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Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This Fresh Strawberry Cake is layered simply with a strawberry cream cheese frosting that’s jaw-dropping delicious. Nothing artificial, all natural ingredients.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Fresh Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Mother’s Day weekend, I knew immediately what I’d want to bake up.  A great strawberry cake.  Mommies and berries and pink.  They were all three meant to be.  My lovely Mom is almost clear across the country, but I dedicate this pretty pink cake to her.

I love that this cake is made with back-to-basics ingredients.  No artificial coloring and no boxes of Jello or pudding.  Just lots of fresh strawberries and tons of flavor.

I ended up changing much of the original recipe instructions.  For reasons still a mystery, the first bake attempt didn’t work.  The second time, it turned out beautifully.  The cake is light, fluffy, and tender.   It naturally won’t bake up as pink as artificially-colored cakes, but you’re welcome to add a drop or two of red food coloring if you really, really want to 🙂

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Strawberry cream cheese frosting is amazing

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

This strawberry-cream cheese frosting is really what steals the show.  I’m not a huge buttercream frosting girl (gasp!), but I do adore cream cheese frostings.  Cream cheese takes treats over-the-top.  Have you met the cheesecake ?  This rich frosting has the decadent flavor of strawberry cheesecake, with a smooth and creamy texture that’s perfectly spreadable.

Frosting that’s a treat in itself.  Spoon-licking worthy.  Finger-licking yum.  You get the idea.  I am already brainstorming ways to incorporate this dreamy frosting into future desserts.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting is the perfect combination

Other Strawberry Dessert Recipes To Try:


Try these Blueberry Pie Crumb Bars, Too:


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strawberry cake with fresh strawberries

Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

4.92 from 12 ratings
This Fresh Strawberry Cake is layered simply with a strawberry cream cheese frosting that’s jaw-dropping delicious. Nothing artificial, all natural ingredients.
Prep Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
Cooling time: 2 hours 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 hours 40 minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Author: Amy Dong

Ingredients  

  • 16 oz very, very ripe, red fresh strawberries (with not much white on them. If a lot of white needs to be cut off, you'll need more strawberries. The riper the better.)
  • 3 tsp sugar
  • 12 Tb unsalted butter, room temp (lightly indents when tapped, not melty at all)
  • 1 ¾ cup white sugar
  • 4 large eggs, whites and yolks separated - room temp
  • ¼ cup whole milk, room temp
  • 1 TB vanilla extract
  • 2 ¼ cup cake flour, sifted after measuring
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

For the Frosting:

  • 4 TB strawberry puree, use leftover puree from cake
  • 8 TB regular butter, firm
  • 8 oz cream cheese, slightly cold
  • 16 oz 1 lb confectioner's sugar

Instructions

For the Cake:

  • Hull and slice fresh strawberries.  Toss with 3 tsp sugar and cover.  Let sit in fridge overnight, until they become macerated and juicy.  Blend strawberries with short pulses, just until pureed.  Do not over blend.
  • Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle.  Line bottom of two 8 or 9 inch round pans with parchment paper.  Grease and flour the paper and sides of pans.
  • Beat butter and sugar in stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium high, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Add milk, yolks, vanilla, and 3/4 cup of strawberry puree (save remaining puree for frosting, filling, or other use.)  Blend just until combined.
  • In separate bowl, whisk together:  sifted cake flour, baking powder, and salt.  Fold in the butter mixture with rubber spatula, just until wet/dry ingredients are fully incorporated.  Do not over mix.
  • In a clean bowl, using electric mixer, beat egg whites just until still peaks form.  Gently fold egg whites into the cake batter with rubber spatula, softly folding until combined.
  • Divide batter evenly among the two pans.  Give the pans a gentle shake to level out the tops.  Bake 20-25 minutes just until toothpick inserted in center has a few tender crumbs attached.  Watch carefully so it does not over bake and become dry.  Let cakes rest at room temp for 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks.  Let cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting:

