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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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Hi there,
This recipe looks yummy, and it’s just what I”m looking for! But I’m a little concerned about The servings; It doesn’t mention anywhere how many this cake will serve. I’m baking for a crowd of at least 20. Will this be enough? Thanks again,
Margaret
Margaret — Assuming that you make the cake in 8 inch round pans, the number of servings will depend on how you cut the cake and how big the pieces are. If you cut it in the traditional pie-shaped slices you will probably end up with 14-15 slices depending on the size of each slice. If you cut the cake like a wedding cake (see http://cateritsimple.com/id10.html) you will be able to get 20-24 slices out of the cake. You could also use a larger cake pan (say, 9 inches) which will result in a wider cake that you will be able to get more slices from (just don’t forget to adjust the baking time if you change the pan size). Hope that helps!
This is a delicious cake! My daughter asked for strawberry cake for her birthday so I went on-line and found this link. FABULOUS!!!! What a delicious taste.
Instead of using 3 8inch round pans I used a 13″x15″ pan. It did need to cook for 30 minutes. When it was done baking I cut it thirds and moved it to the cooling rack. While I waited for it to cool I made up some butter cream frosting. After the cake was cool it was time to frost it. I layered it like so: cake, butter cream, pureed strawberry. I did that twice. For the top layer I first spread the strawberry puree and then added the butter cream. After I frosted the entire cake I decorated it and put it in the fridge till morning. We have a tradition of eating our birthday cake for breakfast. 
Thank you for this great recipe!
My husband said that it was the best cake that I had ever made.
Loved this cake soooo much. I’ve made it twice now and both times got rave reviews and everyone wanted the recipe. I have been looking for a strawberry cake recipe for a long time and have made many. This one is a keeper!
The cake was delicious….but, it was not as moist as I thought it would be and it did not have a strawberry taste. I may have done something wrong…do you have any suggestions?
This recipe produces a food that has the density of a good muffin; not the light texture I prefer in a cake. Thanks for sharing though!
Hi there, Just wondering do I just use a spatula or whisk to stir everything together without needing the electric mixer at all
Thanks!! Really love to try this out
I’m so glad I found this recipe! My son wants a strawberry cake for his birthday, and I didn’t want to use the jello powder either.
I’m going to add some strawberry puree to the frosting for a little extra strawberry kick!
Thanks for the recipe! I made it last night and it was delicious! I did add some strawberry puree to the frosting, and it came out a bit too wet, but it made a nice thick glaze.
I will definitely make it again, and I will still put strawberry in the frosting but may modify how I did it a bit. I used the lower-fat cream cheese since that was all I had, but I think I should have used the regular one.
Can anyone help me please? I have never done any cake that doesn’t need to even beat but just mix. Please help I really really love to try this cake as my mom loves strawberry cakes! Thanks again =)
Tracy — You can combine all the ingredients with a mixer, a spatula, large spoon or a whisk. The batter comes together very easily and since there is no butter to cream you can really use whichever method you like best. Hope that helps!
Hey! Thanks fir the recipe! Do you know how long these cakes could last?
Eva — It’s a very moist cake so it will probably be fine in an airtight container for a couple days (I’d say no more than 3 days) at room temperature. I would wait until the last minute to frost it though. You might be able to freeze the cakes if they are wrapped very well, but I’m can’t promise that they will retain the proper texture. Hope that helps!
Hello…I want to make a half sheet cake of this recipe so would the above measurements still be correct for that sized pan? And what about the baking time? Thanks ahead of time for your response! ~Niki
Niki — Here is a very useful website for figuring out baking pan conversions: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html I use it constantly since I’m always modifying recipes! The original recipe calls for three 8×2 baking pans, so check to see what the volume is and see if that matches up with your sheet cake pan. As for the baking time, given the larger surface area of the sheet pan, you will probably have to increase the baking time. I’d start checking at 25-30 minutes and then every 5 minutes after that.
[...] In our interview, Kate explains how her time in the kitchen relieved the stress of law school and became more to her than just a hobby. Brittle is very candid with the science of cooking and her personality is as addicting as her strawberry cake. [...]
Getting ready for my third attempt at this recipe! First time, I felt the consistency was heavy like a muffin. I am too embarrassed to even tell you about my second attempt, except to say it involved the WRONG flour! I did notice, though, even with the proper ingredients my batter appears more thick in consistency than that pictured on website. Could this be why my cake seems heavy? All other comments are so positive, I am determined to have success!
Thanks
Amy — I’m not sure why the consistency of your batter isn’t coming out right. The only suggestion I would make is to be sure that you are beating your eggs well before adding them to the batter. That may help lighten up your batter. Hope that the third times a charm!
Hi have made my own addition to this recipie and added 100 grams of butter and creamed it with the sugar and have found that it makes a more moist cake although i havnt tried the orinal recipie,from reading the other comments i thought id give my new recipie a try, and it works. Also i used fresh strawberrys and stewd them and sifted them to get rid of the seeds it makes for a much more strawberry tasting cake. try it out and if you like it.
I did soooo good making this for my son’s birthday cake,,,,,,,I too did not have a fluffy result, more like a bread texture….Did not know should have used a special kind of flour, the self-rising kind! But it was good otherwise and look forward to redoing it soon!
I made this with Cake Flour (3 c + 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt), bakers sugar (2 c as the recipe calls for), and a stick and a half of butter (instead of oil). I didn’t have any lemon zest either so I used grapefruit zest. I also put a little red food coloring into the frosting… I wanted everything to be pink
.
It turned out WONDERFUL. I can hardly wait to serve it tonight. I really like that the cake isn’t too sweet!
The recipe is quite large. It made ~ 3 dozen cupcakes.
Thank you!
I was wanting to make this cake in heart shaped pans. But I am kinda worried that it may fall apart. Any advice?
I baked this cake for my 2 year old’s birthday. I agree that the texture is not as fine as I would like for a cake. I suspect that putting butter instead of oil would help with that issue. But the biggest problem for me was that it dod not taste at all like strawberry. That was a disappointment.
This cake was great! I made extra strawberry puree and cut the cakes in half and put some on each of the layers top and bottoms and then put some in the icing. It was really good and very strawberry!! I also stored it in the fridge for several hours before serving. I’ll make it again!
Hi, My daughter too asked for this for her birthday, but due to some wheat intolerances, I want to use white spelt baking flour. It is an equal swap for reg. flour. But my dilemma is how do I make this without cake flour? Isn’t cake flour just extremely fine sifted flour? If so, could I just sift my white spelt flour? White Spelt flour is very soft and much finer than wheat flour so I am wondering what to do.
Thanks!
Gretchen — You don’t want to use cake flour in this recipe, you want to use self-rising flour. You can make your own self-rising flour by adding 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt to every cup of regular all-purpose flour. I haven’t worked with white spelt flour but if you say it’s an equal swap then I’d go ahead and try it with the addition of the baking powder and salt. Let me know how it works out!
I baked this cake for my BFF’s birthday today. I noticed that the cake was more dough like until I added in the strawberry puree. I was skeptical. I figured I was in for a very dense cake. So I sliced the layers open and puree’d another 2 cups of strawberry and then cooked it on the stove with about 3/4 cups of sugar to make a strawberry sauce. Once it was cooled I layered the sauce between the sliced cake, iced it and let it sit for a few hours. Once sliced the strawberry sauce had made it very moist and it had a little tang to go along with the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting. I found the cake to be rather muffin like. But the added strawberry in between brought it back down to cake stats. I will most def make this cake again and even use the batter to make strawberry muffins or pound cake. Every morsel of this cake was devoured. It really stands up well to icing and fruit in between layers.
I also used a bunt pan and made a few cupcakes with this batter. And, the bunt cake needed 30-35 minutes to fully set in my over. The texture was absolutly perfect – unfortunatly, the flavor of the cake left just a little bit to be desired. I hate to say this, but I think it MIGHT have needed a bit of strawberry gelitin powder to give it that bit of condensed strawberry flavor. I just don’t think the strawberry puree is enough to give a very fruity flavor to the cake. I also briefly pulsed about 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries (in syrup), that had been thawed, a bit in the blender and added to the icing. I did make up for the added juiciness with more powered sugar and it was amazing!! Overall, the cake was still tasty and I’m proud to share the cupcakes with friends. Thanks for the recipe!
I am looking forward to trying this. I do speicalty cakes in Nashville and am noticing how not many bakers do from scratch! I tried Paula Deen’s fresh strawberry cake from her magazine but it turned out purple, good but kind of strange. It had 2 cups of fresh berries as well. I am looking forward to trying this and thank you for all of your work!
I made this for my daughter’s 6th birthday party today. We made it in a castle shaped bundt pan and then filled the middle hole with fresh strawberries. It was lovely and not too sugary with the fresh strawberries and just a little buttercream for decorations. It’s great that the outside of the cake turns out pink, just what we were looking for!
