From-Scratch Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Finding the perfect cake for a special birthday has just gotten easier! This Homemade Strawberry Cake with silky Cream Cheese Frosting is perfection! (Video below on how to create this ruffle technique!) I love making my own birthday cake! It is one of the few times I year I throw all caution to the wind and just bake to please my soul. And belly. 😉 

How to Make a REAL Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cake Recipe (Below)

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

8-inch round cake pans

Offset Spatula

Pastry Bag with #113 Leaf Tip

Food Coloring: Yay or Nay?

As you can see, this is not a pink cake. Real strawberries will only lend so much of their color to the batter. But readers have mentioned that they do not want to use red food coloring and this cake is a perfect example of not needing to. The flavor is wonderful enough on its own!

If you want your cake to be more pink feel free to add some red food coloring. I would recommend at least a teaspoon.

Tips for Real Strawberry Cake

• Room temperature ingredients are ESSENTIAL for this recipe. You can see how I quickly bring eggs to room temperature here.
• There are a number of steps to this recipe, so it’s a good idea to read through first and prepare your ingredients beforehand.
• If you want to use all of your strawberry puree IN the cake, feel free to brush cakes with a simple syrup after they have baked. This is a dense cake, so it does need the additional moisture added before serving.
• This cake would also be amazing with Whipped Cream frosting.
• If you are baking at a higher altitude, check out my High Altitude Baking Tips.

Cream Cheese Frosting

For the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, feel free to add 1-2 tablespoons liquid (milk, heavy cream, etc.) to create the soft, velvety texture needed for this frosting technique. I also turned my mixer on high and let it go for about 4 minutes to add some air into the frosting.

A crumb coat is important in this cake as you will want something for the ruffles to “adhere” to. (frosting sticks to frosting)

Here is a video on how I created the Ruffle technique on this cake:

I used an offset spatula to create lines in the crumb coat that helped me to stay straight. (Some of my ruffle lines are crooked… I apologize! This happened because I was trying to pipe and film at the same time. You can easily create vertical perfection at home with the guidelines in your cake!)

For the top, I just used my offset spatula to smooth the edge. Gently pull the frosting from the edge towards the center of the cake. Very easy!

And of course, feel free to do ignore the fancy design and just smooth the frosting out as you see fit. 🙂 

Recipe adapted from Strawberry Ruffle Birthday Cake.

5 from 2 votes

From-Scratch Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Finding the perfect cake for a special birthday has just gotten easier! This Homemade Strawberry Cake with silky Cream Cheese Frosting is perfection! 

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Ingredients

• ▢ 4 large egg whites, (save yolks for later)
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup (226g) butter
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar, for separate step
• ▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla
• ▢ ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ▢ 4 large egg yolks
• ▢ 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 cup strawberry puree (1 cup thawed frozen strawberry & 1-2 tbsp water in blender)
• ▢ 2 -3 cups dices fresh strawberries, or thawed strawberries

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8-in round cake pans.
• Whip four eggs whites in mixer until soft peaks form. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, whipping to maintain soft peaks. Pour whites into large bowl (This was about 5 cups in volume after whipped) and set aside.
• Without fully cleaning the mixer bowl, cream room temperature butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy. Add in vanilla and almond extract. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition.
• Sift together 3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Alternatively add flour mixture and ⅓ strawberry puree to batter until fully combined. (Flour, ⅓ cup puree, flour, ⅓ cup puree, flour) Batter will be thick. You should have ⅓ cup puree LEFT OVER. (This will be brushed on cake later)
• Fold in egg whites.
• Gently add diced strawberries to batter. (I used 2 cups but think 3 cups would also be delicious.)
• Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 32-36 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with no wet batter. (crumbs are ok!) If using two 8-in cake pans, bake for 38-42 minutes.
• Remove cakes from over and use a pastry brush to spread remaining strawberry puree over warm cakes.
• Cool until ready to assemble cakes.

Course: Dessert

Keyword: From-Scratch Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, strawberry cake, Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Servings: 10 servings

Author: Amanda Rettke--iambaker.net

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