  • In stand mixer using paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until it is light, pale yellow, and fluffy.  Add cream cheese and beat until combined.  Reduce speed to low and add confectioner's sugar and beat until combined.  Add the strawberry puree and mix just until combined.  Place frosting in fridge about an hour before use.  Frosted dessert should be kept in fridge until ready to serve.  This frosting is best suited for spreading rather than piping, as it is smooth and creamy soft.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 565kcal | Carbohydrates: 111g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 94mg | Sodium: 494mg | Potassium: 218mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 576IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 133mg | Iron: 2mg
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Amerian
Method: Bake

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Recipe Rating




23 comments

    • Amy
    • 5 stars

    Made this on the weekend and it was such hit! Nothing quite beats fresh fruit on desserts.

      • Amy Dong

      Yay, so glad they all enjoyed this!

    • Megan
    • 5 stars

    this looks delicious

    • Nora
    • 5 stars

    Yum! Looks super delicious! Perfect for Mother’s Day!

    • Emily Flint
    • 5 stars

    This was so delicious!

    • Agnieszka
    • 5 stars

    Fabulous strawberry cake! The cream cheese frosting is amazing.

    • nancy
    • 5 stars

    what a simple yet tasty recipe. I love the strawberry frosting! it’s the perfect mid afternoon slice!

    • Melinda
    • 5 stars

    Love that this cake recipe uses fresh, ripe strawberries!

    • Andrea
    • 5 stars

    this cake turned out amazing! so sweet and delicious!

    • Em
    • 5 stars

    It’s almost strawberry season here and I’m going to be making this fresh strawberry cake on repeat. I have to admit that I used buttercream frosting, because I don’t really like cream cheese frosting. But it still turned out delicious.

    • Jeri
    • 5 stars

    I made this strawberry cake yesterday, and it was a huge hit. I’m also planning to make it again for Mother’s Day! Thanks!

    • Grace
    • 5 stars

    Thank you very much for your recipes,. for your Europe followers it will be wonderful if you can add the METRICS converter please. Thank you once again for making it possible. Have a great weekend and God’s blessings.

    • Sheena W.

    Woohoo!! I finally got to try this out! So good!!! Though I’m curious how did you get the cake the color it is in the images? Dye? Or did you use regular eggs haha? I used farm fresh eggs which were SUPER golden so my cake ended up being more peachy colored Haha!

      • chewoutloud

      Hi, Sheena! Nope, nothing else used except what’s shown in recipe. Your golden cake sounds delish!

        • Sheena W.

        So it was most likely my eggs haha! Sneaky gold eggs! It’s delicious though a bit denser than it should be I think but I have a couple tricks prepared for next time! Plus everyone loved it so that’s what matters hah!!

    • Sheena W.

    Looks so yummy!!! I love anything strawberry! Though I’m curious what brand of cake flour do you use? Most of the ones on the market don’t seem to do it for me with either a weird texture or a bad strong bleached flavor :(.

      • chewoutloud

      Sheena, I have used Swan’s with good results. That’s what I currently have in my pantry. But if that hasn’t worked for you in the past, here’s a great forum I found with thoughts on cake flour brands. Hope that helps! http://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/729925/best-cake-flour

        • Sheena W.

        Thank you so much! I will give it a try again since it’s been awhile since I really used it and thank you for the article! A flour I do want to try is Bibs red mill cake flour, but it’s hard to get where I live sadly.

    • Courtney@BakeMeBetter

    This looks WAY easier than Foodie Bride’s. I tried her recipe. Didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. Here’s my version. http://www.bakemebetter.com/2013/05/12/white-cake-strawberry-filling/
    I’m definitely trying yours.

    • huntfortheverybest

    looks delicious!

    • gottagetbaked

    This cake would be perfect for Mother’s Day…or any day! It looks absolutely lovely. I’ve been looking for a good strawberry cake recipe so I can’t wait to try this out!

    • frugalfeeding

    That is quite some cake – interesting sponge recipe! Seems to have worked well.

    • ohiocook

    Reblogged this on My Meals are on Wheels.

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