Strawberry Cake

This strawberry cake, filling and frosting are bursting with strawberry flavour and there are two types of strawberry ingredient that make it taste so perfect.

How to make strawberry cake

Just like with any cake, all of your ingredients need to be at room temperature. Take your eggs, milk and butter out of the fridge a few hours before you start baking.

This is an easy strawberry cake recipe with just a few steps. Before you start, whisk the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) together and mix the wet ingredients together, too. These are milk, vanilla and blended strawberries. This recipe uses two kinds of strawberries: fresh or frozen and also freeze-dried strawberries. This will give you the maximum fresh strawberry flavour and colour without making the cake heavy or dense.

Now it's time to put it all together. Mix the butter and sugar together at medium speed for about 3 minutes until it's light and creamy, like this:

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds after each one. This will make your cake light because the ingredients are properly mixed together.

Scrape down to the bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula to make sure there aren't any clumps of sugary butter stuck to the bottom. Then add a third of the flour mixture, mixing only until it's blended in.

Then add add half of the strawberry mixture and mix that just until it's incorporated, too. This cake batter will be pink from the strawberries but if you want it to be pinker you can add some food colouring.

Mix in another third of the flour, then the rest of the strawberry mixture and then the rest of the flour mixture.

How to bake a strawberry cake

Divide the strawberry cake batter between two or three 8 inch pans. I like to use three so there are more layers of cake and also more layers of filling.

If you want a smaller, taller cake you can use the same recipe in four 6 inch cake pans. This makes a really elegant cake with lots of space on the sides to add decorations. More about that, later in this tutorial!

Tap the pans on the counter to level the batter and then pop these into the oven. Bake 23 minutes at 350° F or 175° C. When the cake springs back up when you poke it, the cakes are baked. Don't bake any longer than this or the cakes will dry out.

Let the cakes sit in the pans for 5 minutes to cool slightly. When you can touch the pans without an oven glove, then turn over onto to a wire rack. Leave them for about 2 hours to cool completely.

How to make strawberry buttercream

Meanwhile, make the most delicious strawberry buttercream! Mix butter and powdered sugar or icing sugar on the lowest speed to prevent air bubbles in the buttercream. Add freeze-dried strawberries, blended into a fine powder for a smooth buttercream. Using freeze-dried strawberries instead of fresh strawberries gives you all the strawberry flavour without making the buttercream too runny. Finally, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk to thin the buttercream out slightly. This will make it easier to spread onto the strawberry cake.

This strawberry buttercream is so delicious, you can eat it out of the bowl with a spoon! It also tastes incredible paired with my Very Vanilla Cake.

Layer strawberry cake and strawberry filling

Once the cake layers have cooled, spread a bit of buttercream onto a cake board or plate or platter. This will attach the first cake layer and hold the cake still when you frost it next. Pipe or spread some buttercream to cover the cake, which will be the filling. The smell is so good with the two types of strawberry ingredients in the cake and also in the buttercream. Yum!

Lower the next cake layer down on top, lining it up straight. Pipe or spread on some more buttercream and finish with the top layer. I like to place the top cake layer upside down with the flattest, least crumbly side facing up.

Cover the whole cake with more strawberry buttercream. Since this isn't a crumbly cake, the strawberry frosting will glide over the cake and you don't need a crumb coat!

My favourite way to decorate this rustic style strawberry cake is with texture. This means you don't need to be a master at smooth frosting! Scrape around the cake with a cake comb or your offset spatula to smooth the frosting slightly and then use the back of a spoon to add texture. You can drag the spoon upwards or sideways around the cake, or in little curves or arc shapes.

You can decorate this with fresh strawberries or freeze-dried strawberries, or both! I love the way freeze-dried strawberries look and they won't leak any strawberry juices onto your cake.

If you want to decorate the cake with a theme using different colours and styles, use the strawberry buttercream as a crumb coat. Let it set in the fridge for about 30 minutes before adding different frosting on top. This way you'll have all of the flavour of the strawberry buttercream but whatever unique decorations you like. For the Flamingo cake below I baked this recipe in four 6" pans and used three quarters of the strawberry buttercream recipe for the filling and crumb coat.

How to move a cake onto a cake stand or platter

If you frosted the cake on a cake board, you can move it onto a platter or cake stand. Put the cake into the fridge for an hour or two to set the frosting so it's very firm. Then slide a spatula underneath it to separate it from the board. Spin the spatula all the way around, between the cake and the cake board. Then lift the cake up and lower it down onto the cake stand. I spread a bit of buttercream on the cake stand to attach the cake so it doesn't move when I lift it.

You can keep this cake in the fridge for a day or two before serving it. Take it out of the fridge at least two hours before you serve it so that it warms up to room temperature. That's when the cake and buttercream will taste the best.

The fresh and freeze-dried strawberries make the cake taste just as full of strawberry flavour as the buttercream and it's just heavenly! I hope you love this fresh strawberry cake as much as I do.

If you try this recipe, please leave a review below! And you'll find a step by step video tutorial of this recipe below as well.

Strawberry Cake

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• Author: Emily - British Girl Bakes
• Yield: a three layer 8" cake 1x

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Description

This cake, filling AND frosting are bursting with strawberry flavour!

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

For the strawberry cake:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup whole milk (full fat)
• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
• 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries (15g)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

 

For the strawberry buttercream:

• 2 cups unsalted butter
• 6 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup freeze-dried strawberries (plus 1/4 cup for decorating, optionally!) = 15g
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons whole milk (full fat)

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Instructions

To bake the strawberry cake:

1. In a mixer, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on medium speed for 30 seconds after each one, before adding the next. Scrape down to the bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula to make sure all of the butter and sugar are mixed in.
3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add a third of the flour mixture to the mixer and mix on low speed only until incorporated.
4. In a blender or food processor, blend fresh/frozen and freeze-dried strawberries until smooth.
5. Whisk together milk, strawberries and vanilla. Add half of the strawberry mixture to the mixer and mix at low speed only until incorporated. Mix in another third of the flour, then the rest of the strawberry mixture, and then the final third of the flour mixture.
6. Divide the batter between three greased 8” pans. Tap the pans on the counter to level the batter and then bake at 350C or 175C for 23 minutes. When the cake springs back up when you poke it, the cakes are baked. Don’t bake any longer than this or the cakes will dry out.
7. Let the cakes sit in the pans for 5 minutes to cool slightly and then turn over onto a wire rack and leave them to cool.

To make the strawberry buttercream filling and frosting:

1. Mix butter and sugar together at low speed for 4 minutes, until smooth.
2. Blend freeze-dried strawberry in a blender or food processor to make a powder. Mix the powder into the buttercream.
3. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the buttercream is the consistency of peanut butter or stuff whipped cream.

To layer and frost the cake:

1. Spread a bit of buttercream onto the middle of a cake board or flat plate or platter. Press the first cake layer onto the buttercream to secure it in place.
2. Spread strawberry buttercream to cover the top of the cake layer and then place the next cake layer on top. Spread strawberry filling on top and then add the final cake layer.
3. Spread strawberry buttercream to cover the cake. Smooth with a cake comb or offset spatula. To add texture, drag a spoon in arc motions, pushing it gently into the frosting to make swirls.
4. Serve this cake at room temperature. You can refrigerate it for 2 days but take it out of the fridge at least 2 hours before serving.

Notes

You can use salted butter instead of unsalted butter - just leave out the salt in the recipe.

You can also watch a video of this strawberry cake recipe tutorial: