This 100% from-scratch Strawberry Cake recipe has no Jell-O or artificial flavors! It’s a moist cake flavored with real strawberries, filled with a fresh strawberry jam, and covered with a whipped cream cheese frosting. Recipe includes a how-to video!
A Delightfully Fresh Strawberry Cake
I gave this strawberry cake recipe a makeover a few years ago, and I’m so excited to be sharing it with you again today! This cake is packed full of fresh strawberry flavor (none of that artificial stuff or Jell-O), from the cake itself to the jam filling. To finish, we’ll seal it all in with a whipped cream cheese frosting that’s not too sweet. Sounds heavenly, right?
I’ll give you a fair warning: this recipe requires quite a lot of steps and will dirty a few dishes. But it’s all worth it to get the BEST natural strawberry flavor (more on that below), a light, spongey texture (I took a few notes from my white cake for this) and a whipped, flavorful frosting (similar to what’s on my Chantilly cake!).
How Do You Get Strawberry Flavor Naturally?
So, how does my strawberry cake achieve its strawberry flavor without Jell-O or artificial ingredients? With fresh strawberries, of course!
If I’m being honest though, it’s not as simple as it sounds. In fact, it took a lot of attempts to get the flavor and texture of this strawberry cake just right.
Sure we could just blend our berries and add them to our cake batter, but too much pulp can weigh down the cake, making it too wet and spongey. To remedy this, we’ll take an extra step to strain out the juice from the pulp and use that in the cake instead. And we’ll even go one step further to cook down that juice to really concentrate the strawberry flavor.
However, there is still a lot of flavor in the pulp, and I didn’t want to just throw it away, so we’ll save it to make a homemade jam filling! We’ll spread this between our cake layers for an extra burst of strawberry flavor.
Side note: if you’re a total strawberry fiend, you could even try frosting this strawberry cake with my strawberry frosting–yum!
What You Need
Here are the key ingredients in today’s perfect strawberry cake recipe:
- Strawberries. Almost all of your flavor for this cake comes from the strawberries. Because of this, the more ripe, juicy, and flavorful your strawberries are, the better and more strawberry-like your cake will taste. Store-bought berries in the middle of December will work, but they will not yield as tasty of a cake as finger-staining, sun-ripened berries you picked yourself. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP I CAN GIVE YOU!
- Milk. I recommend using whole milk for a perfectly moist and soft strawberry cake. Several of you have asked if non-dairy milk can be substituted, and I haven’t tried this myself, so I can’t say for sure. If you do make my strawberry cake recipe with non-dairy milk, please let me know how it turns out for you!
- Cake flour. Because the strawberries can make this cake heavy, I recommend using cake flour for this recipe. If you don’t have it, you can still use all-purpose flour–just use the instructions in the recipe notes.
- Egg whites. Since egg yolks could also weigh down this cake, we’ll use only egg whites and make sure to whip them to stiff peaks before folding them into the batter. Note that I’ve included some recipes to use up the extra egg yolks in the recipe notes below.
- Food coloring. This is optional, but it makes your strawberry cake look nice and pink when it would otherwise be pretty dull. If you’re using food coloring, I strongly recommend using a few drops of pink gel coloring. If you use liquid food coloring, you will need to use red, and quite a lot of it.
- Cornstarch. This will help to thicken our strawberry jam.
- Lemon juice. A splash of lemon juice brightens the jam and keeps it from being too sweet.
- Cream cheese. We’ll beat this with some powdered sugar and vanilla extract until it is smooth and creamy. This creates a flavorful base for our frosting.
- Heavy cream. After its whipped to stiff peaks, we’ll incorporate our cream with the cream cheese mixture to make a beautifully light, airy, and flavorful frosting.
SAM’S TIP: If you’re not a fan of the frosting I’m using here, you can always try my standard cream cheese frosting, buttercream frosting, or Swiss meringue buttercream. Whichever type you use, make sure your cake is cooled completely before decorating, otherwise the frosting will melt.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Strawberry Cake
- Blend your strawberries, strain them, and cook the juice until it has reduced. Save the pulp for later.
- Combine the strawberry reduction with the milk and food coloring. Cream together the oil, butter, sugar, and vanilla in a separate bowl, and combine the dry ingredients in another separate bowl.
- Gradually alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk mixture into the butter mixture. Stir on low speed after each addition until just combined.
