Strawberry Cake {A Scratch Recipe}
We have fallen in love with this flavorful scratch Strawberry Cake.
This strawberry layer cake has become one of our favorite recipes, with its 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.
Table of Contents
Why we Love it
- Moist, tender cake layers
- We love cakes with fruit for their light and refreshing flavor (as with our pineapple cake, lemon cake recipe, raspberry cake, and so many more!)
- Wonderful strawberry flavor from strawberry puree and strawberry extract, as with our strawberry coconut cake and more.
- Plenty of batter for three 8 inch cake layers
- Works great with frozen strawberries, making it a perfect year-round cake!
- Makes a great birthday cake recipe, special occasion cake, and more.
Frostings for Strawberry Cake
This moist strawberry cake is bursting with wonderful strawberry flavor, and tastes amazing with these frostings and fillings (and many more)!
- Strawberry Filling
- Chocolate Buttercream (if making a chocolate covered strawberry cake!)
Fresh vs. Frozen Strawberries
You don't have to wait for strawberry season to enjoy this delicious strawberry cake. It calls for strawberry puree made from fresh or frozen strawberries.
We think you'll love the fresh strawberry flavor that more than a cup of strawberry puree lends to the cake.
Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
This cake calls for the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing, for a moist and tender cake. The ingredients are added in a different order than the traditional creaming method, resulting in a slightly tighter crumb and velvety texture.
*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!
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 Strawberry Cakes
We've made several delicious strawberry cakes over the years! Here are just a few of our favorites. You can find our full collection of favorites here: Strawberry Cakes, Fillings, and Frostings!
Some of our favorites are our Homemade Strawberry Cake (which contains cream cheese in the cake batter for a velvety texture), Strawberry Bundt Cake, and Strawberry Pound Cake.
Our Strawberry Shortcake Cake (with pound cake layers and fresh strawberries) as well as our Strawberry Lemonade Cake are popular spring and summer cakes also!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Strawberry Cake from Scratch
Equipment
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 (4g) vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons (8g) 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 (113g) unsalted butter, slightly softened. (We 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.
- Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, strawberry puree, vanilla extract, 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
Hi Luke, Yes, that would be correct, it should still weight 340g.
Mine didn't rise too well. I noticed that the dry ingredients and butter didn't ever become like described. The butter was still cold but soft. So not sure what happened. Still tastes nice.
One thing I am finding is that the recommended cream cheese frosting is overpowering the flavour of the cake. Is there a way to have the lovely strawberry taste come through without it being overpowered? Should I perhaps add strawberry jam/jelly in between the layers?
Hi Luke, I'm sorry your cakes did not rise very well. Are you new to the reverse creaming method? In the description of the cake Melissa has a link to a reverse creaming video, if you would like to watch it. The recipe could also be rewritten in the conventional mixing method.
As for the cream cheese frosting, we have a second cream cheese frosting that has a less intense cream cheese taste, here is a link https://www.mycakeschool.com/cream-cheese-frosting/. You can add more strawberry flavor to the cake by spreading a thin layer of strawberry puree on the layers before frosting. Just puree extra strawberries when you are making puree for the recipe. We also have a strawberry buttercream in the recipe section that could be used.
Can I fold in fresh chopped strawberries to the batter before baking?
Hi Lora, You are wanting to fold in chopped strawberries in addition to the 1 1/2 cup pureed strawberries in the recipe, is that correct? As the cake bakes the fresh chopped strawberries will add additional moisture to the cake so I am not sure how that will affect the outcome. When you add your frosting between the layers you could add some sliced or chopped strawberries to the filling, that would add extra strawberry flavor.
Hi there,
I was wondering if i have to use the strawberry puree or fresh strawberries, or can i get away with using just the strawberry emulsion?
Hello. I wanted to bake this using the conventional mixing method. Can you pls give a simple guide of how to do it. Thanks.
Hi Sumaiya, Here is the recipe for conventional mixing method
Strawberry Cake #2 (Conventional Creaming Method)
1 1/2 cups (340g) strawberry puree — I used frozen strawberries that were slightly sweetened, you could also use
fresh, puree the thawed strawberries in a food processor or blender.
3 cups (300g) cake flour **if you do not have cake flour see note below.
1Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (14g) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6g) salt
1 stick (113g) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup (350g) sugar
4 large eggs
1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla
2 teaspoons (8g) strawberry extract
a very small amount (we add with a toothpick) AmeriColor pink or pink coloring of your choice (optional but will give you a prettier pink cake)
*If using all purpose flour (plain in UK) you can use the following substitution: for each cup of flour in the recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch. For this recipe measure out 3 cups all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans - I recommend using a circle of wax or parchment paper in the bottom of
each pan. Cakes with fruit have a tendency to stick to the pan.
In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt, whisk to blend and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix until softened and smooth. Slowly add the sugar and mix on medium speed 4 to 5 minutes.
Add the oil and blend
Add the eggs one at a time and mix until the yellow of each egg is blended in
Add the vanilla and strawberry extract, blend
Alternately, add the flour mixture and the strawberry puree, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of flour and 2 of strawberry puree)
Add 2 to 3 drops AmeriColor pink coloring or your pink coloring of choice (optional but you will have a prettier shade of
pink for your cake)
Pour cake batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Cool 5 to 10 minutes then turn out
How many cups of batter does this make? I'm trying to determine how many batches I need for a 10 inch tier. It'll be 3 layers. Do you think it'll hold up to being the bottom layer of a 3 tiered cake if supported properly? I also would like to know if you've made cupcakes with this method. Do you prefer this method or the conventional mixing method for cupcakes?
Hi, This recipe makes 7 1/2 cups batter. Here is a link to 2 charts giving batter amounts, you will find them helpful
http://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
I think the recipe will hold up to being the bottom tier if the upper tiers are properly supported. The supports will hold the weight. I like both reverse creaming as well the conventional mixing for cupcakes. It is personal preference. The reverse creaming will have a tighter crumb but also will be very tender. Both methods will give you a cupcake with a very slight dome.
Hi,
Would this cake work under fondant? Single tier only. And what frosting would you recommend for the layers?
Cheers, can’t wait to try it!