Hi;
I tried a few test versions of this before making the final batch for my daughter to take to school for her birthday, and I wanted to address a few comments people have had with my solutions – which is not to say that the recipe as Kate wrote it isn’t fabulous as is, just that we found a couple tweaks made it even better.
First – some people didn’t find enough of a strawberry flavor – we also liked it better by 1, increasing the amount of strawberries (to 2 c) and 2, following Marilyn’s suggestion of leaving the puree a little more solid and straining out some of the liquid rather than pureeing the entire thing to smooth. Also we added a little (1/3 c) of sour cream, which almost gave it a strawberries and cream flavor.
Next, the texture. I did find, as several others did, that it was a bit more of a muffiny texture (especially made into cupcakes), with a more open/coarse crumb. I thought it might be from the large amount of baking powder, so I reduced that from the 4 1/2 teaspoons that resulted from the conversion from self rising flour to 2 teaspoons plus 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (making good use of the sour cream), which helped quite a bit. Also to further enhance the texture I borrowed a technique from Cook’s Illustrated’s Carrot Cake (http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=4677) in which the eggs are processed with the sugar (hey, you already have the food processor out for the strawberries, right? And you don’t even have to wash it out, just dump the pureed strawberries in the strainer and put the eggs in the processor) and then, while it is running, adding the oil in a slow stream (like making mayonnaise). I did add a touch more oil (1 c) too. Then put it in with the strawberries (mixed with the sour cream) and the flour (mixed with the baking powder, baking soda, and salt). Worked really well, and didn’t even need the food coloring for a decent pink color.
We also used the Cook’s Illustrated Cream Cheese Frosting (from the same Carrot Cake recipe) and added a couple spoon fulls of the liquid pressed off of the pureed strawberries. (Though be careful, if you add too much it will make it a bit runny – which is still good for dipping the tops of cupcakes in for easy frosting – and if you add more confectioner’s sugar to correct the problem it will taste something like strawberry yogurt. Which by the by would probably make a quick and easy way to “frost” it in a healthier manner
)
And a final note for CJ who needed a banana filling to go with it, I would think that adding mashed bananas to the cream cheese frosting (and or folding in cut up chunks) would work admirably.
So thanks again, Kate, it helped tremendously that I didn’t have to start from a blank slate when my daughter requested strawberry cake for her 7th birthday!
Thank you so much for this recipe – I am a vegetarian so gelatine was not an ingredient I wanted to use when my daughter requested a ’strawberry cake’ for her 2nd! birthday! My first attempt was very heavy and I think I tried to make it too big and deep (unsuitable cake tin!)I am just waiting for the second attempt to cook! I have tried the tip from a previous comment by Vanessa mixing the eggs, sugar and oil with an electric blitzer so I am hoping this will help. As for the strawberry flavour- It is delicious! I used fresh strawberries in season and you can really taste them! Yum! I hope this one comes out ok as I have to decorate it with’Upsy Daisy’, her favourite character!
Thanks again for this recipe!
For all the negative comments on this cake, either a) you cant bake b) you cant follow directions, or c) you have never had cake from scratch. I found this recipe and had my mom make for my birthday, excellent!
We did do an addition and used a strawberry-lemon filling(search for starwberry-lemon filling on southernliving.com) between the layers but frosted with the this perfect cream cheese icing.
The cake was perfect in texture, slightly more dense than a plain white cake, but reminder to all, you are using fresh fruit, not a cake out of a box, and if you live at high altitudes remember you have to change your recipes accordingly.
Note: For those who want a heavier strawberry taste, try using the filling recipe or possibly using strawberry extract.
Hi, my daughter wanted a ’strawberry star cake with chocolate frosting’ for her birthday, and here I found myself. Thanks so much for the recipe, it was delicious! Here are my comments:
I agree with the commenter who said it was very muffin-like. I didn’t think that was a problem at all! I would describe it as a ‘dense, moist cake’. When I looked at the batter, I didn’t understand why you used food coloring, as the batter was extremely pink! But as it cooked, it became a sort of pinkish light-brown. Again, I didn’t mind… but now I understand the food coloring a little more.
I had no choice about the chocolate frosting, but having tried it, strawberry or vanilla buttercream, or cream cheese, would’ve been better. The chocolate sort of drowned all the subtle flavors of the cake. Fortunately, in cutting it into a star shape, I ended up with a bunch of extra cake, which I’ve been eating with strawberry buttercream in my free time.
Thanks again for a lovely cake!
[...] tried the recipe, and it was excellent. Dense, moist, muffin-like, and tasting of strawberry. It would’ve [...]
