A delicious, made-from-scratch, best-ever Strawberries and Cream Cake with a thick cream cheese frosting and garnished with sugared strawberries. The perfect cake for Mother’s Day!
Strawberries and Cream Cake
Right in time for Mother’s Day, I’ve got you covered for dessert! 🙂 This Strawberries and Cream Cake is relatively simple to make (no worrying about different pans and layering cakes with frosting in between), moist and flavorful, packed with strawberries, and it’s beautiful! I mean, who could ask for more?! And after your mom absolutely flips over this cake, then you’ll want to use this recipe for all kinds of occasions – a baby girl shower, a pink-themed party, Easter Sunday, a gorgeous spring/summer cake…there are so many times when you’ll need a delicious-from-scratch pink strawberry cake!
How Do You Make a Strawberries and Cream Cake with Real Strawberries?
The base of this cake has real strawberries in it! It also has an amazing topping of sugared strawberries–making this cake quite the delicious strawberry treat!
- Special ingredients: To make this cake, you’ll start by beating the butter until smooth and then adding in the sugar. You’ll add some lightly beaten eggs to this mixture and then some lemon juice. Why add lemon juice to this cake? A bit of lemon is as good as a dash of salt in bringing out the flavors. It really intensifies the delicious strawberry flavor, all while keeping things tasting fresh and light. The acidity of the lemon is also important for the final texture of the cake. And then you’ll add in the buttermilk. You can definitely make your own buttermilk (Remove one tablespoon from one cup of milk and replace that tablespoon with vinegar or lemon juice), but I do think this cake is best with a good store-bought buttermilk.
- Keep it light: To keep this cake from being over-mixed (and thus resulting in a denser cake) you’ll combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. You’ll sift together the flour and cornstarch a few times which is going to give you a bit of a “DIY cake flour.” You’ll get a finer crumb and a moister cake without it being too dense. Then you’ll mix in the dry Jell-O®, baking soda, and salt. Once this mixture is combined, you’ll add it to the wet ingredients and beat the two until JUST combined. Again, you don’t want to over-mix the cake batter here.
- Strawberries: Finally, you’ll fold in those *real* finely chopped strawberries!
- Frosting: While the cake bakes, you can make the delicious cream cheese frosting and sugared strawberries that will finish off this cake beautifully.
Quick Tip
MEASURING FLOUR: The most important measurement in this recipe is the flour. If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour, you will pack in way too much flour, which will yield cakey and less-flavorful results. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup and level the top with the back of a table knife. Scooping and packing the flour is not the way to go!
How Do You Frost a Strawberries and Cream Cake?
This scrumptious treat has a delicious strawberry cake base and then a perfect cream cheese frosting to top it all off, making it a “strawberry-and-cream” flavored dessert. I’ve talked a lot about making the cake, so let’s quickly cover that cream cheese frosting. The most important thing for the cream cheese frosting is to make sure the cream cheese and the butter are both at room temperature. This will give you the perfect smooth and creamy base for the frosting. You don’t want the cream cheese or butter melted, microwaved, or softened, which makes the frosting greasy; yet you don’t want it chilled, which is hard to mix smoothly. They should both be at the same room temperature for best results.
The one “secret” ingredient to my cream cheese frosting that I think makes it the best is vanilla bean paste
. The paste has a more intense vanilla flavor and adds gorgeous flecks of beans to the frosting. I love what the paste does for this frosting, but pure vanilla extract also is delicious in its place.
More Strawberry Desserts:
- Mini Vanilla Cheesecakes with Strawberry Sauce
- Frozen Strawberry Ice Cream Pie
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad
- Strawberry Scones
- Strawberry Milkshake
Strawberries and Cream Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 cups + 3 tablespoons white flour
- 5 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons strawberry jell-o mix, dry (not prepared)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk (or milk mixed with lemon juice--check notes)
- Optional: 3-4 drops red food coloring
- ⅔ cup finely diced fresh strawberries
Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 package (8 oz.) full-fat cream cheese at room temperature, don't use low fat
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (OR 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste)
- 3 to 4 cups powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency; I usually use 3 cups)
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Topping
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- 1 ½ tablespoons white granulated sugar
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch pan and set aside.
