Strawberry Cake Recipe
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This is the best Strawberry Cake recipe and it’s made from scratch! It’s a fresh, delicious cake that’s been a family favorite dessert for many years!
Strawberry Cake has to be one of my family’s favorite cakes – especially my husband’s. As much as I love my Grandmother Verdie’s Strawberry Cake recipe, I wanted to make one that I made from scratch. And I must say that we all love this updated version of my family’s classic recipe.
Strawberry Cake Recipe
Quick, easy, delicious and made from just a few simple ingredients, this strawberry cake is definitely a keeper of a recipe.
The strawberry flavor is light, with bites of fresh strawberries throughout. The cake also has a light pink tint rather than an over the top pink coloring that many strawberry cakes get from the addition of flavored gelatin to the mix.
So, if you are looking for a strawberry cake option that is made from scratch, this is for you! While it is perfect for just about any occasion at my house, it is especially nice for showers, weddings, birthdays, and luncheons.
How to Make Strawberry Cake
To make this fresh and scrumptious cake, I use these ingredients:
- Fresh Strawberries, hulled
- Unsalted Butter
- Shortening
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Whole Milk
- Buttermilk
- Vanilla Extract
- Natural food coloring (optional)
- For my Frosting, I use my Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.
First, preheat the oven to 350º F.
Prepare three 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick baking spray or prepare with butter and flour. Remove any excess flour.
Blend the strawberries in a blender on medium speed until pureed, about 3 minutes. This should result in 3/4 cup strawberry puree. Set aside.
Then, cream (mix) together the butter and shortening with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Next, add the sugar slowly, one cup at a time. Make sure to fully incorporate each cup of sugar before adding another cup.
Then add eggs one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding another egg.
Sift together the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, and salt – in a medium bowl.
Pour milks, vanilla, and the strawberry puree into a large measuring cup and whisk together with a fork.
Then, alternately add the flour mixture (dry ingredients) and the milk mixture to the creamed-together butter and shortening, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Gently stir all ingredients until well combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure to have all ingredients well mixed.
Evenly distribute the batter between the cake pans and place the pans into the preheated oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the cake releases from the edges of the pan and springs back to a light touch. You can follow my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool in the cake pans for about 10 minutes. Don’t allow the cooked cake to sit in the cake pans longer than around 10 minutes after removing from oven. Turn the cakes out onto wire racks and let them finish cooling completely.
After the cake has completely cooled, frost with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting and enjoy!
Note: I’ve tested this cake recipe many times both with strawberry syrup and strawberry puree. After many tests, I’ve found that the strawberry puree works best in this cake. You get all the delicious strawberry flavor when using the puree and the cake consistently sets better than it when using the syrup. With the strawberry puree you get a much lighter crumb for the cake texture. If you’d like a more pronounced pink color to your strawberry cake, you can use a little natural coloring.
Here’s my Strawberry Cake recipe. I hope you love it!
Strawberry Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 medium (144 g) strawberries, hulled
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, , room temperature
- 1/2 cup (92 g) shortening
- 3 cups (594 g) granulated sugar
- 5 large (250 g) eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.7 g) kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) whole milk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (113.5) buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (9.4 g) vanilla extract
- 1 – 2 (0.1 g) drops natural food coloring, optional
- Strawberry Buttercream Recipe
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F. Prepare three 9-inch round cake pans by brushing with homemade cake release (cake goop), spraying with nonstick baking spray or prepare with butter and flour. Remove any excess flour.
- Blend the strawberries in a blender on medium speed until pureed, about 3 minutes. This should result in 3/4 cup strawberry puree. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and shortening with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar, one cup at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each cup before adding another. Add eggs one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding another.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Pour milks, vanilla, and the strawberry puree into a measuring cup and whisk together with a fork. Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture to the butter and shortening, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Gently stir all ingredients until well combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, making sure to have all ingredients well mixed.
- Evenly distribute the batter between the cake pans and place the pans into the preheated oven. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the cake releases from the edges of the pan and springs back to a light touch. Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool in the cake pans for about 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto wire racks and let them cool completely.
- Frost cake with strawberry buttercream frosting.
Notes
If you would like a more pronounced pink color to your cake, add 1 – 2 drops of natural pink or red food coloring to the batter.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives. Originally published July 2013.
Thank you so much for this recipe!!! I am in awe! I made this cake for my 2 year old niece’s birthday & it went over like a mack truck!! Two days later I had to make one for my mother & now my daughter in-law is begging for a cake of her own! My granddaughters absolutely love Grandma’s Strawberry Milkshake cake!
