Fresh Strawberry Cake
This super moist Fresh Strawberry Cake gets all of its flavor from fresh strawberries. There are no artificial colorings, flavors, or mixes and yet it’s packed full of delicious strawberry flavor. The cake is then smothered in a luscious strawberry cream cheese frosting and topped with more fresh strawberries. It’s the perfect dessert for spring, summer or to celebrate a birthday!
What makes this strawberry cake so good?
This cake recipe is adapted from my famous fresh strawberry sheet cake. It’s a reader favorite and a go to recipe for any celebration. It’s so well loved because of how rich and moist the cake is, which is then topped with a silky strawberry cream cheese frosting.
It works beautifully as a sheet cake, but I wanted to develop a layer cake recipe with sturdy cake layers and a thicker cream cheese frosting. This cake is exactly that! The cake itself is so moist and fluffy, using a combination of butter, oil, and sour cream to add that rich texture.
Lightly blended strawberries give this cake its flavor. Rather than blending the strawberries until smooth, a somewhat chunky consistency provides little specks of strawberry all throughout the cake. Because of this, no artificial colors, flavors, gelatins, or mixes are needed in this recipe.
Baking the cake with cake flour also gives each layer a delicate texture. This cake is fluffy but also rich and moist.
And the frosting… I could eat this by the spoonful. It’s so creamy and SO flavorful. Rather than using fresh strawberry puree, ground freeze dried strawberries and strawberry jam are used to add flavor and color. The two help create a perfect cream cheese frosting that isn’t too dry or too thick.
Tips for making fresh strawberry cake batter
This cake batter is very easy to make, but here are a few tips to ensure it turns out perfect:
- Measure the flour properly. Spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off with a flat edge. Don’t shake it or pack it down into the cup and don’t scoop straight from the bag or container. This always leads to the use of way too much flour, leaving you with a dry cake.
- Lightly blend the strawberries. Place the cleaned and cut strawberries in a food processor and pulse about 2 times. It should still be chunky as we want those bits of strawberry throughout the batter. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also mash the strawberries by hand.
- Whip the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. This will add air to the cake, creating a fluffy texture. See picture above for reference.
- Use room temperature ingredients, especially the butter and eggs! Otherwise your batter could turn out lumpy.
- Bake both cake layers at the same time. Pour the batter into two 8″ round cake pans to fill each about halfway full.
How to make strawberry cream cheese frosting
The real star of the show here is the strawberry frosting. It’s sweet, silky, rich, and FULL of strawberry flavor.
The most important step is to start with room temperature cream cheese and butter. This will ensure the frosting turns out really smooth and silky. If you’re in a pinch, keep the cream cheese in the foil wrapping and submerge it in a bowl of warm water for about 20 minutes. For the butter, heat the stick in the microwave for 10 seconds, then turn the butter and heat for another 10 seconds.
Cream together the cream cheese and butter using a hand or stand mixer, just make sure to use the whisk attachment. Once those are smooth, mix in one cup of powdered sugar at a time.
The frosting gets all the flavor from two ingredients: freeze dried strawberries and strawberry jam. For the freeze dried strawberries, blend them in a food processor until it turns into a powder. Add to the buttercream once all of the powdered sugar is mixed in.
It’s best to use a jam that isn’t too chunky, that’s why you should stay away from preserves as these often have whole pieces of fruit.
Once it’s ready, and the cakes have cooled, it’s time to assemble the cake!
How to assemble this cake
Once the cake is baked, allow the layers to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool for at least an hour.
When the cakes are completely cooled, use a cake leveler or a large knife to level off the tops. Then place one layer on your desired serving tray and plop about 1 cup of frosting into the center of the cake.
Spread it even with an offset spatula and place the next cake layer on top, rounded side facing up. Plop almost all of the remaining buttercream into the center of the top layer of cake and use an offset spatula to spread it out to the sides, then spreading it down the edges.
Use a spoon or the spatula to create swirls all around the cake. If the buttercream becomes too warm, pop the cake in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes and then continue to work.
Once complete, top with fresh strawberries and enjoy!
FAQs
This could be due to a couple things. Did you measure the flour properly? See my notes in the “tips for baking strawberry cake” section. If you did, then your baking powder or baking soda may be expired. If they aren’t, too many wet ingredients may have been used in the batter. If they aren’t measured precisely, the cake could turn out too dense, wet, and stodgy. Last, it could be an issue with the oven temperature. If the temperature is too low, the cake won’t bake fast enough and not rise properly.
Yes! Bake the cakes and allow them to cool as instructed. Once they are completely cool at room temp, wrap each cake layer in plastic wrap completely. Make sure no air can get in. Chill in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
This recipe can also be baked in two 9″ cake pans or three 6″ cake pans. The cake times are about the same, but reduce the time by a couple minutes in a 9″ pan. 6″ cakes may need longer to bake so start as instructed, and add on more time as needed.
To make a sheet cake, hop on over to my fresh strawberry sheet cake recipe.