- Whip your egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into your batter. Divide the batter between greased, floured, and lined baking pans. Bake for 28 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- Whisk together the reserved strawberry pulp, ⅓ cup of sugar, lemon juice, and salt in a saucepan. Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens. Transfer the jam to a heat-proof bowl and let it cool completely in the fridge.
- Prepare your frosting by combining the cream cheese, ½ cup of the powdered sugar, and vanilla in a bowl. In a separate (preferably chilled) bowl, whip your cream and remaining powdered sugar, then combine both mixtures until fully incorporated.
- Once your cake and jam have cooled, assemble your cake, using your frosting as dam to hold in each layer of jam filling. Top the assembled cake with your remaining frosting, decorate, and chill it in the fridge until you’re ready to enjoy.
SAM’S TIP: This strawberry cake can be baked in 9 inch pans instead, but it will cook faster, so keep an eye on it if you use them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can use frozen strawberries here–but remember, almost all of the flavor comes from the berries you use, and there’s no telling how flavorful your frozen berries will be. I highly recommend using in-season, fresh berries.
This strawberry cake recipe will work as cupcakes, but just know they won’t have nice domed tops. It will also work as a 9×13 cake.
Yes! Because the icing has both whipped cream and cream cheese, this strawberry cake needs to be refrigerated. Make sure you keep the cake covered in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out.
The jam and frosting can both be made a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container. The cake could be made a day in advance as well; allow it to cool completely then wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store it at room temperature.
Enjoy!
More Recipes You Might Like
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 ¼ lbs (570 g) strawberries remove stems and quarter
- ⅔ cup whole milk
- ½ cup (118 ml) Avocado, vegetable or canola oil
- 4 Tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¾ cup (350 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups (330 g) cake flour¹
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 large egg whites² room temperature preferred
- Food coloring optional (I use two chocolate chip-sized drops of americolor gel “electric pink” food coloring).
FILLING
- ⅓ cup (70 g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
FROSTING
- 2 cups (475 ml) cold heavy cream
- 1 ½ cups (190 g) powdered sugar, divided
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese softened
Instructions
CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare two 8” round cake pans by spraying with baking spray and lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place quartered strawberries in blender and puree until smooth. Run through a fine mesh sieve over a measuring cup until you have 1 – 1 ¼ cups of juice. Do not discard berry pulp, set this along with any remaining pureed berries for the jam filling.1 ¼ lbs (570 g) strawberries
- Pour strawberry juice into a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until reduced to ⅓ cup (pour into a measuring cup to check, if it’s not reduced enough, return to the saucepan and continue to cook until it is). This usually takes about 10 minutes.
- Once reduced, add ⅔ cup milk to the strawberry reduction and whisk together. If using food coloring, whisk that in here as well. Set aside.⅔ cup whole milk, Food coloring
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer or in a stand mixer, beat together oil, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until completely combined.½ cup (118 ml) Avocado, vegetable or canola oil, 4 Tablespoons (57 g) unsalted butter, 1 ¾ cup (350 g) granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.3 cups (330 g) cake flour¹, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- With mixer on low speed, gradually alternate adding the flour mixture and strawberry/milk mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until just combined after each addition. (I start and end with the flour and add the flour mixture in 4 parts and the milk mixture in 3 parts.)
- Place egg whites in a separate clean, dry bowl, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.6 large egg whites²
- Using a spatula, gently fold egg whites into cake batter until completely combined (don’t use your electric mixer at this point or you will over-beat the batter). Divide cake batter evenly into prepared pans and bake on 350F for 28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Allow cakes to cool in pans for 10 minutes then run a knife around the edges to loosen cakes from pan and invert onto cooling rack to cool completely. While cooling, prepare the jam filling.
JAM FILLING
- Combine remaining strawberrry pulp, ⅓ cup sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a small saucepan and whisk to combine.⅓ cup (70 g) granulated sugar, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil. Boil, whisking constantly, until mixture is thickened and the whisk leaves a trail through the jam (this takes about 5-10 minutes).
- Remove from heat, transfer to a heat-proof bowl, and place in the refrigerator to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare your frosting.
WHIPPED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- Combine cream cheese, ½ cup (65g) powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat together until creamy and smooth.1 ½ cups (190 g) powdered sugar, divided, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract, 8 oz (226 g) cream cheese, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- In a separate bowl (preferably a chilled metal bowl), combine remaining (1 cup, 125g) powdered sugar and cold heavy cream. Beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.2 cups (475 ml) cold heavy cream
- With mixer on low speed, stir together the cream cheese and whipped cream until completely combined.
