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Homemade Strawberry Cake
When it comes to strawberry cake, there are a shocking lack of recipes that are truly made from scratch. Most recipes call for white cake mix, strawberry gelatin packages or mounds of strawberry preserves. Delicious as they may be, I was not willing to give in to the Sandra Lee mentality (though I know there are times when it is an absolute necessity), and I decided to experiment with some truly, from-scratch recipes to see if I could make a strawberry cake that was homemade (and delicious) without resorting to any strange gelatin packages or overly processed preserves.
I saw a suggestion on some web discussion board (probably Chowhound) to use another dense fruit cake recipe and substitute strawberries for the original fruit. With that in mind, I dove head first into a classic Paula Deen recipe for Hummingbird Cake, which is traditionally made with mashed bananas and pineapple. I switched the bananas and the pineapple for pureed strawberries, left out the chopped nuts completely, and substituted lemon zest for the cinnamon. I’m convinced that it would have been an outstanding success on the first try if I hadn’t first suffered through the Great Flour Debacle.
As a novice cook/chef/baker/food maker, I am still in the stage where I literally learn something new with every recipe I try. In fact, I look forward to the new skills I’ll learn (and … ah hem, challenges I’ll face) with each new recipe. Truth be told, this strawberry cake recipe should probably be called Learning Things About Flour (or Self-Rising Flour is Not the Same As Cake Flour). My initial fast skimming of the recipe (a serious no-no, in and of itself), combined with my desire to use up the two open boxes of cake flour sitting in the pantry (don’t ask why there are two open boxes … there just isn’t a good answer), I immediately equated self-rising flour with cake flour. Don’t ask why … there isn’t a good answer. In my mind it made perfect sense!
When the cake remained as flat as a board and as dense as seven-year old fruit cake, my instant hysterics preventing me from calmly searching the internet to discover that self-rising flour is nothing more than all-purpose flour with added baking powder and salt (all of which I had in the pantry). Instead, a grief-stricken call was made to my knight-in-shinning-armor who immediately showed up with self-rising flour in hand.
I’m happy to report that the second batch was a complete success … and that I now know what self-rising flour is! Hooray! The cake was moist but not too heavy. I paired it with a not-too-sweet cream cream frosting which was really perfect. The original recipe made three 8 x 2 cakes, but I made a bundt cake and about eight cupcakes instead.
Update: Nurit over at 1family.friendly.food. is holding a Cake Collection Giveaway and she has graciously invited me to submit this recipe. I can’t believe she makes a new cake every weekend!!
Homemade Strawberry Cake
Adapted from Paula Deen’s Hummingbird Cake
Nonstick vegetable spray
All-purpose flour, for pans
3 cups self-rising flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup pureed strawberries, strained*
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
4 large eggs, beaten
red food coloring**Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray and flour three 8-by-2-inch round cake pans, tapping out excess flour; set aside.
- Prepare the cake batter; in a large bowl, stir to combine self-rising flour, sugar, oil, pureed strawberries, vanilla, lemon zest, and eggs.
- Divide batter evenly between prepared pans, smoothing with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until the tops spring back when gently pressed with your fingertips, 26 to 28 minutes.
- Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire rack. Re-invert cakes and let them cool completely, top sides up.
- Prepare the cream cheese frosting (recipe below); frost as desired and refrigerate until ready to serve.* You can use fresh or frozen strawberries. If you use frozen, let them defrost on a cookie sheet. Then place in a food processor and pulse until pureed. Run through a medium-sized strainer to remove the seeds. If you have some extra strawberries, try whipping up a quick batch of strawberry scones!
** While I did manage to avoid using red colored gelatin, I did add some food coloring to achieve that perfectly pink color. If you don’t care about getting the pink color, feel free to leave it out. I used about 5 drops, but you should add them one at a time until you achieve the color you are looking for.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
~ 3 cups (approx. 1 box) confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
1 TBL milk (if needed)Directions:
- Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
- Slowly add the sugar in 1 cup batches until desired sweetness is achieved. You may need less than 3 cups if you like your frosting less sweet.
- Stir in vanilla. Add milk slowly if you need a looser consistency.
Similar Recipes:
Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Cheesecake
Whole Wheat Strawberry Scones
Strawberries and (Not) Cream
Mini Cherry Cupcakes
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I did not like this cake one bit. I followed every step to the T and still the cake was awful. It has a wheat-bread flour taste to it. I can’t taste the lemon zest or the strawberry. The color is a very eye sore brown-purple (after adding food coloring). Will not bake this again.