These can be found at most grocery stores next to the nuts and trail mix. Target and Trader Joe’s always have them, just make sure to get FREEZE dried strawberries and not just regular dried strawberries. You can also order them in bulk from Amazon.
I don’t recommend leaving these out of the recipe as they provide tons of flavor and color.
If it’s whole and unsliced, store it in the fridge in a cake container for up to 3 days. If it’s sliced into, cover the slice openings with plastic wrap and store in a cake container in the fridge for up to 2 days. You can store individual slices in an air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 days as well.
For more delicious strawberry recipes, check out my:
- Best Strawberry Cupcakes (with Roasted Strawberries!)
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
- Easy Roasted Strawberry Shortcakes
- Best Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
- Strawberry Pop Tart Shortbread
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram and leave a review below if you make this Fresh Strawberry Cake. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
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Fresh Strawberry Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 8″ Cake
Description
This strawberry cake gets all of its flavor from fresh strawberries! Two layers of moist and fluffy strawberry cake are smothered in a luscious strawberry cream cheese frosting. It’s the perfect cake to bake for Spring and Summer!
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake
- 2 cups (260g) all purpose flour *see notes
- 2/3 cup (85g) cake flour *see notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup (55g) unsalted butter, room temp
- 1/2 cup (100g) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup (225g) lightly blended strawberries *see notes
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (115g) sour cream (can sub unflavored Greek yogurt or regular yogurt)
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8oz full fat cream cheese, room temp
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
- 6 cups (720g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup (40g) ground freeze dried strawberries
- 1/4 cup (90g) strawberry jam
Instructions
Strawberry Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease two 8″ round cake pans. Cut a round of parchment paper to fit on the bottom of each pan. If you have cake strips, use them as well.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or a hand mixer, whip together the butter and oil until it resembles cottage cheese. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the sugar and whip until it turns pale and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
- Scrape down the bowl and mix in one egg at a time, followed by the vanilla.
- Scrape down the bowl and mix again to ensure the eggs are fully incorporated.
- Mix in the strawberry puree until well combined.
- Alternate mixing in the dry ingredients and sour cream. Starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Once smooth, scrape down the bowl to ensure everything at the bottom is fully mixed in.
- Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack and continue to cool for about 45 minutes. Once they are completely cooled, make the frosting.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using a hand or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, cream together the room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth.
- Mix in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, followed by the freeze dried strawberry powder and strawberry jam. If the buttercream is too thick, add about 1-2 tablespoons of milk.
- Level off the cakes if needed and frost the cake accordingly (see assembly instructions in post if needed). Enjoy!
Notes
FLOUR – Make sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with a flat edge. Don’t shake it down into the cup or pack it in, and definitely don’t scoop straight from the bag or container. This will lead to too much flour in the batter, leaving you with a dry cake.
BLENDED STRAWBERRIES – Clean, cut, and halve the strawberries and place into a food processor. Pulse about 3 times. It should be the consistency of restaurant salsa – half blended and half with small strawberry bits. See picture in post for reference.
GLUTEN FREE – Although I have not tested it, replace all flours with a good gluten free baking flour with xanthan gum.
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
Made your strawberry cake yesterday!! Omg it was delicious!! Also made a GF version with King Arther baking flour for my mom!
The icing is amazing!!
Another amazing recipe from you! This cake is strawberries through and through! I made it for my daughter’s birthday. It was delicious and she loved it!
I made this the other day for my husbands birthday and it was amazing! It tastes so much like strawberry it was a hit. Even my mother who tells the world she doesn’t like sweets liked this! The cake isn’t too sweet which is good. I did only use three cups of powdered sugar for the frosting because I ran out. This is definitely going into my recipe binder
Hey there, this came out really yummy. I did not find the freeze dried strawberries and it was still delicious. I also did not have the cake flour and just used regular. All still worked. Thank you for sharing!
I substituted with Pamela’s gluten free flour and the cake turned out divine. It was moist, the perfect amount of sweet, soft, and fresh. It is worth it to make it from scratch. I will, without a doubt, be using this recipe again!
Absolutely divine! I made this for my son’s birthday and it was devoured. Perfectly sweet, incredibly moist.
I substituted for Pamela’s GF flour and it turned out amazing. Additionally, I opted for cream cheese frosting (16oz cream cheese, 12tbsp butter, 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp vanilla). I will be using this recipe again!
I made this cake this week after previously making your fresh strawberry sheet cake recipe (and loving it) and it was a hit! I made it for a friend’s child’s birthday and heard great reviews! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Can I roast the strawberries before blending them in this recipe? I love the roasted strawberry flavor from your cupcake recipe.
I made this cake today and it is so delicious! I love that the strawberry flavor comes from actual strawberries.
I discovered your blog and your Insta during the beginning of the pandemic. I am so glad I did! Not only do you have great recipes but you have kept me laughing throughout this time. Thanks for sharing your recipes and your sense of humor!
Im curious if you have made this into cupcakes or what you would recommend to change for cupcakes