Everyone Really Liked the Strawberry Cake

In 2019 I got a request from my nephew's bride-to-be to make their wedding cake. It was an honor, also a bit of a challenge. She requested chocolate, check, vanilla, check and strawberry...not so check. I moved into research mode. 

I made some not so successful attempts and finally wound up modifying this recipe from sugargeekshow.com. Her post is very complete with lots of tips. Also, her photos are way better than mine.

sugargeekshow's strawberry cake

Sugargeekshow's Fresh Strawberry Cake With My Tweaks and My Strawberry Buttercream Recipe

I found it makes two 8"x 1 1/2" cake layers.

 Strawberry Cake Ingredients

• 14 ounces all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
• 10 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoon strawberry emulsion or extract, I use LorAnn oils bakery emulsion
• zest one lemon
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice fresh
• 6 ounces egg whites room temperature
• 4 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature
• 6 ounces buttermilk 
• 4 ounces water
• 1/2 teaspoon Pink food color I use Americolor electric pink gel

Strawberry Reduction

• 32 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries thawed
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 pinch salt

My Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

• 8 ounces butter
• 8 ounces crisco
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 6 Tablespoons powdered freeze dried strawberries
• 4 ounces strawberry reduction room temperature

Instructions

Strawberry Reduction Instructions

Make this reduction the day before you're ready to make your cake.

Place frozen strawberries into a medium saucepan. Blend strawberries with an emersion blender if you prefer a smoother texture of strawberry reduction.

Heat on medium-high and add in, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt. Stir often to prevent burning.

Once bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low and slowly reduce until berries begin to break up and the mixture has reduced by about half. This will take about 20 minutes. If your mixture has reduced by half and is still watery, continue to cook until all of the liquid is out. I wound up over cooking one batch, so am very careful towards the end of this process. I put the reduction in a glass bowl in the microwave and reduced minute by minute until it looked right.  You should end up with about 2 cups of thick strawberry reduction that looks like tomato sauce. Transfer to another container and let cool before use. I also compared making the reduction with frozen vs our fabulous local Oxnard strawberries and could not find much difference. Save the fresh ones to adorn the cake.

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

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Make sure to take your strawberry reduction out of the refrigerator 1 hour before making your cake so that it comes to room temperature.

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 350ºF/176ºC.

Grease two 8" cake pans with butter and flour and put parchment in bottom. I also use one cake nail for an 8 inch pan and wrap each pan with cake strips to prevent doming.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water, strawberry reduction, strawberry emulsion, vanilla extract, lemon 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

Mix on low speed and add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the buttermilk mixture, mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process 2 more times. When the batter appears just blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

In a separate bowl whip the egg whites just until they form stiff peaks. Fold into batter incorporating until streaks are gone.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

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 remove parchment and cool completely. 

Once cooled, wrap each layer in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze before assembling your cake.

This is the cake with the crumb coat done. The recipe made two 1 1/2 inch layers. The filling was strawberry frosting but since the whole wedding cake was done with fluted ivory buttercream I crumbcoated with that.