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.
Choose a pan type
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Cupcake Tin Size
Choose number of pans
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.
Jayda Helget says
The cake its self was perfectly moist, tasted good, and turned out like it was suppose to, but the lemon in it seemed to overpower it. Made it a second time, cut back on the lemon products and put more strawberry reduction and emulsion and it turned out perfect! We also ended up using the excess strawberry reduction for a nice strawberry filling between layers by cooking it on the stove and mixing in some strawberry jello mix, sugar, and some corn starch mixture to thicken it up, definitely recommend!
Esca W says
love love love this! So so good, amazing recipe & work!
Do you think it'd work with blueberry for the reduction and emulsion?
Sugar Geek Show says
Thank you! Yeah I think it'd be great with blueberry, let me know how it turns out if you try it 😀
Unicorn says
So good
KMacias says
Liz,
This was a ridiculously delicious cake! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Definitely going into my box of family recipes. Never making boxed starwberry cake again.
For those trying this recipe for the 1st time, TIME TIME TIME
Do not rush anything and be mindful of every step...
I made the Strawberry reduction 2 days before to have it ready for cake baking day.
Janice says
I made this cake twice using a half sheet cake pan. I doubled the recipe and it didnt turn out well. The first time the cake was dry. The second time, it was under cooked in the middle but the perimeter of the cake was done. I baked it 40min. How long should I bake it?
Elizabeth Marek says
You need to keep an eye on the cake and take it out of the oven when it's done baking. Depending on the size of the pan you use, the baking time will vary. Even oven vary from house to house. When you press the center of the cake and it springs back, the cake is done baking. The idea is to take the cake out of the oven right when its baked to preserve moisture. You can also use a baking core (you can get them on Amazon) to use in the center of large cakes to speed up the baking process
Pennie Blair says
This was my very first homemade cake and it was DELICIOUS!!! One question. The Cake was a bit dense. Any idea what I did wrong.
Sugar Geek Show says
So glad you liked it! It's a pretty dense cake just from the strawberries.
Rhonda Aubry says
I decided on your strawberry cake recipe for my niece's 12th birthday cake... I was going to opt for a whipped cream cheese frosting instead of the buttercream...but..after reading the comments on how great the buttercream frosting is (which I'm usually not a fan of buttercream) I'm confused.. can you help me decide? Thanks...
Sugar Geek Show says
Whipped cream cheese frosting would be delicious with it as well!
Anna de battista says
I made this cake for my younger sisters bday which is tomorrow btw.shes turning nine!! the instructions were great and easy to follow!turned out amazing. it did seem a little burt. maybe its because I used fan force. can't wait to try it.
Tisha says
I am a new baker and have started sharing slices of my cakes with my neighbors. This cake is such a hit! I have people messaging me weekly asking if I could please make this again! Just a note to othwr newbies: trust the process ans watch this cake like a hawk to prevent overlooking! The first time I tasted the cake by itself, I was so on the fence about whether I liked it. I kept going though, and completed with filling and frosting and ended up being the best cake I've made to date!
Liz Y Cordero says
Liz you are just Wonderful! Thank you for your hard work and for sharing with us this recipe I’m Making it today and I had try several of your recipes and always are perfect ! Thank you so much God Continues blessings you abundantly as well as your family .
Caleb says
I had a lot of trouble with this recipe. I’ve made some very complex cakes before, and this isn't even a complex cake, but the way the directions are worded are confusing, and could be a lot simpler. I made some technical errors due to the confusing directions. Follow another recipe! I’ve had better strawberry cake before.
Elizabeth Marek says
So sorry to hear that. If you let me know specifically what was confusing, I can try and adjust it to be clearer.
Letisha says
After weeks of research, I'm going to make my first strawberry cake this week! I'm so nervous! One question: I have deep pink Americolor gel, not electric pink. Should I mix with something else to get a brighter pink or just go with my deep pink?
Elizabeth Marek says
Deep pink is more of an orange color. I would use red before I used deep pink
Melissa says
I'm excited to try this! Can the strawberry reduction be added to either your American buttercream or the stabilized whipped cream recipes instead if I opt for one of those (egg-free) routes?
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes it sure can, just fold it together! Easy peezy
Jennifer says
Hubby wanted strawberry cake for his 50th and this hit the spot. Definitely more work than my usual recipe and took some Amazon purchases in the eta of Covid-19 grocery stock. I cut crack on the lemon flavor, just using a little juice and half the extract. I used two 9 inch pans and probably should have cooked a few minutes less because they were just slightly dry. But after a heavy dose of that reduction and buttercream, who cared? Beautiful cake full of strawberry flavor but not too sweet. Same with the buttercream that tasted of melted homemade ice cream.
Dnyee says
I have an old recipe that lists 16oz of strawberries for the reduction. This now says 32oz but they other ingredients list the same quantities. Did you change the amount of strawberries suggested for the emulation?
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes I did so that there would be extra reduction to spread between the layers 🙂