A few years ago, I created this Strawberry Lemonade cake that became an instant hit: cake flavored with fresh strawberries (pureed and reduced), filled with strawberry buttercream, topped with lemon buttercream – basically Summer in cake form! It’s been on my list to write an all-strawberry cake recipe ever since, and after getting a request for one via Instagram DM, I knew it was time. I took to the store for a pound of fresh strawberries and a package of freeze dried strawberries to give you the ultimate flavor profile. I promise, it’s as delicious as it is pretty to look at!
I know what you might be thinking: why fresh strawberries and freeze dried strawberries? After tons of testing, fresh strawberries are hands-down the best way to flavor a cake, while freeze-dried strawberries are hands-down the best way to flavor buttercream. Trust me, there is no way around it. The good news is that most groceries stores carry both, but if you have a hard time finding freeze-dried strawberries, you can always order them on Amazon (these are the ones I use, but I get them from my local Trader Joe’s).
When it comes to flavoring a cake with fresh strawberries, it’s not enough to just chop them up and add them to your batter (you’ll just have a vanilla cake with weird strawberry chunks). It’s also not enough to simply puree them, since the excess liquid tends to water down the flavor. Instead, you must puree and reduce the strawberries to intensify the strawberry flavor while evaporating most of the liquid.
For this fluffy and flavorful strawberry cake, I started with my favorite Vanilla Cake recipe as a base and adjusted the leavening agents to accommodate the acidity in the strawberries (aka I reduced the baking soda slightly). After the reduced strawberry puree hits room temperature, I whisked it together with the whole milk in the recipe and added it in at the end. Reducing the strawberries does make this recipe a little bit more involved, but it’s so worth it for the incredible flavor!
Remember how I said freeze-dried strawberries are best for flavoring the buttercream? This is because adding fresh (or even frozen) strawberries to buttercream will add way too much liquid and not enough flavor. As opposed to simply freezing strawberries, the process of freeze-drying eliminates all of the liquid from the berry, leaving only the intense flavor. After grinding those freeze-dried berries into a fine powder, adding them to buttercream is the only way (in my humble opinion) to get that refreshing, pure flavor you imagine when you think of strawberry buttercream.
After filling and frosting these beautiful cake layers with tasty strawberry buttercream, I decorated with pretty piping (using Wilton Tips 1M for the rosettes and 4B for the stars), fresh strawberries, and chamomile flowers. The flowers were an impulse on the way out of the store – I couldn’t stop imagining them on my final cake design and felt safe to use them because they’re 100% edible (although I would not recommend eating them because they don’t taste the best). They did make this cake look extra cute though!
However you decorate, one thing is for sure – this cake is a strawberry lover’s dream! And bonus if that strawberry lover also is a big fan of the color pink.
Homemade Strawberry Layer Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Layer Cake
- 11 oz (312g) fresh strawberries, stems removed
- 3/4 Cup (180ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 2 1/2 Cups (265g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 2/3 Cups (330g) granulated white sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/3 Cup (80g) sour cream, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 drops pink food coloring, optional
Strawberry Buttercream
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Cups (34g) freeze dried strawberries**
- 6 Tbsp (90ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
Make the Strawberry Layer Cake
- Make the Strawberry Reduction: After cutting off the stems of the strawberries, puree them using a food processor. Afterwards, you should be left with 1 cup of puree. Place the strawberry puree into a saucepan over medium-low heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. When you’re done with the reduction, you should have about 1/2 cup (if you have more, keep cooking!). Place the reduced puree into an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes, or until it reaches room temperature. Then, whisk it together with the whole milk and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and fitting the bottoms with wax or parchment paper circles.
- In a medium sized bowl, place the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, whip the butter on high until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the granulated sugar and beat together with the butter at medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and sour cream, then turn the mixer to high and beat for 1 minute.
- Keeping the mixer on low, add all of the dry ingredients at once until just combined, then add the strawberry milk mixture and pink food coloring (if using) until just combined, about 30 seconds. Give the batter a few stirs by hand to make sure everything is incorporated without over-mixing.
- Pour the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Cool the cakes in the pan for five minutes, after which you can turn them out and continue to cool them on a wire rack or sheet pan for several hours.
Make the Strawberry Buttercream
- With a food processor, grind the freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder and set aside. You'll have between 1/4 and 1/3 Cup of strawberry powder after grinding.
- Whip the butter using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium speed until it’s creamy and light in color (5-10 minutes). Add vanilla, milk, and strawberry powder and continue to mix on medium for 1 minute.
- Add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition. Add the salt and mix on low for another 30 seconds.
