A real fresh strawberry cake and no artificial ingredients like food coloring or jello made with sweet juicy summer strawberries and topped with amazing strawberry buttercream frosting.
This strawberry cake recipe has strawberries baked in the cake and strawberry preserves in the buttercream and is a deliciously natural dessert...
This strawberry cake has a little story. While getting my hair done, a homemade strawberry cake was delivered and shared with the customers in the salon.
My hairdresser (aka "miracle worker") friend Tina, offered a piece and of course, I said yes!
It was delicious, and I came home inspired to bake a strawberry cake.
A real strawberry cake with fresh ingredients like real strawberry buttercream.
And this happened...
You Will Need
choose your cake pan
- two 9" round cake pans
- single rectangle cake pan 9 x 13
- a regular large sheet pan
- 5 small 6" round cake pans
I chose to do a 5 layer cake because it looks great, and when you consider that 5 layers will deliver more strawberry buttercream frosting per bite. Now that is all the reasoning I needed! LOL
strawberry buttercream frosting
- 2 cups unsalted butter soft/room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
- 1 cup strawberry preserves
strawberry cake
- ½ cup strawberries mashed/chopped
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour organic preferred or cake flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk (or sub milk)
- 1 cup strawberry preserves
- 2 baskets of fresh strawberries for decoration on top of the cake
Fresh Strawberry Tips
As soon as you get your strawberries home:
- Place the strawberries in a bowl and rinse with cool water and a splash of vinegar. PRO TIP: The vinegar cleans the berries but doesn't leave any taste, really I promise, and I do this all the time!
- Drain and place the strawberries in a clean bowl covered with plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for a day or two.
- Your strawberries are now clean to eat or use in a recipe straight out of the fridge.
Make the Strawberry Buttercream
Step 1: In the mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, (or a hand-held mixer), cream the butter and powder sugar at a low speed until blended.
Step 2: Next, increase speed until light and fluffy for another 3 minutes. Add the salt, vanilla, and heavy cream and beat on medium for 1 minute.
Step 3: If needed, add a bit more cream to make it smooth and creamy.
Step 4: Add strawberry preserves, for "food" color and flavor.
Step 5: Keep refrigerated and cool until ready to use. (see notes for frosting storage tips)
Bake the Strawberry Cake
Step 1: Puree strawberries in a blender, or chop finely. Set aside.
Step 2: Prepare cake pans. (I used a small 5 layer cake pan set from a craft store) This recipe will make two 9" round layers or a rectangle sheet cake. Lightly coat the pan/s with butter or coconut non-stick spray, dust with flour, and tap out excess. Set aside.
Step 3: Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
Step 4: In a stand mixer, blend butter and sugar until creamed. Next, slowly add in eggs and vanilla.
Step 5: With the mixer on low, gently add dry ingredients until just combined then add the buttermilk (or milk) until combined. Do not overmix.
Step 6: Add strawberry puree (strawberries mashed/chopped) and strawberry preserves by hand using a rubber spatula to combine.
Step 7: Divide batter into prepared cake pan/s, spread evenly. The batter is pretty thick.
Step 8: Bake 20 minutes at 350, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Bake time will depend on the size of your pans. Small 6" pans are baked in 20 minutes, larger pans will take about 24 minutes.
Assemble The Cake
Step 1: Cool cake/s, then tap out of pans and spread cake layers with a thin coat of buttercream frosting.
PRO TIP: It helps to place some buttercream frosting on your cake plate to hold the first layer of cake down. Once each cake layer is frosted and stacked. Run your offset spatula around the cake side to make it smooth. Chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then spread the final layer of buttercream frosting, and swirl or coat evenly.
Step 2: Decorate with strawberries cut in half and about the same size. Press into the buttercream frosting, and put one on top of the cake.
Step 3: Buttercream frosting will melt at room temperature, be sure to keep this cake refrigerated until ready to serve.
PRO TIP: You can freeze your buttercream frosting! When you are ready to use it for another recipe, simply store it in a sealed ziplock bag with all the air pushed out. Place on the counter to soften, squish the bag around to get the frosting ready to use and you are ready to add frosting to another dessert!
How To Get a Smoothly Frosted Cake
PRO BAKING TIP: Use a crumb coat...
- PRO TIP: Take some frosting out of the main bowl, and place it into a separate container. Using an offset spatula spread a thin layer of buttercream frosting on your cake and chill for 30 minutes. This is known as the crumb coat. And now if there are crumbs in your frosting, use the rest of the buttercream without the crumbs in it!
- The final coat of buttercream frosting will go on the cake really nicely, and you avoid lumpy cake crumbs in your frosting.
