sharing.Looking forward to trying more of your creations.
I was excited about making this cake but even more so about tasting it! Sadly, it turned out very dense. The strawberry mixture for the middle seemed only to enhance the curb appeal for the cake because the cake flavor overpowered it (and very little flavoring was added). In the future, I’ll attempt this again but use just my standard cake recipe instead of one with cake flour.
But the frosting??… the white chocolate frosting is fantastic!! and will definitely be used on other cakes.
My cake was very dense – way too dense for a layer cake. Will try again but I feel the recipe needs adjusted. Icing was very yummy.
Hi April and Deanna, I am sorry your cakes were dense, they should not have been. Following are some reasons that can cause a cake to be dense.
1. Not measuring correctly — having a kitchen scale is the best way to go. If you do not
have a scale, spoon the flour into a measuring cup for dry ingredients, slightly overfill
and level off with the back of a knife. If you use your measuring cup to dip into the flour
container you will be packing flour into the cup, resulting in more flour than you need.
2. Preheat the oven at least 20 to 30 minutes before putting the cake in the oven. The batter
needs that burst of heat to begin the rising process.
3. Don’t mix the cake batter above medium speed or for too long. Keep in mind that hand-
held mixer will take a bit longer in incorporate ingredients than a stand mixer.
4. Check the expiration date on the baking powder and baking soda. They cannot be out of date.
I hope you will try the recipe again, sometime.
I already have American Buttercream (made with high ratio shortening) in the freezer. I plan on re-mixing it for a couple of minutes before using it, but I was wondering if I could add the white chocolate while mixing the buttercream and what is the taste difference?
Also, I always use the cake flavor of yogurt instead of sour cream; will that affect this recipe?
Hi Susan, Adding the cooled white chocolate to your existing buttercream will be adding additional liquid so I don’t know how much you could add before it could become too soft. You could use yogurt as a substitute for the sour cream. Greek yogurt would be my first choice, but you could use standard yogurt.
This looks delicious! My son would love it for his 5th birthday cake next week but will the structure stand up to being covered with white chocolate ganache and fondant or is it too moist?
Hi Mel Sen, You should have no problem using ganache and fondant.
can self rising flour be used and omit baking powder and backing soda, then use the procedure to add cornstarch to flour?
Hi Linda, I don’t have first hand experience in trying this. I have read in the link below that since self rising flour includes only baking powder, if your recipe has both baking powder and baking soda ( as this one does) you will need to add the baking soda.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2015/09/09/substitute-self-rising-flour-purpose-flour
Saw your mention of freezing cake layers, my mom used to make custom wedding cakes (pound cake recipe) and she always baked them a week ahead of time and froze them. Then she would assemble them a day or so before the wedding and decorate them. They were so moist!
Hi Rhonda, Yes, it does make a difference. Thanks for posting.
It looks so yummy and creamy.
I love this recipe.
Thanks for sharing…
I’m making a 2 tier cake(9 inch cakes and 6 inch cakes) this weekend. I was wondering if the cakes would be sturdy enough without using dowel rods or if I need to use them? I will be using ABC icing and fondant as well.
Hi Ashton, Yes, you will need to use dowel rods for your 2 tiered cake.
Question… For the strawberry filling, is it 1/4 c sugar or 100 g?
Hi JKS, It is 1/4 cup sugar. Thank you
Hello,
I made this cake last night and it was good! But I did not get a good strawberry flavor maybe it was the extract I used? It was also veryyy crumbly.
Hi Kelly, I am sorry the strawberry flavor was not good. It is a good idea to always smell your extract before using, even when it is not close to expiration date. I have had extract be bad even though not close to the expiration date. It should have had good flavor with 2 teaspoons extract. When you mention very crumbly, do you mean dry? If dry, it could mean too much flour. If not using a food scale, spoon the flour into a measuring cup for dry ingredients then level off with the back of a knife. Scooping a cup into a flour container packs in the flour giving you too much. Over baking also causes dryness. Thank you for trying the recipe and giving us your feedback.
I made this recipe, today. The cake is super moist and has a nice strawberry flavor. I loved the taste of icing. Will definitely make this one again! Thank you!
Hi Sandra, Your cake looks lovely! Thanks so much for posting your photo and for your nice comments on the recipe.
Hi Bebe and Meilissa!
Do you ladies create these recipes yourselves? I love your site!! :)
Hi Jillian, I am happy you are enjoying the site. We do try to make a recipe our own and some have been in the family for years. There are so many baking sites available online that we can’t compare them all to ours. We have seen ours on other sites, and that is fine. We see cake recipe titles that sound interesting and we often use one of our basic recipes tweaking it to make a different flavor. We just hope people who visit and try the recipes have success when making a cake/filling/frosting and enjoy what they bake.
Hi Bebe, can I cover this cake with fondant ?
Can I totally subs cake flour with APF to get a dense cake instead of spongy cake?
thanks
Amy
Hi Amy, Using 3 cups of all purpose flour without removing 6 Tablespoons and replacing with 6 tablespoons cornstarch will add more gluten to the recipe and possibly make it less moist. I think it will be fine to cover with fondant as the recipe is written. Chill the cake before laying on the fondant. You could cover the cake with ganache before adding fondant as an extra precaution but I don’t think it is necessary.
Hello,
I don’t know why my cake was taking apart after I dismantled the cake :(
Can you tell me please what I’m doing wrong, I always use special damp rings of cloth when I cook my cakes and after I leave them in the cake mold above a dryng grid for 10 minutes, but this cake when I started to dissasemble it, parts of cake rest in the mold.
It is so fragilz pieces are taking spart.
Thank you.
Hi Ber, I am sorry you had a problem. You should not have had that problem with the cake. Did you grease and flour the pan so the cake would not stick? As an extra precaution, you could also add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of each cake pan. Most of our cakes bake without a dome so if you are using 2 inch deep pans there is no need to use the damp cloth around the cake pan. I hope this helps, let me know.
Could I use strawberry preserves in this cake batter?
Hi Robin, We have not tried using strawberry preserves for the recipe so I cannot be sure.
Ok. I may just try it. I’ll let you know if it works!
Thanks so much!!
I only made the cake recipe and not the filling or the frosting. The cake kind of slightly sunk on top. I made two 9 inch rounds. I’m a very experienced baker and I have a baking business in my home. I know how to mix and do everything . Everything was at room temp. This is the only cake I make that does this. I’ve made it twice. Once last winter and now today. Both times, it has sunk slightly. It’s good and moist though. It took 45 mins for them to bake. Can you suggest anything at all as to what may be going on?
Thank you.
Hi Robin, I wish I had an answer for you but we haven’t experienced the sinking.
It’s hard to say the cause as there are several different possible reasons that a cake could sink- from expired leavening to under-baking, the oven not heating properly, over-mixing, etc. I’m sorry that this recipe did not work for you! We have two other scratch strawberry cakes- our new “Homemade Strawberry Cake” & “Strawberry Cake from Scratch” that are very popular also.