This is the best fresh strawberry cake made with real strawberries (no Jell-O, no boxed mix, no fake flavors). The secret is a slow-simmered strawberry reduction that goes into both the cake batter and the buttercream frosting, giving you intense fresh strawberry flavor in every bite. It takes a little extra time to make the reduction first, but I promise the result is worth it.
Quick Glance: Strawberry Cake Recipe
- Recipe Name: Strawberry Cake Recipe
- Why You'll Love It: Real strawberry flavor, beautiful pink color, moist, tender crumb. No artificial flavors or Jell-O needed.
- Time and Difficulty: 20 minutes prep + 50 minutes total (reduction adds 40 to 60 minutes the day before). Intermediate.
- Main Ingredients: Fresh or frozen strawberries, all-purpose flour, butter, egg whites, milk, strawberry emulsion, lemon, and pink food coloring.
- Method: Make a strawberry reduction by simmering pureed strawberries with sugar and lemon until thick. Use part of the reduction in the cake batter and part in the buttercream. Bake, cool, fill, and frost.
- Texture and Flavor: Moist, tender, soft pink crumb with bright, real-strawberry flavor and a creamy strawberry buttercream.
- Quick Tip: Add a drop of pink food coloring to keep the strawberry pink color from baking out into a muted gray.
Jump to:
- Quick Glance: Strawberry Cake Recipe
- Why This Is The BEST Strawberry Cake Recipe
- Strawberry Cake Ingredients
- Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
- Cups of Batter Needed
- Cups of Frosting Needed
- Common Strawberry Cake Problems To Avoid
- Final Thoughts
- More Strawberry Recipes To Try
- Strawberry Cake FAQs
- Watch: How To Decorate A Cake Step-by-Step
- Recipe
Why This Is The BEST Strawberry Cake Recipe
This is one of my all-time favorite cake recipes, and also one of the hardest I've ever developed. So many failed attempts before I landed on this version. I tried adding chopped fresh strawberries to my vanilla cake recipe, and the cake turned out wet, dense, and brown, and most of the strawberry flavor was gone.
Next, I tried the recipe everyone says works, the one with strawberry Jell-O. Let me tell you, that was the weirdest-tasting cake I've ever made. I don't know how anyone can call that flavor strawberry. If you like it, more power to you, but it wasn't what I was after.
I also tried grinding up freeze-dried strawberries and adding them to the dry ingredients. That cake turned out a little better, but I still wanted a way to use real, fresh strawberries. After dozens of test bakes, I finally nailed it using two things: a slow-simmered strawberry reduction and a high-quality strawberry emulsion.
Strawberry Cake Ingredients
This is the BEST strawberry cake recipe you'll ever make, and it may seem intimidating, but I promise it's worth it. There are three components: the strawberry reduction (made first, ideally the day before), the strawberry cake layers, and the strawberry buttercream. Here's why each ingredient matters.
- Fresh or frozen strawberries. The base of the strawberry reduction. Frozen are often better because they're picked at peak ripeness. Thaw them before blending.
- Granulated sugar. Used in the reduction and the cake. In the reduction, a small amount intensifies strawberry flavor and helps thicken. In the cake, it's the main sweetener and creates structure when creamed with butter.
- Lemon juice and zest. Used in the reduction and the cake. The acid keeps the pH low so strawberries hold their bright red color instead of turning gray-purple (anthocyanin pigment is unstable at neutral or alkaline pH). Zest adds aromatic brightness.
- Salt. Used in the reduction, cake, and buttercream. Balances sweetness and intensifies the other flavors.
- Unsalted butter. Used in the cake (8 oz) and the buttercream (16 oz). Use good-quality butter like Kerrygold (or make your own). Cheaper butter has more water and can affect how the cake bakes and how the buttercream sets.
- Egg whites. Used in the cake and the buttercream. Important: the buttercream MUST use pasteurized egg whites (boxed cartons from the dairy aisle) because they aren't cooked in the recipe. The cake can use either separated fresh egg whites or boxed whites. Don't use whole eggs; the yolks tint the cake peach-orange instead of pink.