The strawberry buttercream is absolutely unbelievable...
More Of My Strawberry Recipes
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Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- 2 cups butter soft/room temperature
- 6 cups powdered sugar sifted
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 4 teaspoons real pure vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 cup strawberry preserves
Strawberry Cake
- ½ cup strawberries mashed/chopped
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour organic preferred or cake flour
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk (or sub milk)
- 1 cup strawberry preserves
- 2 baskets fresh strawberries for decoration on top of cake
Instructions
Make the Strawberry Buttercream
- In the mixer bowl fitted with paddle attachment, (or hand-held mixer), cream the butter and powder sugar on low-speed until blended.
- Next, increase speed until light and fluffy for another 3 minutes. Add the salt, vanilla, and heavy cream and beat on medium for 1 minute.
- If needed, add a bit more cream to make it smooth and creamy.
- Add strawberry preserves, for "food" color and flavor.
- Keep refrigerated and cool until ready to use. (see notes below for frosting storage tips)
Bake The Cake
- Puree strawberries in a blender, or chop finely. Set aside.
- Prepare cake pans. (I used a small 5 layer cake pan set from a craft store.) Lightly coat the pan/s with butter or coconut non-stick spray, dust with flour, and tap out excess. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Next, slowly add in eggs and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, gently add dry ingredients until just combined then add the buttermilk (or milk) until combined. Do not overmix.
- Add strawberry puree (strawberries mashed/chopped) and preserves by hand using a rubber spatula to combine.
- Divide batter into prepared cake pan/s, spread evenly. The batter is pretty thick.
- Bake 20 minutes at 350, or until toothpick comes out clean. Bake time will depend on the size of your pans. Small 6" pans are baked in 20 minutes, larger pans will take about 24 mintues.
Assemble The Cake
- Cool the cakes, then tap out of pans and spread cake layers with a thin coat of buttercream frosting. It helps to place some buttercream frosting on your cake plate to hold the first layer of cake down. Once each cake layer is frosted and stacked. Run your off-set spatula around the cake side to make it smooth. Chill in fridge for about 30 minutes. Then spread final layer of buttercream frosting, and swirl or coat evenly.
- Decorate with strawberries cut in half and about the same size. Press into the buttercream frosting, and put one on top of cake.
- Buttercream frosting will melt at room temperature, be sure to keep this cake refrigerated until ready to serve.
Notes
Buttercream Frosting
Store for up to a week in an airtight container. Before frosting, let come to room temperature and re-whip in the mixer until it is light and creamy again. PRO TIP: You can freeze your buttercream frosting! When you are ready to use it for another recipe, simply store it in a sealed ziplock bag with all the air pushed out. Place on the counter to soften, squish the bag around to get the frosting ready to use and you are ready to add frosting to another dessert! You can freeze buttercream up to 3 months. Defrost overnight, and re-whip in a mixer. Adding powder sugar will thicken the buttercream. Heavy cream will thin it out and makes it easier to spread.Cake Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour
The main difference between cake flour and all-purpose (AP) flour is the protein content (which becomes gluten). Cake flour is about 8% protein content, while the protein content of AP flour is about 10-11%. When you're making cakes, use cake flour that's lower in protein and will result in spongier cakes.Decorating
Use a crumb coat to get a smoothly frosted cake.
- Using an offset spatula spread a thin layer of buttercream frosting on your cake and chill for 30 minutes
- The final coat of buttercream frosting will go on the cake really nicely, and you avoid cake crumbles in your frosting!
Made this with 2 layers instead of 5. Didn’t add strawberries to the buttercream icing. It was delicious and moist. Recipe doesn’t say whe to add the buttermilk (I added with wet ingredients in the batter). Also recipe batter calls for fresh strawberries and puréed strawberries so I just used 2 baskets of puréed fresh strawberries , is this a misprint? Cake was excellent !!
Hey Kim! Thank you for making the strawberry cake and for your comment. You are right! I had a typo, in fact, this was one of my first recipes I ever put on my website and so I rewrote the entire recipe to clear up the mistakes. The 2 baskets of strawberries are for decoration, but I am thrilled it works to add that much strawberry puree. Appreciate your understanding, now the recipe is great thanks to you. Oh, and a huge thanks for rating the recipe!
Strawberry cake is my cake of choice for my birthday but I always feel like the store-bought strawberry frosting and cake mixes taste more like sugar than strawberries. I made your recipe for my birthday this year and it tasted SO much more authentic and strawberry-y. I was fighting off family and friends for the last piece and promised to make it again for Easter. I cannot wait!