This cake looks delicious! However, being from the UK I don’t really understand the cups system of measuring ingredients – i’m used to weighing everything – and every site I find online about converting to grams/ounces says a different thing. I don’t suppose you know what the measurements of ingredients would be in either grams or ounces (i can work with either) or, failing that, the volume of a cup in fluid ounces or mililitres? Sorry if this doesn’t make much sense, my brain is all jumbled! Thanks.
I made the bundt cake and the eight cupcakes as you did. How long is the bundt cake to remain in the oven?
Sarah — The bundt cake takes about 45-50 minutes. I would suggest checking on it around the 35 minute mark to see how it’s doing. I always start checking way before the suggested time to avoid burning things. Good luck!
I just made this today for a memorial day gathering. It was a big hit. Very tasty. I made it as a two-layer and got seven cupcakes out of the deal. The cupcakes stayed home.
Lyzi,
I hope this helps you: There are 8 fluid ounces in a cup. With 30 ml per fluid ounce, that’s 240 ml/cup.
I won’t guess at the weights (ounces/grams), as the density of each ingredient is different, of course, so 1 cup of flour will weigh differently than 1 cup of oil, sugar, etc. Here in the U.S., most recipes are by volume, so you’re likely better off using a volume to volume conversion.
Hello! I’m the same Marilyn who baked this last year and had the tip about leaving the strawberries more solid. This year, my daughter has asked for “a blueberry cake with strawberry outside, and one raspberry on top.” When asked to clarify, she said she wanted strawberry frosting, which I’m confident I can do.
Looking around for a blueberry cake recipe resulted only in various coffee cake/crumble-type things (not a traditional birthday cake) — so my plan is to modify this one by subbing blueberries. I think I will cook and crush some first, but leave some whole. Should be interesting. Has anyone done this before?
Also, regarding some of the texture complaints, this was definitely a moist cake, but I think some of it depends on what you’re used to. Not to cast aspersions or make assumptions, if you’re using to baking from a mix (which I was, too, before this cake!), you generally won’t achieve that light, spongy, springy texture when baking a cake from scratch. Homemade will often seem too heavy and dense, unless you realize it’s just different, and also tasty.
Big, big failure with the blueberries! Cake in the trash, tears, midnight run for cake mix. I left them whole. Probably should have crushed some of them. To make up for the lack of liquid from not using puree, I added water. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Puree also has some heft to it.
Marilyn — Sorry to hear about the blueberry cake fail, but major props for giving it a try! I’ve certainly “experimented” my way to a cake in the trash can and making a new mix cake through my tears. I’ll keep an eye out for a blueberry cake recipe.
Hi for this recipe you say I need 3 tins for the mixture given. I have a very small family and my mothers birthday is on friday. We have the luxury of growing our own strawberrys and I know she would really appriciate it. However I would not need 3 of these cakes 1 would do. From past experience I’ve tried to divide the mixture i.e. by 3 to get the measure for 1. That obviously hasn’t worked and I don’t want to ruin it, is there anyway you could help me please? This is the best recipe I have found because it doesn’t use packets, I’m a “from scratch” baker. Thank you in advance for your help.
Ria — This is a very helpful website for baking pan conversions: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html You should be able to at least cut the recipe in half to cut down the size. Instead of making three 8″ round cakes you could always make just one bundt cake. Hope that helps!
I will love to try this cake for my daughter’s b-day. Do you think that this cake will be good for some carving? I am making Lindy Smith Cat.
Thank you for your help
Ynes Bratcher — I haven’t done much cake carving myself, but I believe you need a cake with a dense crumb that can hold the shape. This cake, while moist, is fairly light and airy and I’m not sure how it would hold up to intense carving. If you give it a try, report back and let us know how it goes.
I would not recommend this cake to anyone, it was not cakey at all. The texture was very odd and was too heavy and dough like.
if the raw batter is a predictor on how this cake will taste, then the hubby is in for a yummy birthday cake tonight!!!!
I really enjoyed this cake and would recommend it. Those who complain about the texture are being picky. If you insist on a light texture, then avoid this recipe, but there’s nothing wrong with a slightly dense cake. It was tasty and very moist. I’d recommend using 2 cups of semi-pureed strawberries to enhance the flavour. I used a chocolate buttercream icing on the outside, which was great, and I used strawberry jam in between the layers. My cake had a nice – but light – strawberry flavour. I’d recommend using a strawberry icing at least between the layers (if not the whole cake) in order to enhance the flavour – I will definitely do that next time.