- Whole milk. Used in the cake only. Lower-fat milk works but the cake won't be as rich.
- Vegetable or canola oil. Used in the cake only. Keeps the cake moist for days. Any neutral oil works (grapeseed, sunflower). Avoid olive oil because the flavor comes through.
- LorAnn Strawberry Emulsion (or strawberry extract). Used in the cake only. The emulsion is much more concentrated than regular extract and adds real strawberry depth without artificial sweetness. I get mine from Michaels in the cake decorating aisle. Regular extract works in a pinch.
- Vanilla extract. Used in the cake and the buttercream. Rounds out the flavor and balances the strawberry.
- Americolor electric pink food coloring. Used in the cake only. Even with lemon juice protecting the natural color, strawberry pink dulls during baking. A few drops keeps it vivid. This isn't optional if you want a vibrant pink cake.
- All-purpose flour. Used in the cake only. Cake flour is too tender to hold up to all the moisture from the reduction.
- Baking powder and baking soda. Used in the cake only. Standard leavening combo for this recipe.
- Powdered sugar. Used in the buttercream only. Sweetens and gives body.
- Strawberry reduction. Made in step 1 of the recipe (using the strawberries, sugar, lemon, and salt above). Used in the cake batter, the buttercream, and as a thin filling between cake layers for extra flavor.
Strawberry Cake Step-By-Step
Use a kitchen scale for the rest of the recipe; converting to cups is the most common reason this cake fails.
- Make the strawberry reduction (one day ahead). Blend thawed strawberries until smooth, then simmer with sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a saucepan over medium-low heat for 40 to 60 minutes until thick like tomato sauce. Cool completely. This is the secret to real strawberry flavor in both the cake and the buttercream, and doing it the day before saves time on bake day.
- Butter, egg whites, milk, and the strawberry reduction all need to be at room temperature before you start mixing. Cold ingredients are the number one cause of curdled batter. While the ingredients warm up, grease two 8-inch cake pans with cake goop and preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Whisk the milk, oil, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, and pink food coloring together in one bowl.
- In a second bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Setting these up separately keeps the batter from getting overworked later.
- Beat the butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth and shiny, then add the sugar gradually and beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white.
- Add the egg whites one at a time, beating briefly between each. The mixture should look cohesive; if it looks curdled, your ingredients were too cold.
- On low speed, add about a third of the dry, then about a third of the wet, mixing just until almost combined. Repeat twice more. Stop, scrape the bowl thoroughly, and mix briefly to combine. The finished batter should look like ice cream.
- Split evenly between the prepared pans, then bake until the centers feel firm and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely. I put mine in the freezer for about an hour to firm up before stacking and frosting.
- Make the strawberry buttercream. Whip the pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy, then add softened butter in chunks and whip until light and white. Add the leftover strawberry reduction along with vanilla and salt, and continue whipping until smooth and silky. The reduction is what gives this buttercream its real strawberry flavor (no extract needed).
- Assemble and decorate. Layer the chilled cakes with strawberry buttercream and a thin spread of extra strawberry reduction between each layer for maximum flavor. Crumb coat, chill, then frost the outside. If you're new to layer cakes, my cake decorating tutorial for beginners walks through every step from leveling layers to a clean buttercream finish.
PRO TIP: Refer to the recipe card below for a complete ingredients list of all the strawberry components and watch the video for more information on assembling the cake.
Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.
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Cups of Batter Needed
8 cups
Cups of Frosting Needed
5 cups
Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Common Strawberry Cake Problems To Avoid
- Skipping the room temperature step. Cold butter, egg whites, milk, or strawberry reduction will cause your batter to curdle and break. Set everything out at least an hour before mixing, or microwave the milk for 20 seconds and the reduction for about a minute to speed it up.
- Using poor quality strawberries. Out-of-season fresh strawberries often have very little flavor, and a flavorless reduction can't be fixed downstream. Frozen strawberries from a quality brand are usually picked at peak ripeness and taste better than mediocre fresh ones.