I made this cake and it was a huge hit! I’m making it tonight for a birthday cake:)
This recipe is simply wonderful. It’s the only recipe for strawberry cake I will use.
made from scratch means no premade food(selfrising
flour)
I tried this recipe and thought it was quite good, as far as homemade cake recipes go (I did save it for future use). No matter how many I have tried, I can’t seem to get them as light and fluffy as boxed cakes. For me, this recipe turned out more dense than a boxed recipe (could also partially be due to the flour I used – I’m in Denmark and have found the flour here a bit different that our typical US AP flour), but it was still extremely moist, and I thought it had a good flavor. I didn’t bother straining the strawberries and it came out just fine, nor did I care about the color, so I didn’t add any food coloring. I also couldn’t taste the lemon zest, so I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to buy a lemon if I make this again (that’s something I don’t typically have on hand). I only had two round cake pans, so I only made two layers and used the additional batter to make ~8 cupcakes. In addition, for the filling between the layers, rather than simply using the cream cheese frosting, I pureed extra strawberries and mixed the puree with powdered sugar to make a sweet strawberry filling – it was delicious.
I tried this recipe and am just tasting the cake now. It is a bit heavy, but good. The strawberry flavor is not overpowering but I can taste it. However, I must say that, in the pictures you show cupcakes, not a three-tier cake. The icing is not really the kind given to layer cake, especially three-layers.
What I mean is, my cake keeps threatening to topple over. And the icing is sliding down the sides. I think, perhaps, eliminating the butter from the icing recipe would help it hold together better.
I followed this recipe to the tee…. Awful! I ended up throwing it all away. What a waste of some wonderful strawberries! Horrible taste (if any at all) and didn’t rise. Don’t waste your time or money.
do you have to mix all ingedrents together?i will try this cake it looks good
About to make this cake for a birthday. Hope it’s good, even though I don’t like cream cheese and we’ll see if all goes well!!!?
Good luck, Liza! When I made this, I chose not to do the cream cheese frosting — I don’t like it, either. Instead, I made my usual buttercream and added a little bit of the strawberry juice. It was good, and also a very pretty pink.
Instead of the cream cheese icing try a much lighter and refreshing strawberry flavored Italian Meringue Butter cream. I had this at a small bakery and it was delicious!!! That’s why I’m out searching for a strawberry cake recipe to go along with the icing recipe. Happy Baking!
[...] recipes for pink cupcakes involve either a pink Jell-o flavor or food coloring. Recently, I found this recipe that relies on fresh or frozen strawberries for pink-ness (and optional food dye for those who want [...]
Thank you so much! I have a daughter fast approaching the big ONE yr old! I wanted to do a strawberry cake from actual scratch so I knew what was going in it. And I found exactly what you had found with geletins, boxed cake mixes and whatnot. I have yet to make the cake, but plan to in the next day or two. I just wanted to say thank you for posting this recipe!!
[...] from scratch. Once again I was playing spin the wheel on the recipe board. Here is where I landed, A Dash of Sass . All of the requirements weren’t there but I decided to tweak it and make it work. I nixed the [...]
I made this cake yesterday (in a bundt pan) for my mother-in-law’s birthday. It was a big hit. I made strawberry whipped cream instead of a frosting. Yummy! The cake has a nice sweet taste to it, very moist, but not overly sugary. The texture reminds me quite a bit of banana bread or zucchini bread. Anyway, this is a recipe I’ll be tucking away for future reference. Thank you!
I think it probably could have done (unfortunately) with a bit of strawberry extraxt or those super expensvie super strength strawberry oils which come in drams. I think though strawberries are highly perfumed and delicious, they carry too much water and their flavour dissipates in the cooking process, although they are thoroughly needed to make real strawberrty cake. BUT have found in all strawberry cake recipes (hate the ones with whole fruit in) they always need an extra push of something perhaps not a natural as this cake. Unfortunately it’s a fact of life. Have looked at them all and also not a fan of jelly – it does mess with the texture of the cake, but still… I think your effort looks really good from here. Thank you
[...] Cake adapted from A Dash of Sass. [...]
I was looking for a strawberry cake for my daughters bday party which is strawberry shortcake themed and i only cook all from scratch cooking for my family because i know just what it is i am giving them and i know its better for them, therefore i have chosen this cake because i feel that it is a great recipe. hope it turns out great!! will post again with the result.
This cake turned out beautifully. It was wonderful! There wasn’t much of a strawberry taste, though… Maybe I’ll figure out how to add some more berries next time. It was still really good, though.
Wonderful!
This cake was horrible I followed all of the directions and it taste terrible. I threw this dry tasting hard cake in the trash. I don’t know of another homemade strawberry cake but I will keep trying to find one but I will not use this recipe ever again.
Thank you so much for the recipe. I’ve serched many sites and they all use box caked. Why? so thanks again, can’t wait to try the recipe.
guess you have forgotten to mention the amount of baking powder… added 2 1/2 tsp and came out well ..give the exact amount needed though as per your recipe.