Fresh Strawberry Cake

This is the best fresh strawberry cake made with real strawberries. The secret is adding a fresh strawberry reduction to your cake batter and mixing the rest into your buttercream frosting for a fresh strawberry cake recipe that tastes like real strawberries!

Many strawberry cakes are made with imitation flavors or Jell-O, but not this cake! This uses real fresh or frozen strawberries and lemon to bring out the strawberry flavor. This cake takes a bit more time to prepare because we have to make the strawberry reduction first then make the strawberry cake but I promise its worth the effort!

Why This Is The BEST Strawberry Cake Recipe

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite cake recipes. I have never worked so long and hard on one recipe. SO many failed attempts and I almost gave up. I tried adding chopped-up strawberries to my vanilla cake recipe, and the cake turned out very wet, dense, brown, and most of the strawberry flavor was gone. 

Next, I tried that recipe where you add Jell-O. Let me tell you, that was the weirdest-tasting cake I have ever tried! I don't know how anyone can call that flavor strawberry but if you like it, more power to ya haha!

I also tried grinding up freeze-dried strawberries and adding them to my dry ingredients. That cake turned out a little better, but I still wanted to figure out a way to use fresh strawberries. I finally nailed this recipe using a strawberry reduction (boiling pureed strawberries until they are thicker and have less liquid) and a high-quality strawberry emulsion!

• Fresh strawberry flavor made from REAL strawberries
• No Strawberry Jell-O mix
• No boxed cake mix
• Moist crumb 

Ingredients

This is the BEST strawberry cake recipe you'll ever have and it may seem intimidating but I promise it will all be worth it! First, we will make the strawberry reduction and then bake it into the strawberry cake. Here's a little overview of the most important ingredients in this recipe and why we're using them.

For The Reduction

The most important part of this whole recipe is the strawberry reduction. Strawberries naturally have a TON of water in them and we want to reduce that water while still keeping as much flavor as possible. This recipe will make enough stawberry reduction for the cake and the buttercream.

• Sugar - Adding some sugar intensifies the flavor of the strawberry and helps thicken it.
• Lemon - Adding in the zest and the juice of a lemon helps the strawberry reduction keep its color.

For The Cake

Make sure you have all your ingredients ahead of time!

• Strawberry Emulsion - It's like strawberry extract but very, very concentrated. If you can get it ahead of time, it really adds the best strawberry flavor. If you don't have time to order it, using regular strawberry extract is better than nothing! I got my strawberry emulsion from Michaels in the cake decorating aisle. 
• Flour - A lot of my recipes use cake flour, but we're using all-purpose flour for this recipe because it is SO moist. I did some tests with cake flour, and it just didn't hold up.
• Egg Whites - Are used because if you include the yolks it will give the strawberry cake a weird orange-y color. You can separate the egg yolks from the egg whites manually or use liquid egg whites. One egg white equals one ounce.
• Butter - Use a good-quality butter (you can even make your own). I prefer Kerrygold for the flavor and high fat content. Lower-quality butter has more water and can affect how the cake bakes.
• Oil - I use canola oil most of the time because it doesn't have much flavor but keeps the cake moist and delicious. You can use any oil you prefer. Just keep in mind that some oils, like olive might impart a flavor.
• Lemon - This isn't for flavor, it's more for color. Strawberries turn a muted grey-ish purple when they are cooked because their natural red pigment, anthocyanin, is unstable and turns purple in neutral or alkaline environments. Adding an acid, like lemon juice, helps maintain the red color by keeping the pH level low
• Pink Food Coloring - Even after everything we do to keep that pink color, it still dulls down a bit after baking, so adding in a couple of drops of pink food coloring, you get a gorgeous strawberry pink color.

For The Buttercream

• Egg Whites - The base of this buttercream frosting uses pasteurized egg whites, so they have already been heat-treated and are safe to eat. When mixed with powdered sugar, it creates a sort of mock-meringue.
• Powdered Sugar - Add sweetness and body to the buttercream.
• Butter - Creates creaminess, cuts the sweetness of the sugar and helps the buttercream stay soft.

Step-By-Step Instructions

Remember to use a kitchen scale to measure out all your ingredients for accuracy and so your cake turns out perfectly. Everything is by weight, even the liquids.

