Guys, we are in the full strawberry season right now! What about to prepare a cake for your next weekend? Whether shall it be a birthday party, start of the holidays, anniversary or anything else, this strawberry layer cake with cream cheese frosting is a beautiful, tasty, seasonal cake to do asap as it is the perfect pre-summer cake! 🙂 And it you cannot find any special occasion, why not to have a piece of cake just for pleasure with your loved ones? …or you know what? Save this recipe for later, a perfect occasion is a Valentine´s Day!
I am not a fan of butter or cream cakes in general, but I can die for cakes with cream cheese frosting such as carrot cake, lemon blueberry cake and now this one! The strawberry layer cake is moist and delicious but it is also beautiful with its pinky color inside – thanks to chopped strawberries and a bit of red colorant in the dough.
I decorate the strawberry layer cake it with slices of strawberries and I put a strawberry rose in the center. If you would like to do the same, here is a step-by-step manual on how to do the strawberry roses.
It is very important to use 3 bowls for the preparation of the cake not to overmix it so that the cake would become way too dense. Otherwise the preparation is easy. I did it twice in a round cake pan of 18 cm in a diameter from 3/4 dosage, but the dosage as mentioned in the recipe below is good for a round cake pan of 22 cm in a diameter. If you use a larger pan, then you might only do 2 layers or increase the dosage.
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 5 tbsp. cornstarch
- 2 ml (nearly 1/2 tsp.) red food colorant
- 2/3 cup chopped strawberries + 1 tbsp. flour
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 500 g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 and 1/2 to 2 cups sliced strawberries
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour the cake pan.
- Using a hand mixer beat the room temperature butter until creamy and slowly beat in the sugar until light and fluffy.
- In a big bowl, beat the eggs, add the butter and sugar mixture, lemon juice and buttermilk and beat all together.
- In another bowl, sift the flour with the baking soda, salt and cornstarch.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, add the colorant and beat on low speed so that all combines well. At the end toss the chopped strawberries in a spoon of flour and stir them carefully into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the cake tester comes out dry. Let the cake cool down for an hour, then chill in a fridge for another hour.
- In the meantime, prepare the cream cheese frosting: Cream the softened butter with the hand mixer until creamy. Beat the cream cheese as well until creamy and add to the butter. Add the vanilla extract and powdered sugar always 1/2 cup at once and beat until smooth as desired.
- Cut the cake into 2-3 layers (depending on the height). Spread the cream cheese frosting on each layer and also on the sides. Leave the cake in the fridge for at least an hour. Right before serving, decorate it with the slices of strawberries.
- It is very important to use 3 bowls for the preparation of the cake not to overmix it so that the cake would become way too dense.
If you tried the recipe, please do let me know how it turned out – you can do that either via leaving a comment below or sharing your picture on Instagram using the hashtag #1001voyagesgourmands !