Assembly
- After cooling and leveling the strawberry cake layers, fill and frost with strawberry buttercream. To create the look pictured, create a smooth buttercream finish with the strawberry buttercream. Then, divide the remaining buttercream amongst two piping bags – one fitted with Wilton Tip 1M and one fitted with Wilton Tip 4B. Pipe rosettes and stars in a crescent moon shape on top of the cake and as accents on the side of the cake. Finish the look by garnishing with fresh sliced strawberries and chamomile flowers.
Notes
- You can make the reduced strawberry puree up to one week before using in the cake recipe and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make the cake. Just bring it back to room temperature by letting it sit on the counter for at least an hour.
- The cake layers can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can wrap them and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and decorating.
- The buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip with your stand mixer on low for one minute to bring it back to frosting consistency.
Did you make this cake recipe? I want to know how it went! Leave me a comment below and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me. I love to see what you create!
Good morning…thank you for your strawberry and vanilla cake recipes. Not only easy to make they’re delicious! I’ve made the “Strawberry Crunch” cake a few times and it is constantly requested.
Yay, Patricia! I’m so happy to hear that these recipes have been a hit! Thanks for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Hi Whitney! I made this cake in September and it was SUCH a hit. I am making it again this weekend but I remember the layers not looking as colorful as yours did. Would you recommend adding any gel food coloring to the batter? And if so how much? I have the Wilton Color Right gels and thought maybe a drop of either the red or pink?
So happy you love this recipe, Adriana! I did specify in the recipe to add 1-2 drops of pink food coloring at the end of the recipe if you’re wanting a more vibrant pink cake (like mine!). A few drops of the pink from the Wilton Color Right gels will work perfectly, I think that’s the same gel I used in this cake. Enjoy!!
Thanks so much! I scanned through the recipe to see if you mentioned food coloring and totally missed that you had included it.
Hi Whitney! This cake looks amazing – I can’t wait to try it! How many cupcakes would one batch make, you think? Wondering if I need to double 🙂
Hi Kaitlin! So excited for you to try this cake! One batch of this recipe yields about 36-40 cupcakes. If you do decide to bake this recipe as cupcakes, just be sure to fill the tins no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350 for about 15-17 min. Enjoy!
Hi Whitney!
First of all thank you for your inspiration! You are a true artist! I follow you from Scandinavia Finland!
I could only find freeze dried raspberries so I was wondering if I made this cake completely from raspberries instead of strawberries do you think it will work as well? I love raspberries so much!
Thank you for your reply! ❤️
Hi Heili! You certainly can sub in an equal amount of freeze dried raspberries in this recipe, or any freeze dried fruit – I do it all the time. Enjoy!
I did it!!! And what an amazing cake!!! I had picked wild raspberries last summer from our back yard and frozen them. I made a pure from those, then I removed all the raspberry seeds and cooked a reduction. It was a bit of work but my god it made the cake great!!! For the butter cream I bought the freeze dried raspberries from our grocery store! I loved it!
Yay, Heili! I am going to have to try a raspberry version of this cake recipe now – what a brilliant idea!
Well I love raspberries obviously… But it is a bit more to do compared to strawberries because of the seeds. Some people don’t mind them and me neither when I am eating whole berries. But with a pure and a reduction I think they have to be removed. And of course all the raspberries vary when it comes to seeds. Those wild berries are so tiny but full of flavour and lots of seeds. My mother grows a totally different assortment which nearly has none seeds but I think they are not so sweet.. is there a way to send you a picture of my cake?
I’d love to see your cake! You can tag me on Instagram (@sugarandsparrowco) to show me or email me a photo at sugarandsparrow@gmail.com
Hi Whitney! Can I replace the freeze dried strawberry with fresh strawberry in make the strawberry buttercream?
Hi Audrey! The reason I use freeze dried strawberries in the buttercream recipe is because the moisture has been removed from the berries, so there’s no added liquid to worry about messing with the overall consistency of the buttercream. If you use fresh strawberries, too much liquid will be added with not enough flavor. Instead, I would recommend either finding a recipe that uses fresh strawberries or you can also try making and adding more reduced strawberry puree for the buttercream (to use in place of the freeze dried berries). I’ve never tried it before, but it seems like it would work better than straight fresh strawberries in terms of adding flavor without too much liquid. Just make sure it’s room temp before you add it!
Hi mam greetings from India.. instead of strawberry powder can we add fresh strawberry in making buttercream recipe
Hi Geeta! I find that freeze dried strawberry powder is best for this recipe, mainly because fresh strawberries contain so much water which can ruin the consistency of the buttercream. If you don’t have access to freeze dried strawberries you could try making a strawberry puree from fresh strawberries and then cook it down (reduce it) until most of the liquid has been removed. Bring it to room temp and add it into the buttercream at the end. Again, I haven’t tried this method with this recipe so it would be an experiment!