- Under-reducing the strawberries. Strawberries are 90% water, and the reduction needs to simmer slowly until it's thick like tomato sauce (40 to 60 minutes). If you stop early, too much water will go into the batter and the cake will be dense and wet.
- Substituting jam, Jell-O, or extract for the reduction. Jam has pectin and too much sugar, Jell-O is artificial flavor, and extract alone isn't concentrated enough. Real strawberry reduction is what makes this cake taste like strawberries.
- Using whole eggs. The yolks tint the cake peach-orange and fight against the strawberry pink. Use only egg whites, either separated yourself or from a pasteurized boxed carton.
- Using cake flour instead of all-purpose. This cake is too moist for cake flour to support, so it will sink in the middle. Stick with AP flour even if your other cake recipes use cake flour.
- Skipping the pink food coloring. Strawberries' natural color (anthocyanin) softens during baking, even with the lemon juice protecting it. A few drops of Americolor electric pink keeps the cake vivid instead of muted gray.
- Measuring by cups instead of weight. A cup of flour can vary by up to 50% depending on how you scoop, which is enough to ruin the recipe. Use a kitchen scale for this and every other recipe on the site.
Final Thoughts
I worked harder on this recipe than almost anything else on Sugar Geek Show, and the failures along the way were genuinely demoralizing. Watching cake after cake come out gray, dense, weirdly artificial, or bland nearly made me give up. The breakthrough was understanding that strawberries had to be concentrated before they went into the cake, not added fresh, and that the color needed protection (the lemon and pink food coloring) to survive the oven.
Once it clicked, this became one of the most-requested cakes I bake. The flavor is what fresh strawberry cake is supposed to taste like, and the color makes it feel like a celebration on the plate. It's perfect for Mother's Day, birthdays, baby showers, gender reveals, or just any time strawberries are in season and you want to do them justice.
If it's your first time, give yourself two days. Make the reduction the day before. The whole thing comes together more easily when nothing is rushed.
More Strawberry Recipes To Try
Strawberry Cake FAQs
I use LorAnn's strawberry bakery emulsion. It's much more concentrated than regular strawberry extract and doesn't have an alcohol burn. You can find it at Michaels in the cake decorating aisle, online at LorAnn directly, or on Amazon. If you can't find emulsion, regular strawberry extract works in a pinch but use a little more.
Yes, with one note. The buttercream is on the soft side, so chill the assembled cake well before applying fondant so the fondant doesn't slip. The cake itself holds up beautifully under fondant.
Yes, and frozen is often better. Frozen strawberries are usually picked at peak ripeness, so the flavor is more concentrated. Just thaw them before blending.
Yes. Divide the batter into a lined cupcake pan and bake at 350°F for 18 to 20 minutes. The recipe yields about 24 cupcakes.
Both. The strawberry reduction keeps in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for 6 months. The baked, cooled cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen for up to a week before assembly. Bring the cake layers to fridge-cold (not frozen solid) before stacking and frosting.
Watch: How To Decorate A Cake Step-by-Step
Before you start decorating, watch the video below where I show you every step of decorating a cake from start to finish. Seeing the process in action makes it much easier to follow along
- Liz Marek.
Recipe
Equipment
- 2 8" cake pans
Ingredients
Strawberry Reduction
- 32 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries thawed
- 4 ounces sugar optional
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 pinch salt
Fresh Strawberry Cake Ingredients
- 8 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
- 10 ounces granulated sugar
- 6 ounces egg whites room temperature
- 4 ounces milk room temperature, whole milk is best
- 6 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature
- 2 ounces vegetable or canola oil
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice fresh
- zest one lemon
- 1 ½ teaspoon strawberry emulsion or extract, I use LorAnn oils bakery emulsion
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Pink food color I use Americolor electric pink gel
- 14 ounces all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Easy Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- 4 ounces pasteurized egg whites
- 16 ounces powdered sugar
- 16 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature
Instructions
Strawberry Reduction Instructions
- I recommend making this reduction the day before you're ready to make your cake.