Thanks again for this awesome recipe!
I’m so glad that everyone loved it, Angela! xo
Hello. Do you have a picture of the inside of the cake? I’m curious about the color with the yolks added, and I am making it for Mother’s Day. I’m desperately trying to get that boxed texture, while having a scratch taste.
Girl that cake comes out a beautiful mauve like pink! Even the buttercream comes out a gorgeous pink! You will be the family star with this cake!
Hi,
I don’t have shortening and was just going to use more butter. Then i saw someone’s comment about vegetable oil. it has me wondering which i should do. have you ever done all butter?
Hi Pat,
You could use all butter if you wanted to but it may make the cake a bit more dense. Hope you enjoy it! Thanks!
Hi Robyn! I made your recipe yesterday and the texture of the cake was creamy instead of the regular “cake” texture that I expected. Is that the way it should have been? Did the shortening lend towards giving it the creamy texture?
Hello,
I love your recipes Robin – thank you for sharing.
I had made this cake in the past and now see that you’ve updated it a bit, with the strawberry puree. I made this cake last night. It turned out dense, though still flaky as you mentioned. I’m wondering when you say shortening, can I use a vegetable oil instead of “Crisco”, and will it turn out – making it maybe more moist and fluffy?
I look forward to your response 🙂
Hi Natalie,
I’m thrilled that you enjoy the recipes. I appreciate you letting me know.
For the Strawberry Cake, there are a two options you could use:
You can use oil, but would need to add oil to the milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree and mix. Don’t add with butter.
OR
You can try making it by creaming butter, shortening, and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 – 5 minutes and then follow the rest of instructions as listed.
I hope this helps, Natalie! Thanks so much! xo
I tried the strawberry cake this morning and the results were fantastic, it’s Autumn here in South Africa so strawberries are super hard to find, I opted for raspberries instead and the results were excellent. Also, I made a double layer cake instead of triple and there were no problems at all with regards to baking time – 35 minutes on 175 degrees Celsius did the trick. Thanks for the great recipe, I look forward to trying more.
Faatimah
Hi Faatimah,
I’m so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed it and had such great results with it! It’s a well-loved cake in our family as well. It does sound delicious with raspberries – I’ll have to try that sometime soon!
Thanks so much for letting me know you enjoyed it! xo
Hello, I made your strawberry cake recipe this weekend. I followed the recipe to a fault and it dropped and was not done all the way through. I actually let it cook for an extra 20 mins beyond time due to the cake not springing back. Wait, I must correct myself, I did not bake in 3 different pans I used 2 instead. Which may have had a lot to do with the issue. The cake batter tasted amazing and the icing was out of this world amazing (so thank you for sharing)!!! I will be trying this recipe again tomorrow. Is there any suggestion that you can give me as to what might have went wrong. I bake a lot and my oven cooks great. So I was shocked when I had to leave it in the oven for an additional 20 mins and it still was not done.
1) Do you have a suggestion that I might be able to revisit?
2) I notice that some reviews are asking about the recipe changing. Is the recipe on the site now the most up to date as of 4/21/2016?
Hi Angie,
This Strawberry Cake is one of our family favorites!
This recipe is for a 3 layer cake. When the batter is divided into 3 pans, the cooking time on the recipe works and the cakes should be done in the middle. I am sure that putting the batter into only 2 pans caused the cooking time to be longer.
The recipe on the blog is up to date.
I hope this helps! I hope you enjoy the cake!
Thanks so much! xo
Hey, I’ve baked this cake before and it turned out beautifully. But now I’ve come back for the recipe again and there is no butter or shortening in it, even though I’m quite sure it was there before. Am I totally insane? Thanks a million!
Hello Robyn
I have used the white cake a lot and I like it, lol, and so does everybody else. I am baking myself into oblivion, which is ok
I like it. Love the Holidays. Got a call for a strawberry cake and guess where I went to find it? That’s right “Add a Pinch”!
I’ve used other stuff too from your website also.
Thanks,
Richard
this recipe is easy to follow and the cake is absolutely amazing. You will not be disappointed!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Sarah! Thanks so much!
Oh my gosh made this cake last night and it is seriously the best cake from scratch I have ever made! Along with the strawberry buttercream, this cake is so moist and amazing. Just the perfect taste of strawberry, no artificial tastes as it uses real berries. This will be my go to strawberry cake recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you love this cake, Brandi. It is one of my husband’s favorite cakes. Thank you! xo