How to make a delicious homemade strawberry cake with fluffy strawberry frosting completely from scratch. You won’t need a cake mix for this recipe!
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Homemade Strawberry Cake
This sweet and delicious homemade Strawberry Cake has been on my list of cakes to make for a long time. I always love the bright pink store bought version, but I wanted to try my hand at making a strawberry cake from scratch with real strawberries. Sure the cake may not be as bright pink, but I assure you it’s even more delicious!
It all started way back when with a Banana Dream Cake in 2011. That cake was the beginning. It then branched off into the Pumpkin Dream Cake. And if you read the comments, it is possibly one of the most made cakes on this blog….which is saying something because I have posted a lot of cakes.
With all the fresh Florida Strawberries that have been showing up on the sides of the roads (Yup, we start getting FL Strawberries as early as the end of December sometimes…gotta love FL!), I just had to try to make a Strawberry Dream Cake.
I was waiting for my favorite little old man in red suspenders to show up selling Strawberries, but so far he hasn’t been around this year. Maybe he is still sleeping off his New Years hangover. 🙂 Instead, I happened to see a mom and her toddler aged daughter with a tent set up selling some winter citrus and the first FL Strawberries of the season. At $4 for a huge pallet, I just couldn’t help but pull in!
I ended up having to make the cake twice, because the first time it came out of the oven like a funky brick. Totally depressing to waste all those ingredients and have to throw away cake…but hey, it happens to all of us right? So I tried again and this time it was a success!
This dream cake is a little different than the previous two dream cakes. Pureed Strawberries have a much different texture than pumpkin or banana. So the cake of course is a little different. You also have to add some strawberry extract to boost the flavor…because even with 2 cups of pureed strawberries, it still needs a little extra Strawberry flavor.
Also, I made this one in 2 layers instead of 3…because I lost my 3rd 8 inch pan. How does that even happen?? But anyways, I left the recipe below in the traditional 3 layers because I like the ratio of frosting to cake that it provides. Speaking of frosting, holy moly this stuff is like strawberry crack! SO GOOD! I hope you enjoy this Strawberry Dream Cake as much as the dream cakes of the past!
Homemade Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons strawberry extract
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups pureed strawberries
- red food coloring, optional
Strawberry Frosting
- 2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup pureed strawberries
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 5 to 6 cups powdered sugar
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 3, 8-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl/stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla, strawberry extract and vegetable oil. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the pureed strawberries. Add optional red food coloring, if desired, until batter is a nice dark pink.
- Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and immediately place in freezer for 45 minutes. (This keeps the cake moist by immediately stopping the baking so the cake does not continue to bake when you remove it from the oven.)
Frosting
- Cream the butter in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the strawberry extract and strawberry puree, combine well.
- Begin adding in the powdered sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more strawberry extract. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.
Assemble
- Assemble the 3 layers with a thick layer of frosting in between each layer. Apply one final thick and even layer around the outside of the cake. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hi, I tried making your recipe and it was so wonderful….good job,!
Can I cover fondant with it?
I made this cake for a party today and everyone RAVED about the taste. I liked it too but I had a really hard time cutting it as it was very soft. I thought the texture was almost under baked but my hubby said it was fluffy to him. I also made the dark chocolate dream cake as the bottom tier and its texture was perfect. I use your vanilla dream cake as my go to and have even adapted it for a pineapple cake.
I think I was thrown off by the freezer thing. We weren’t coming back right away so I put the cakes in the fridge. Would that have messed it up? Is that step completely necessary?
Thanks for these recipes! I’m looking forward to trying out all the dream cakes!
Nope, the fridge is just as good. If you can’t do either, and need to let the cake rest at room temperature — the cake will still be tasty, just a little dryer. By going straight from the oven to the fridge/freezer, it stops cooking faster. Hope that helps!
I really really like cream cheese icing on my strawberry cakes, would you recommend this for yours?
Thanks!
can I use frozen strawberries?
Could I turn these into cupcakes? How long and on what temperature should I cook them at?
How many cupcakes would this make?
Hi Jessica- I have just found your website recently and have tried a few things and they have all come out great. I would love to try this cake !! My question is (and it’s probably a stupid one) is that when you put the cakes in the freezer after baking should you cover the top of the pans with some foil or plastic to protect them ?
Thanks so much.
Hi Jessica- I have just found your website recently and have tried a few things and they have all come out great. I would love to try this cake !! My question is (and it’s probably a stupid one) is that when you put the cakes in the freezer after baking should you cover the top of the pans with some foil or plastic to protect them ?
Thanks so much.
Hi Donna, I would not cover the pans when cooling the cake. That will cause a lot of moisture to collect on the foil and it will fall back into the cake….and wet cake is never a good thing. 😉 Hope you enjoy the cake!!
My cakes are in the freezer right now and i’m not going to be eating it til saturday, but I want to make the frosting today. Should I put the icing on the cake and store in the freezer? Or should I put the icing in a container and place it in the refridge or freezer?
I have made your pumpkin dream cake and it was delicious! Can I make this using frozen strawberries?
I have commented on this post plenty of times and just wanted to let people know my experiences. I made this recipe just as written into cupcakes and it came out great. The cupcakes did pull away from the wrapper some and didn’t dome at all, but they were so good and everyone raved about them.
This weekend I made it into a cake, but used Frozen sweetened strawberries instead of fresh and added jell-o. That was NOT a good idea. The cake sunk really bad in the middle and to me had a gummy texture. Maybe it was too much sugar?? Not sure. All I know is that I am sticking to the original written recipe from now on :)) I promise this will be my last post. Thanks Jessica!
Thanks Jessica! This helps so much! 🙂 I am making this as a cake on Friday so now I know exactly how you measure 🙂
Looking forward to trying the banana dream cake soon. Thanks! Have an awesome day!
I made this recipe as cupcakes and it came out great! Question: how do you measure your flour? I read an article that said a cup of flour should weigh 4.25 ounces so I weighed my 3 cups of flour and used loran strawberry oil cause I couldn’t find extract. Also, these don’t dome as cupcakes but they were so good! Thank you for the recipe :))
So glad you liked them!
I fill a measuring cup with flour until the required amount is obtained. (Scooping a measuring cup directly into flour bag can firmly pack flour resulting in too much flour required for a recipe.)
I am making this Saturday morning, but into cupcakes! I am so excited. This will be my first recipe from your blog 🙂 I pray this is the end of my from scratch strawberry cake recipe :))) Thanks so much!! 🙂
Why dont you use milk in this recipe, like the other dream cakes?
Because of all the added liquid from the pureed strawberries. Strawberries have a lot of water in them naturally when compared to Pumpkin or Bananas. So with the addition of pureed strawberries, you don’t need any more liquids.
I cannot wait to try this. I make all of my cakes from scratch except my strawberry one cause I have not found a good one that is moist enough.
I make Paula Deen’s strawberry cake with a mix, frozen sweetened strawberries and the strawberry gelatin, but since they have the cut the sizes of the mixes down I have been on a lookout for a scratch made cake.
I think I will add the jell-o and frozen sweetened strawberries to this cake to see if I can get the same result. Thank you! I love your blog!!!
I just want to thank you for posting this recipe. I made it for my daughters cake auction last night and it was the highest selling cake. It was moist and full of strwberry flavor. The couple that purchased it said it was the best strawberry cake they have ever had. I can’t wait to make it again in the summer!
Amazing recipie! It came out brilliant!
Yum, this cake looks and sounds so delicious. I love the pink frosting too!
I’m so jealous of your FL strawberries!