I love birthdays. Ok, maybe not my own, but I love other people’s birthdays. And it’s my job to make the cake – I don’t know if anyone ever asks me, it’s just a given. We don’t eat cake very often, but when we do let me tell you, it doesn’t come out of a box. The truth is that it is SO easy to make cake from scratch!
My sweet cousin Sammy was recently celebrating a birthday so off I went to figure out what I was going to create. She isn’t a ganache kind of gal, so I wanted to make something fresh and light. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say this is health food, but hey, everything fits in moderation!
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1½ Tbsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¾ cup vegetable oil or avocado oil
- 1 ¾ cup puréed strawberries*
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 4 eggs, beaten
- red or pink natural food color, if desired
- 4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- ¼ cup sugar
- 6-8 fresh strawberries for decoration
* for puréed strawberries, place 2-3 cups of fresh or frozen strawberries in a blender and pulse until smooth
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Grease and flour two 8″ round cake pans. I used tall 3″ high ones – if you have more shallow pans you may want to split the batter into 3 pans instead and not split the layers (to avoid overflow when baking).
- In a large bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, and whisk in the sugar and salt.
- Add the vegetable oil, strawberry puree, vanilla, and lemon juice and zest to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Add the eggs and food coloring, if using, to the batter and whisk until just smooth (don’t overmix).
- Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes and carefully remove cake from pans, and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Using a long bread knife or cake spatula, evenly level the tops of the cooled cakes and split each cake in half horizontally so that you have four even layers. Place one layer on a cake stand.
- In a large metal bowl using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip the heavy cream, vanilla and the ¼ cup of sugar to very stiff peaks. If you are making the cake in advance, add 2 packages of whipping cream stabilizer to the cream before whipping it (ie: Whip It).
To Assemble the Cake
- Using a piping bag fitted with a large diameter tip (of your choice depending on the pattern you want to achieve), fill the piping bag with the whipping cream mixture and pipe an even layer of whipping cream on the first cake layer, starting at the outside and working your way inside in a circle.
- Carefully place the next cake layer evenly on top, and repeat the instructions above to pipe the whipped cream to this layer. Repeat. Reserve one of the bottom layers of the cakes for the last layer so that the baked bottom of one of the cakes forms the top (bottom-up). It just looks nicer!
- For the last layer, pipe large swirls of cream around the outer edge of the top of the cake.
- Top each swirl with a strawberry (you can cut them into quarters, in half or leave them whole) and chill until ready to serve.
Cake recipe adapted from Hubpages
So glad I was in on a slice of this yummy “fresh” strawberry cake ~ ummmmm! Thanks Tori ~ another beautiful & delicious dessert!
I want some NOW!! – but away visiting the other talent, our cuz Becky & Jamea who made us dinner tonight . Thanks for the recipe Tori – looks light & scrumptious ????❤️
For the Pureed Strawberries, will frozen strawberries, defrosted and run through the food processor due?
Yes absolutely that is what I did! I used sliced organic strawberries and they were delicious.
Great, looking at your Lasagne recipe and it looks delicious not typically a lasagne fan but most recipes, at least the ones I have had call for ricotta cheese witch I am not a fan of, cottage cheese I can do 🙂
Can Raspberries be used in place of Strawberries? have a bag of Frozen Raspberries I need to use
Absolutely!
cool looking forward to making this
How much baking powder do I use? You wrote “T.” Is that tsp or tbsp??
Ah good catch and sorry about that! It is a tablespoon measurement (I corrected it).
So made it as cup cakes and my dad, a very very very picky person LOVED them, might have to include them in my annual bake sale for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund) seems counter intuitive to have a bake sale for Diabetes but I do well, average about 200 dollars. My cousins son was diagnosed 6yrs ago
Thank you, I hope they are a hit at the bake sale!
Will find out come August, took them into work yesterday pretty sure they are already gone
I was surprised when I walked into the break room at work and they were still there, but two of my co-workers had two each, so that tells me they are good, people have been asking me to bring in healthier options for both the bake sale and when I bring in baked goods for the staff.
This is an amazing cake Tori!
Delicious, moist, and light. It was a huge hit with my friends and family. Thank you!
Hi Tori, I am finally hosting my first full on turkey dinner this year for my family! I am wanting to make this cake but am thinking I need to make as much as I possibly can the day before so I’m not too stressed out when people are around. Does this cake sit well if made the day previous? Will the cold strawberry puree make the cake soggy if it sits layered for so long?
Thanks for your time!
Hi Annie! That’s exciting! I would make the cake ahead and wrap each cake tightly with plastic wrap a day in advance. The puree won’t make it soggy as it is baked into the cake. You can assemble it 3-4 hours in advance and refrigerate it (just make sure it fits in your fridge!). Otherwise I would just make your whipped cream, put it in the piping bag, and have all of your strawberries ready to go to make it easy to assemble last minute and so that the whipped cream doesn’t go bad on you! Happy Holidays and good luck, I hope it turns out perfectly for you!
Thanks Tori, you are the best! Happy Holidays to you and your adorable family too!
Is there another substitute that could be used in this recipe in place of vegetable oil?
Hi Alana yes you can use mostly any neutral tasting oil like avocado oil for instance.
Is the “sugar” for the icing granulated sugar or confectioners sugar? The 1/4 cup…
Hi Alana it is granulated sugar.
Hi Tori! Wondering if this can be halved? I only need one 9 inch cake! Thanks!
Hi Carla you bet you can! Just use one cake pan not two!
Hi Tori,
This recipe sounds delicious and like an perfect summer birthday cake for my sweet girl. I only have 9 inch cake pans. Is it okay to use the two 9 inch pans or do you think just one 9 inch pan?
Thank you for your delicious recipes.
Emilie
Hi Emilie! Sorry for the delay! I haven’t measured it in one pan – if it fits I would use one pan to avoid them over cooking! Happy birthday to your little girl! Tori
Thank you, Tori! I first tried with one pan and it didn’t cook through (but tasted so yummy). I repeated it but used two 9 inch round pans and it worked beautifully. I absolutely LOVE this strawberry cake and so did my daughter! Going to make the cupcakes next!
So glad you enjoyed it Emilie!