Fresh Strawberry Cake
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Fresh Strawberry Cake recipe you’ll ever need! A fluffy vanilla cake is loaded with fresh sweet strawberries and a rich cream cheese whipped cream. The perfect summer recipe for any celebration or get-together.
Homemade Strawberry Vanilla Cake
This was the cake I wanted for Mother’s Day…so I made it for myself 5 days early. I’m always looking for a reason to make cake, can you tell? This fresh strawberry cake is perfect for any holiday, but it’s also perfect just to celebrate any summer day.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t love the fresh strawberries and cream combination? So when you combine them together along with some tangy cream cheese and add it to the top of a sweet vanilla cake, you know it’s got to be good, and oh, how it is! You’re going to want to eat it by the spoon or maybe just lick the bowl.
I had to hurry and take giant slices to my neighbors, or I would have just dove into the whole cake and never known when to stop. It is a creamy, dreamy, fluffy, heavenly cake, and I most definitely loved it! Happy Mother’s Day to me!
But really, Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there!
Fresh Strawberry Cake Ingredients
- Cake flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Whole eggs and egg yolks
- Milk
- Vanilla
Whipped Strawberry Frosting Ingredients
- Heavy cream
- Powdered sugar
- Cream cheese
- Vanilla
- Fresh strawberries – spritz with lemon juice for color and flavor
Normally, I like to use a piping bag to ice my cakes, but with the chunks of fruit, it doesn’t quite work. Another option is to spread some strawberry filling between the layers of your cake. Strawberry cake filling makes for a delicious surprise and even more strawberry flavors.
Make your cream cheese frosting and chill in the fridge to help the flavors blend together for the best taste.
If your kids like whipped cream frosting, add some with sprinkles to the top of the cake!
How to Make Strawberry Cake
- Preheat the oven and prepare the cake pans by lining them with parchment paper.
- Sift cake flour and whisk dry ingredients.
- In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar
- Mix in eggs and yolks separately, then blend in vanilla.
- Blend in the flour mixture alternating with additions of milk.
- Divide among 8-inch cake pans and bake cake layers until set.
- Let cool, then spread with strawberry cream cheese whipped cream with a spatula.
Can I Use All-Purpose Flour Instead of Cake Flour?
Cake flour really is best for this strawberry cake recipe with fresh strawberries. It makes the vanilla cake lighter and creates the best texture.
Can I Use Frozen Strawberries Instead of Fresh?
For the best flavor, fresh strawberries are best. I don’t think defrosted frozen berries would work here.
Tips for the Best Strawberry Cake
- Wait until the vanilla cake layers have cooled completely before adding the frosting.
- Feel free to add a few drops of red food coloring to the frosting to make it a lovely pink color.
- If you only have salted butter on hand, scale back on the amount of salt you add to the cake batter.
- Leftover cake makes for an excellent breakfast!
More Delicious Strawberry Desserts to Try:
- Strawberry Cupcakes
- Strawberry Shortcake Trifles
- Fresh Strawberry Syrup
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Bars
- Strawberry Sugar Cookies
- Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
Follow Cooking Classy
Fresh Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups (370g) cake flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 3/4 cup (390g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 1/4 cups milk (anything but skim)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup (125g) powdered sugar, divided
- 8 oz cream cheese , left at room temperature until partially softened (about 20 - 30 minutes)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 lbs strawberries , hulled and sliced into pieces slightly under 1/2-inch
- Sliced strawberries for decorating (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 3 9-inch round cake pans then line bottom with a round of parchment, butter parchment and lightly dust pan with flour, shake out excess. Set pans aside.
- Make the cake: Sift cake flour into a medium mixing bowl. Add baking powder and salt and whisk 20 seconds, set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (if you don't have a paddle that constantly scrapes bowl while mixing then stop mixer occasionally throughout entire mixing process and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to ensure even mixing), whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in eggs and egg yolks one a time adding in vanilla with last egg yolk. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture at a time (to the butter/egg mixture) alternating with 1/2 of the milk and mixing on low speed just until combined after each addition. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and gently fold batter several times.
- Divide batter among prepared baking pans. Bake in preheated oven 25 - 30 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
- Cool in pan about 5 minutes, run knife around edges of cake to ensure they are loosened then invert onto wire racks to cool completely (I recommend transferring them to gallon size resealable bags after about 25 minutes of cooling so they don't dry and let them finish cooling in the bag).
- Once cool frost with Strawberry Cream Cheese Whipped Cream. Store cake in an airtight container in refrigerator.
- For the topping: In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip heavy cream until soft peaks form (occasionally scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to ensure even mixing).
- Add 1/3 cup powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form (make sure they are stiff or your topping will be runny, it should get to the point where it doesn't have a wet sheen). Scrape cream out into a separate bowl.
- Add cream cheese to bowl of stand mixer, fit with paddle attachment and whip cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.
- Mix in remaining 2/3 cup powdered sugar and vanilla (I've made this cake twice and the second time I added a few drops of liquid red food coloring at this point for a better pink, that pictured was without).
- Add strawberries and mix until uniform in color. Remove bowl from stand mixer, add whipped cream and fold into mixture. Frost over cooled cake.
Notes
- Feel free to add a few drops of red food coloring to the frosting to make it a lovely pink color.
- If you only have salted butter on hand, scale back on the amount of salt you add into the cake batter.