ASSEMBLY
- Once cake and jam are completely cooled place one layer of cake on serving tray. Use a piping bag fitted with a round tip (I use an Ateco 808) to pipe a dam around the layer. Fill with your jam filling.
- Top with second layer of cake. Cover the entire cake with frosting.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!
- Cake will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Saima
I noticed in the recipe that you add baking powder along with the cake flour. I thought cake flour already includes baking powder. Just wanted to make sure this was not an error.
Sam
Hi Saima! Cake flour does not have baking powder in it. You do need to add the baking powder here. 🙂
Ami Norton
Hi Sam! I’ve been making lots of your baked treats for about a year and they’re always my family’s favorites! Seriously, you’re recipes, tips and videos have made me “the best mom ever” so many times!
I wanted to make this cake for my son’s birthday and given the difficulty in finding ingredients, especially cake flour where we live, I was wondering if we can sub boxed white cake… Instead of the AP flour…
Thank you for all your sharing and amazing recipes!
Sam
Hi Ami! I am so glad you have been enjoying everything so much! For the strawberry cake, a box cake mix will not work as a substitute for the flour. There are too many other ingredients that would need to be altered if adding a cake mix. You can substitute all purpose for the cake flour. There is a note below the ingredients for doing so. I haven’t been able to get cake flour for quite a while so I know it can be difficult. I hope everyone loves the cake! 🙂
Ami Norton
Thank you so much for the quick response!
Ameemah
Hi! Thanks for explaining the recipe in depth. I’m not so good with baking and I find it really helpful that you explained everything step by step. I have a question about the frosting. Could I mix some of the leftover strawberry filling into the whipped cream cheese frosting to enhance the strawberry flavor?
Sam
I have actually tried that and it’s pretty tasty! It will weigh down your frosting a bit though so it won’t be quite as light and fluffy. 🙂
Ameemah
Thanks for the advice! My dad’s a huge fan of anything related to strawberries. I’m going to attempt to make your strawberry cake and cream cheese frosting for Father’s Day.
Maricar
Use freeze dried strawberries and powder them up then add to frosting…
CHANNEN GARRITY
Hi Sam! I was wondering how to go about coloring the frosting a teal color? Or should I switch to buttercream? I am making this cake into cupcakes for a co-worker in the Navy. She works really hard and teal is her favorite color. Any tips would be super helpful! Thanks!
Sam
Hi Channen! I would recommend a gel food coloring. I like Ameri-color food gels and they have a turquoise that I really like. You would just stir it in at the end. 🙂
CHANNEN GARRITY
Thanks for writing back! Unfortunately, we do not have that brand here in WA. I did get gel colors, so I’m just going to mix blue and yellow until I get the color I want. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Sam
I’m excited to hear how it goes! I typically just get mine off of Amazon. 🙂
Maria
Hi Sam; I’ve made this before as a cake (DELICIOUS), and was wondering if it’d be possible to use for cupcakes. Do you have any tips as to baking time/alterations?
Sam
Hi Maria! This should work as cupcakes. They would probably need to for about 17 minutes. I may consider using the jam as a filling for the cupcakes. 🙂
CHANNEN GARRITY
This is exactly what I had hoped to do to this recipe. I am so grateful someone else asked the question. I absolutely LOVE this website!
Sam
Thank you so much, Channen! I hope you love this recipe too! 🙂
Lily
I made this from graduation party and it was a hit! Not one left. In my oven, i could have cooked the cupcakes prob 14-15 min. I’ve made other recipes for strawberry cake but really like the idea of straining the strawberries. Never knew strawberries had so many seeds. I wanted to pipe the frosting so i used another cream cheese frosting on this site. Loved that the cake wasn’t wet like other recipes after sitting a bit.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Lily! 🙂
Larry D Akins
I made this cake tonight and the wife and I just loved it . It was so moist and flavorful .
I will save this recipe to use again
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Larry! 🙂
Rachael Galvin
Wow. This cake looks and sounds amazing. I love it. Could I put sprinkles through it to make it a funfetti strawberry cake? Could I then dye the frosting for this too?
