Strawberry Cake

4.89 from 1372 votes

Fresh strawberry cake made from a real strawberry reduction (no Jell-O, no boxed mix). Moist, tender, and a beautiful pink color. Filled and frosted with strawberry buttercream made from the same reduction.

Prep Time20

Cook Time50

Strawberry Reduction40

Total Time1 50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 603kcal

Author: Liz Marek

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

US Customary - Metric

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.

Reduction notes

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.

Strawberry buttercream notes

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.

Pan options

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.

Make-ahead and storage

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.

Critical do-nots

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.

Nutrition