- Place your thawed or fresh strawberries into the blender and blend until smooth.
- Place the strawberry puree, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice into a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil.
- Once bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low and slowly reduce the puree until you have two cups of liquid and the mixture is very thick like tomato sauce. This can take between 40-60 minutes. Occasionally stir the mixture to prevent burning.
- 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 moisture. Leftover reduction can be stored in the fridge for up to one week or frozen for 6 months.
Strawberry Cake Instructions
- NOTE: It is SUPER IMPORTANT that all the room temperature ingredients listed above are room temperature and not cold or hot.
- Make sure to take your strawberry reduction out of the refrigerator 1 hour before making your cake so that it comes to room temperature or microwave it for about a minute so that it's warm.
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 350ºF/176ºC.
- Grease two 8" cake pans with cake goop or preferred pan release
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion, vanilla extract, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pink food coloring.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add room temperature butter to your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds.
- Gradually sprinkle in the sugar, beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add the egg whites one at a time, beating 15 seconds in between. Your mixture should look cohesive at this point. If it looks curdled and broken, your butter or egg whites were too cold.
- Mix 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.
- 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!
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
- 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.
- Place pans on top of a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Then flip your cakes onto the racks and cool completely.
- Once cooled, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze before assembling your cake.
Buttercream Instructions
- Place egg whites and powdered sugar in a stand mixer bowl. Attach the whisk and combine ingredients on low and then whip on high for 5 minutes
- Place 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.
- Add in your softened 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, this is normal. Keep whipping.
- Add in strawberry reduction, vanilla extract and salt and continue whipping until incorporated.
- Optional: Switch to a paddle attachment and mix on low for 15-20 minutes to make the buttercream very smooth and remove air bubbles.
Video
Notes
- All ingredients (egg whites, milk, butter, reduction) should be at room temperature, not cold or hot.
- Use a kitchen scale for accurate weight measurements. Converting this recipe to cups can lead to failure.
- Americolor electric pink is what keeps the cake from turning gray during baking. It looks like cheating but it isn't optional if you want a vivid pink color.
- Use only egg whites. Whole eggs tint the cake peach.
- LorAnn's strawberry bakery emulsion is more concentrated than regular extract. If you can plan ahead and order it, you'll get better strawberry flavor. Regular extract works in a pinch.
- Goal: get as much liquid out as possible without burning the strawberries. The mixture should look like thick tomato sauce and have reduced by about half.
- Use some for the cake batter, some for the frosting, and the rest between the cake layers for extra flavor.
- Leftover reduction stores in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for 6 months.
- Whip the buttercream until light and very white before adding the reduction. If it still tastes like butter, keep whipping until it tastes like sweet ice cream.
- If the buttercream looks curdled after adding the reduction, it's too cold. Microwave ½ cup of buttercream for 10 to 15 seconds until just barely melted, then pour it back into the mixer while it's running. It will come together creamy.
- Two 8-inch cake pans is the recommended size.
- Two 9-inch pans work but you'll have leftover batter; bake the extra as cupcakes.
- Three 8-inch pans for a taller cake; reduce baking time to 25 to 28 minutes per pan.
- Cupcakes: line a cupcake pan, fill liners ⅔ full, bake at 350°F for 18 to 20 minutes. Yields about 24.
- Strawberry reduction: fridge up to a week, freezer up to 6 months.
- Baked cake layers: wrap tightly in plastic, refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze up to a week before assembling.
- Frosted, assembled cake: refrigerate covered up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
- Don't substitute cake flour for all-purpose. The cake will be too soft and may sink.
- Don't use whole eggs. The yolks tint the cake peach instead of pink.
- Don't skip the pink food coloring. The cake will bake out gray.
- Don't substitute jam, preserves, or strawberry Jell-O for the reduction.
- Don't add fresh chopped strawberries to the batter. The water content ruins the cake's structure.