- Beat the room-temperature butter with a hand mixer until light and creamy. Slowly add in the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- In another bowl, lightly beat the eggs; add to the butter mixture and mix. Add in the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Beat in the buttermilk (See Note 1.). If desired, add in the red food coloring and mix that in.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and cornstarch and then add in the Jell-O mix, baking soda, and salt. It is important to use separate bowls so the cake isn't over-beaten-- which will result in a dense cake.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat at low speed until just combined.
- Remove the stems from the strawberries and chop finely. Add the finely chopped strawberries to the cake batter.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.
- Cool the cake for at least one hour and then refrigerate for another hour.
Frosting:
- Beat the softened butter and room temperature cream cheese until completely creamy. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and your desired consistency.
- Spread the frosting evenly over the cake.
Sugared Strawberry topping (optional)
- Stir together the sliced strawberries and sugar in a medium bowl. Let them stand at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes to develop the syrup. Add them to the cake ONLY when serving and not beforehand.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you think this recipe would work with cupcakes? If so, any suggestions on altering the baking time? Is the frosting a good consistency for piping? I want to do this for my 2 year olds birthday in cupcake form 🙂
I’m not totally certain if the cupcakes will work since I’ve never tried with this recipe, but if you do try I would bake them around 17-22 minutes. I think you’ll want a different frosting though or just add extra powdered sugar to make it a little thicker. Good luck Amanda! 🙂
How fine should the strawberries be chopped. Im concerned that if I chop them too much the juice may add more liquid. Did you chop by hand or use processor?
I chopped them by hand! The processor will probably make them too watery. Enjoy! 🙂
So yummy! Made this cake for my sons first birthday. The adults had seconds and the kids gobbled up their piece. Everyone raves over it. I used 5tbsp of jello after reading comments about the colour not being bright enough. The colour was beautiful.
I also made a layered cake. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hey Kat! Thanks so much for your comment and review; I’m so thrilled this cake was a huge hit! 🙂
Tried my hand at your cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. This was only my second ever cake from scratch and it was to die for. thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I doubled your recipe and used round cake pans to make a 4 layer cake. https://www.instagram.com/p/BHSHrqDgIUR/?taken-by=jennimparks
I’m so thrilled you loved this cake!! Your photo is stunning — you did an amazing job! Love it!
Has anyone tried baking round layers using this recipe, and then cover with fondant? Wondering if, with the high acid content in the strawberries, it would “bleed through” the fondant or cause any puckering with the fondant… sounds like a delicious recipe and I want to try it!
I want to make this for my daughter’s birthday. We live at 7500 ft., so I know some altitude adjustments should be made. Any ideas?
I’m so sorry Geralyn, I really have no experience with baking at high altitudes.
I was searching for a strawberry cake recipe to make for my husband for our anniversary today. It’s currently in the oven and is a gorgeous deep pink (I used sugar free jello mix but not on purpose). My house smells amazing! I can’t wait to try it.
Happy Anniversary Mindy! So glad you gave this cake a try and have been enjoying the smell of it 🙂 Hope you love it!!
I just made this cake for the first time and am waiting for it to cool. I am not a baker, but pretty proud of myself for duplicating your creation. It looks delicious and I can’t wait to share it with family and friends! Thanks for the recipe Chelsea!
Hey Heather! Thank you so much for the comment, I’m so glad that you tried this recipe 🙂 You are so welcome!
Hi Chelsea, I am currently baking the cake right now and i’ve baked it for like 45 minutes now but there are like pink parts that are still soft and mushy. Some parts are fine but like I said there are mushy pink parts. Is this normal? Do I keep cooking it?
That doesn’t sound normal. Do you know if your oven is calibrated? It sounds like parts of your oven may be running hotter than other parts?
Is the batter supposed to be thick? I didn’t alter anything, as far a i know. It baked a little strange looking,but the taste was Amazing.
It is a little thicker than typical cake batter, but nothing too crazy! As long as the taste is great I wouldn’t worry about it 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!