Sugar Spun Run
I had a feeling you’d like this one! Yes, you can put sprinkles in the batter. You want to be sure that do NOT use nonpareils or they may bleed through your batter and ruin the coloring of the cake. As for the icing, this is a cream cheese frosting. You can use a
vanilla frosting if you’d like instead. Either will work and dye well. I hope that helps, Rachel! Keep me posted on what you decide to try. 🙂
Cherline Beveridge
The BEST cake I’ve ever had in my entire life and the Frosting was to die for! the saddest part was finishing it… Wow, just Wow!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you SO much, Cherline! I am so happy that you LOVED it! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Uma G
can i use buttermilk instead of milk? or do you recommend any chocolate cake recipe with buttermilk. Thanks.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Uma! Yes, that should be fine. I do have a chocolate cake recipe that uses buttermilk as well if you’d like to try that. 🙂
Uma G
Great i can’t wait to try it out soon.
Uma G
did the cake. it tasted awesome! thanks for the wonderful recipe 🙂
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
uma g
can i store the juice and jam for about 4 days? maybe freeze them? i plan to make the cake over the weekend but my strawberries are getting ripe quickly. It won’t last till the weekend.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Uma! Yes, you can keep it in the refrigerator for 4 days. If you are worried, it can also be frozen. I hope that you enjoy the cake! 🙂
Renee
Do you have any recipes for the yolks so they won’t go to waste?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Renee! I would recommend trying my Lemon Curd Recipe or Crème Brûlée Recipe 🙂
Paul
Hi Sam. I don’t have any 8 inch round pans. Do you know how long this would take to bake in 9 inch round pans instead? Thanks.
Sam
Hi Paul! The baking time will need to be reduced a bit, I would drop the bake time by 6 minutes or so initially as my best guess but use the toothpick test to make sure it is finished and add another 2 minutes at a time as needed. I hope that helps!
Christy
Labor intensive but fantastic cake. Thanks for sharing! Entire family loved it. I live in CO at about 6000 feet so I made the necessary high altitude adjustments (a little concerned as this was the first time making the cake) and it turned out perfect. I kept the cake in a cake container in the frig due to the whipped cream icing. Typically refrigeration dries out the cake fairly quickly, but it lasted 3 days and the last piece was still moist. I plan to make this again for a granddaughter’s birthday in a couple of months, and I will make the strawberry puree and filling the day before. I am also going to try a buttercream frosting instead of the whipped cream/cream cheese recipe.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you loved the cake, Christy! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Heather
I also live in CO at about 6500 feet altitude. I just made this cake this weekend and my family LOVED it!!!! However, I did not make any altitude adjustments and my cakes sunk in the center. Looked a little aesthetically funky, but tasted amazing! Can you share what your adjustments were? I was actually coming back here to search for comments about altitude adjustments.
Teresa
Another great recipe! It is a beautiful cake and the cream cheese frosting is beyond delicious. Now, I will say that my cake texture is a little dry. I was very careful with the bake time. Any suggestions?
The recipe is definitely a keeper!! I plan to make it again using a simple syrup to brush on the cake layers after cooling.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Teresa! Two things come to mind… overbeating your batter or too much flour was added. When you over mix your batter, air gets incorporated, when it bakes it falls or sinks becoming dense. If the cake is dry and not fluffy, it also makes me think that too much flour may have been added. This is the most common mistake in baking so I have created a guide on how to measure flour properly that can be used as a reference for next time. I hope that helps! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Teresa
Thanks for the tips. I did follow the flour measuring tips you provided in your guide because I do have the tendency to just “scoop and add”. However, I will watch over mixing my batter next time. My cake layers rose nicely and maintained their rise after cooling down. The texture is fluffy, but a tad dry to me. My husband tells me that the cake is great, so again it is a keeper! Thanks so much.
Jean
I made this cake today in memory of my sweet little Captain – my special needs dog who I said goodbye to on Friday. I saw this recipe and couldn’t wait to make it but didn’t have the time. So now that I have nothing but time it was the perfect activity to take my mind off my sadness. And it is SO delicious!! I wish I could include my picture of it because it looks beautiful too! ❤️
Sam
What a sweet tribute, Jean. I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your Captain, I know how hard that can be. Thank you for commenting and letting me know how you enjoyed the cake. I wish I had a way for people to attach pictures here but unfortunately I don’t, you can always tag me @Sugarspun_sam on Instagram or share a photo in my Baker’s Club on Facebook, if you are on either of those platforms!