Hi I want to follow you on insta what is your insta name please
Hi Pauline! You can follow me @sugarandsparrowco 🙂
Hi Whitney,
This cake looks stunning. I would like to make it for my daughter’s birthday. Can i bake them in three 7 inch by 3 inch pans? Or do I need to scale the recipe? For a trial, Can i divide the recipe in thirds and then bake it in 7 inch by 3 inch pan?
Excited for you to make this recipe, Dianne! Scaling this recipe will depend on how tall you want each layer to be. If you want that full 3 inch height for each 7-inch pan, I recommend either making 1.5x or even 2x this recipe. If you don’t mind having shorter layers, this recipe will make three 7-inch layers that are about 1.25 inches tall as-is. I’m not sure about scaling it by 1/3 to test it as one layer, it’s really hard to scale a recipe down that much and make it work. If you do want the full 3-inch layer height, you’ll need to increase the baking time some. I’m not sure exactly how much longer since I’ve never tested this recipe in a pan of that size, but try 5-10 minutes longer and just know you’ll need to keep an eye on it.
Beautiful! I’m going to make this for my husbands birthday tomorrow. You are so talented.
So excited for you to make this cake, friend!!
Can this recipe be used for cupcakes ?
It can! It’s in the Notes section of the recipe – fill the tins no more than 2/3 full and bake for 15-17 min at 350ºF
How many cupcakes does this recipe make?
Hi Jennie! This recipe should make about 30 cupcakes. Hope that helps!
Hi! I was wondering were do you get the freezed strawberries from
Hi Ale! I get them from my local grocery store (Trader Joe’s), but you can also get them on Amazon if you can’t find them locally. They are linked in the portion of this post where I talk about freeze dried strawberries
Thank you!
Target carries them too
I would like to try but can be it so sweet? If needed to reduce to sugar, how much should I reduce? On the cake batter or on the butter cream?
Hi there! I don’t think this cake is too sweet, but you could try reducing the powdered sugar by 1/2 Cup in the buttercream recipe. If you reduce the sugar in the cake batter it could throw off the texture of the entire cake. Feel free to experiment though!
GORGEOUS cake, Whitney!!! It’s soooooo pretty! That decoration is stunning; it looks so fresh and summery. Lovvvve it 😀 If our oven weren’t broken right now, I’d be in the kitchen making this!
Thank you so much, Erin! So sorry to hear about your oven. I hope you get the chance to make this cake once its back up and running!
Sorry messed up would i have to double the recipie to make it in three 8 inch cake pans
No worries, Ale! Doubling the recipe will be more than enough. If you multiply all of the ingredients in the recipe by 1.5 it should be the perfect amount. Hope you love this one!!
Thank you! So much your pictures for the recipies are so pretty!
I also want to make 3 8” pan cakes for my granddaughter’s 16th birthday. I want to get it right so will ask my husband to help with measurements! If it looks good I’ll tag you, thanks for the best recipes! PS: I am using your vanilla buttercream and white chocolate ganache for the drip.
I’m excited for you to make this cake, Diana! I can’t wait to see how you decorate!
I double the recipe for three 8” pans. I had issues with the drip and ended up scraping off excess and then blending the white chocolate ganalche with the buttercream. I think it came out well and my granddaughter who turned 16 loved it! Everyone says that buttercream in The Bomb!
Hi! Would i have t9 double this recipie to make it with 3 8 inch cake pans!
In your buttercream directions, you have raspberry powder instead of strawberry powder.
Thanks for catching that, Kaye!
Hi, how would you execute this as a swiss meringue buttercream?
Hi there! I just made strawberry smbc today using a traditional recipe and added 1 Tbsp Amoretti Natural Wild Strawberry Artisan Flavor! It was amazing. (flavor here: https://amoretti.com/products/wild-strawberry-artisan-flavor and you can get $10 off with my code WHITNEY10). I’ve read that you could also add 1/4 Cup freeze-dried strawberry powder to a batch of smbc as an option.
Hi, this was an absolute hit for mother’s day. I can’t wait to make this again!
Hi Whitney,
This looks gorgeous and I can’t wait to try it! Your cakes have always worked for me. And they always taste fantastic. I do have a question – how do you reduce pureed strawberries? I Googled “how to reduce strawberries” and got how to make a strawberry reduction sauce. Is that the same thing?
Thanks very much and keep the wonderfulness coming.
Eileen
OMG, so sorry. Your Step 1 tells how to do it. D’uh?! I should just get in the habit of reading the recipe through first.
Cheers,
Eileen
No worries, Eileen! I hope you love this recipe!