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
My Cake School- Sharing Our Best Cake Recipes and Cake Tutorials!
Don't miss our full collection of favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section! We also have a huge Free Cake Tutorials Section if you're interested in learning sweet and simple cake decorating techniques.
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!
For even more of our favorite cake recipes, make sure to stop by our Cake Recipes Section. This includes all of our favorite cake recipes, favorite frostings, and more!
If you are interested in learning more about cake decorating, we have tons of creative cake tutorials on our site! Make sure to scroll through our Free Cake Tutorials Section, which also includes a Free Cake Video Tutorials Section!
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
Hi
Can I use strawberry emulsion instead of extract?
Hi Jordyn, we have not used emulsion but it should work well for you.
Im making them in cupcake form. So you have an estimate for how long they need to be put in?
Hi Andie, For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes. The cupcakes will bake with a low dome as with almost all scratch recipes.
I love this recipe!! Have mad many times and people love it! Have you tried with other fruit puree? Blueberries? Raspberries? I am thinking about giving it a try!
Hi Kp, so happy to hear it! We haven't experimented much with different purees for this recipe. We do have a recipe for Blueberry Cake & one for Raspberry Cake that we really like- they aren't based on this recipe, but we think they are delicious too! ;0) -
https://www.mycakeschool.com/raspberry-layer-cake-from-scratch/
https://www.mycakeschool.com/blueberry-cake/
I want to make this cake and ice it ahead of time - will it freeze ok like that?
Hi Nicky, You can complete the cake and frost in buttercream or a cream cheese frosting. Refrigerate the completed cake for 2 hours or until the frosting is firm to the touch. Cover the cake with two layers of plastic wrap then aluminum foil because it need to be airtight. Now freeze for up to two months. When ready to use defrost in the refrigerator or on the countertop. Once condensation begins to form on the aluminum foil you can unwrap and allow to continue to thaw. You will want to remove the plastic wrap while the frosting is still firm so it will not stick to the plastic wrap.
Hi there,
Do I need to put the purée in a sauce pan and cook down to 1 1/2 cups or do I essentially just blend up the strawberries and use that as purée? (no need to cook)
Hi Amanda, we did not cook the strawberries down. I hope that you enjoy it!
Hello,
I wanted to try this recipe but I wanted to know if a strawberry reduction could be used instead of the puree. could I use part milk and part reduction?
Hi Tish- It would be an experiment but it seems that if you are using 1 1/2 cup of reduction or reduction/milk combination in place of the 1 1/2 cup puree, it should be fine! ;0)