For The Strawberry Reduction

1. Place your thawed strawberries into a blender and pulse a few times until they are liquid.
2. Pour the blended strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. 
   
3. Once bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low and slowly reduce until berries begin to break up and the mixture has reduced and looks like a thick paste. This can take a while. Mine takes between 40-60 minutes! I know this sounds like a long time but low and slow is the best for keeping all the flavor. Just give it a stir every now and then.
   
4. Occasionally stir the mixture to prevent burning. You should end up with about 1 cup of thick strawberry reduction that looks like tomato sauce. Transfer it to another container and let it cool before use.
5. You will use some of the reduction for the cake batter, some for the frosting, and the rest for filling between the cake layers for extra flavor.

For The Cake

1. Bring your butter, egg whites, milk, and strawberry reduction to room temperature and prepare the rest of your ingredients. For the best success, use a food scale to weigh your ingredients. Converting this recipe to cups could lead to failure. Read my blog post on how to use a scale for more information.
2. Grease two, 8" cake pans with cake goop or your preferred pan release and preheat the oven to 350ºF/176ºC.
3. In a separate medium bowl, combine the milk, oil, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion (or extract), vanilla extract, lemon extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pink food coloring. Whisk it together and set it aside.
   Pro-tip – I use Americolor electric pink food coloring to get my beautiful pink color. It may seem like cheating, but if you don't add it, the color from the strawberries will bake out and your cake will turn out gray. 
4. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set it aside.
5. Add room temperature butter to the stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. I'm using my Bosch Universal Plus mixer for this, but you can use any KitchenAid stand mixer or a hand mixer. If you use a hand mixer, you might have to mix for longer. 
   
6. Gradually sprinkle the sugar into the butter while mixing on medium, and beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white, about 3-5 minutes.
7. While mixing on medium, add in the egg whites one at a time, beating 15 seconds between. Your mixture should look cohesive at this point. If it looks curdled and broken, your butter or egg whites are too cold.
   You must use egg WHITES for this recipe, the yellow from the egg could turn the inside of your cake peach. 
8. While mixing on low speed and add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the milk mixture, mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter.
9. Repeat the process 2 more times. When the batter appears blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. If it looks like ice cream, you did it right!
10. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. I use a spoon to make a divot in the center so that the cakes bake up flatter. Bake cakes at 350ºF/176ºC until they feel firm in the center and a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs on it, about 30-35 minutes.
11. Place pans on top of a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then flip your cakes onto the racks and cool completely.
12. Once cool, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate before assembling your cake. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours or freeze for up to 1 week.
13. You can turn this strawberry cake recipe into cupcakes by dividing the batter into a cupcake lined pan and baking for 18-20 minutes at 350ºF. This recipe makes about 24 cupcakes.

Strawberry Buttercream Step-By-Step

1. Place the pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the whisk attachment and combine ingredients on low, then whip on high for 5 minutes.
   You CANNOT use fresh egg whites for this buttercream. Egg whites from a box are pasteurized (like your milk) so they are safe to eat without cooking. 
2. Add in your butter in chunks and whip on high for 8-10 minutes until it's very white, light and shiny. It may look curdled and yellow at first, but this is normal. Keep whipping.
3. Add in the strawberry reduction, salt, and vanilla extract, and continue whipping until incorporated.
   Pro-tip – If your buttercream looks curdled, it's too cold. Take out ½ cup of buttercream and melt it in the microwave until it's just barely melted. About 10-15 seconds. Pour it back into your whisking buttercream and it will become creamy. 
4. Optional: Switch to a paddle attachment and mix on low for 15-20 minutes to make the buttercream very smooth and remove air bubbles. This isn't required but if you want really creamy frosting, you don't want to skip it.
5. Refrigerate the leftover buttercream for up to a week. If you are not going to use buttercream for more than a week you can freeze it for 6 months or more.

Decorating

I like to layer the extra strawberry reduction in between the layers along with strawberry buttercream for maximum strawberry flavor. If you want more tips on how to decorate your first cake, check out my cake decorating tutorial for beginners.

FAQ

Recipe

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