- Don't use cold ingredients. Everything must be room temperature.
Ella says
Made this cake over the last few days and it was so delicious, recipe was also very easy to follow.
Great that you pointed out the things that need to be room temp, this must be where I normally go wrong as my cakes always split!
Only thing was when putting lemon into milk it make it curdle, but it turned out fine anyway 😊
Thankyou!
Elizabeth Marek says
The curdled milk is not a problem 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Tracy says
I’m nervous about using the egg whites what is the purpose of egg whites in the frosting?
Elizabeth Marek says
Pasteurized egg whites are perfectly safe to eat just like pasteurized milk is safe to eat. Egg whites are used in every buttercream recipe outside of the USA. It's less sweet, lighter and smoother than traditional American buttercream which is made from mostly sugar and butter.
Kelly says
I’ve tried making this three times and the batter has broken every single time between the second and third dry ingredients/wet ingredients cycle.
Elizabeth Marek says
Sounds like something is too cold if your batter continues to break.
Mandie says
I made this recipe for my kiddo's 13th birthday yesterday, and it was a smash hit! There was WAY too much buttercream for my 2-layer 9" round cake, but otherwise it's perfect. The buttercream seems to be like a cross between American and Swiss, with the merengue not being heated first? Anyway it was not too sweet, and perfectly complemented the cake. Thank you so much for all the work you did to experiment and create this recipe!
Janine says
Can you leave out the lemon zest and juice out of the cake? We are not fans of lemon with strawberry. Would I need to replace with some other liquid? Thanks!
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you can leave it out
Carmen Crupi says
Can I use strawberry jam or something similar?
Elizabeth Marek says
No because it's not a reduction, it's just blended strawberries with sugar
Lary says
Hi, I want to make this cake for my husbands birthday and I would like to know how to substitute AP Flour for Almond Flour, and also for the frosting I’m not confortable using egg whites because my kids are going to eat the cake too. I already made the strawberry reduction and it looks really good. Thank you!!!
Elizabeth Marek says
Hi there. Almond flour does not work the same as regular flour. You would need to use a flour substitute like bobs red mill baking mix or cup for cup. I assure you if your kids drink pasteurized milk then they can eat pasteurized egg whites.
Sean Clark says
I am looking for the option to convert the measurements to the metric system but can’t find that option. I am using a smartphone. Is that an option only compatible on a computer?
Elizabeth Marek says
Just select the metric button to convert to grams
Elena says
I am serving this cake in about 24 hours - Is it okay to store it in the fridge overnight covered with some loose foil? I don't want to dry it out. Thanks!
Elizabeth Marek says
Buttercream will prevent the cake from drying out in the fridge and yes it should be stored in the fridge but take it out a few hours before you eat it or the cake will be cold and dry tasting from it being cold
Louisa Wilson says
How long will this cake keep if kept in a fridge when not out for eating?
Elizabeth Marek says
A couple of days and then it will start to taste dry
Jane says
Do you have high altitude instructions?
Elizabeth Marek says
https://sugargeekshow.com/high-altitude-baking-hacks/
Cheruyl says
How do you change the measurements? I don't see a button to change it. Please, and thanks.
Elizabeth Marek says
Adjust the slider on the servings
Tania says
What brand and color of "hot pink" food coloring did you use? Thanks!
Elizabeth Marek says
I like electric pink food coloring from Americolor
Joy says
Used it for cupcakes - makes 24. The cake texture was perfect, but the strawberry flavor was flabby - I didn't have the strawberry extract, and wanted to see how it would go without it. Perhaps I didn't cook down the reduction enough, but it was a great addition to the butter cream, and I boosted the strawberry presence with it as decorating accents on top of the cupcakes.
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes, if you leave out the strawberry extract, the flavor will not be as pronounced.
Jennifer Barnes says
I made this to deliver to my sister for her drive-by socially distanced birthday today. Strawberry is her favorite. Sadly I was unable to taste it but I’m getting revenge reviews from her. Your recipes are fail-proof!