Moist Strawberry Cake Recipe with Velvet American Buttercream
This moist strawberry cake is packed with real strawberries, no jello or artificial flavoring. An oil-based cake, deliciously moist, soft with a tender crumb. Frosted with my popular sweet velvet American buttercream this cake is perfect to celebrate fresh strawberries in season or at any time of the year using frozen strawberries.
Spring is here and the weather is getting warmer. Strawberries are in season and we have had them almost every week these last month. I love a good strawberry cake, don’t you? My favorite, of course, is strawberry cake with fresh cream for frosting. My mom made it every single year as soon as strawberries were in season.
Today I bring you another strawberry cake. Yes, another strawberry layer cake. This one is an oil-based cake recipe while the previous one was a butter-based cake. Both are delicious.
This is light, airy and works an absolute treat with fresh cream or any light frosting. That butter-based strawberry cake I use for my tiered wedding cakes, especially in summer when I need a more stable cake.
About this moist strawberry cake
A moist strawberry cake can be an absolute treat eaten on its own or frosted with whipped cream or buttercream. This simple and easy recipe makes the most decadently rich, moist and light strawberry cake that melts in the mouth. Serve it on its own unfrosted as a coffee cake, frost it with whipped cream for a light dessert or with rich decadent buttercream for a more indulgent treat.
I have frosted this with my velvet American buttercream but you could also use my vanilla buttercream frosting or strawberry buttercream frosting. The options for frosting a strawberry cake are endless. I have over 30 plus buttercream frosting recipes for you on this blog.
Pink color for cake
Ideally, it is not necessary to use pink food color in this cake. However, fresh strawberries do not give that intense pink color we associate with strawberry cakes, so you may not get a pink cake with just the strawberries in a recipe. I like to use a tiny dab of pink color, so when the customer cuts it looks like a pink strawberry cake. Having said that, feel free to omit the color if you want. The color does not affect the taste or texture of this cake.
Useful Tips and Tools
- If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this cake go ahead and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet. You don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
- Personally, I believe in measuring ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scale one of the most valuable items when baking.
- And the same goes for my measuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
- Also, I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. I often use three 6-inch round cakes, which I often split into 4 layers for a tall display. Some times, I use three 8-inch round pans or three 7-inch cakes.
- Once baked, always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This enables air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
- Lastly, every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too fast or too slow compared to the time given, it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration. An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly.
Ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)
- Strawberries – I’m using fresh for this cake because strawberries are now in season. During the year I use frozen strawberries – just pulse them in the food processor until smooth.
- Cake flour – gives us a soft moist cake with a tender crumb.
- Eggs – use fresh large eggs – to me large eggs are about 60 grams each.
- Pink food color – again optional if you want to skip it but the strawberry puree does not really give the cake a natural pink color. The batter when baked turns to a light pale but not pink color.
How to Make a Moist Strawberry Cake (Save/Pin)
Bake cake
- Preheat oven to 170 C / 340 F
- Grease and line 2 x 7-inch round cake pans (or 3 x 6-inch pans)
- Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whip eggs into a mixer bowl using a whisk attachment on medium for two minutes
- Then slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time whipping constantly on medium
- Once all the sugar is in; turn the mixer to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy – ribbon stage.
- Slowly add the cooking oil
- Followed by the strawberry puree and pink food color
- Remove batter from the mixer to add the flour
- Add the flour in three batches – first with a whisk to prevent lumps
- Then fold the remaining with a spatula
- Pour batter into prepared baking pans
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove from the pan and cool completely before you store or decorate.
For the velvet American buttercream
- Use the bowl of your electric mixer with the paddle attachment.
- Add meringue powder, liquid creamer, and approximately two cups of sugar.
- Mix on medium-low for a minute – scraping the bowl as necessary
- Add the vanilla and the salt.
- Continue to mix for two minutes more until you have a light and sticky consistency.
- Start adding remaining sugar slowly.
- Once all the sugar had been added start adding the room temperature butter one cube at a time.
- Once all the butter is in – run the mixer on high for about 3 minutes more
- Whip until you have a light and fluffy, creamy velvety texture very similar to whipped cream.
Assemble
- Cut off any dome on the cake to level them
- Torte/cut each layer of cake into two horizontally so you have four layers.
- Brush each layer with simple syrup
- Spread buttercream and sandwich the flour layers
- Crumb coats with more buttercream. (this helps seal the crumbs)
- Chill the cake for 15 minutes
- Add more frosting on top and sides, use a bench scraper to smooth the sides and an off-set spatula for the top.
- Use to remaining buttercream to pipe borders.
- Garnish fresh strawberries or similar
- Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
This cake will keep at room temperature unfrosted for 3 to 4 days, frosted for 2 days. In the fridge for up to a week. You can also freeze it for up to a month.
No, this recipe works best with oil but I do have a butter-based strawberry cake that is very popular too. It is frosted with my every popular Swiss meringue buttercream too.
Cake flour gives a wonderfully soft and tender cake. If you don’t have cake flour you can use a cake flour substitute made with all-purpose flour. Which for this would be 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup cornstarch/cornflour.
Absolutely. You can use 1/3 cup strawberry powder + 1/2 cup water or milk.
You certainly can frost this cake with whipped cream. For a more lighter cake with whipped cream try my strawberry cream cake. It uses a genoise cake with stabilized whipped cream.
Yes, Swiss or Italian meringue, works wonderfully with this cake too. You can also use strawberry buttercream. I have 30 plus buttercream frosting recipes on this blog so the is so much you can try.
Well, if you don’t want to make this a strawberry layer cake you can also bake it in a bundt pan like my strawberry bundt cake. These will also make beautiful strawberry cupcakes.
Strawberries are so versatile and can be used in many desserts. I have shared many desserts with you on this blog. See here for my 30 plus popular strawberry recipes.
You certainly can reduce the strawberry puree for a more concentrated flavor. I did that in my butter-based strawberry cake. For this one, I chose to use more strawberry puree and make adjustments to the liquid in the recipe so you still have a light and airy cake.
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Moist Strawberry Cake with Velvet American Buttercream
Print Pin RateDescription
Ingredients
For the cake
- 250 ml (1.06 cups) Strawberry puree
- 345 grams (2.76 cups) Cake flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 4 Eggs
- 350 grams (1.75 cups) White sugar
- 180 ml (0.76 cups) Cooking oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp Pink food color (optional)
For the velvet American buttercream
- 450 grams (1.98 cups) Butter unsalted
- 1 kg (8.33 cups) Powdered sugar Icing sugar/confectioners sugar
- 100 ml (0.42 cups) Liquid creamer
- 2 tbsp Meringue powder
- 1/2 tbsp Salt
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract or other flavorings
Extra
- 10 Fresh strawberries for garnish
Instructions
Bake the cake
- Preheat oven to 170 C / 340 F
- Grease and line 2 x 7-inch round cake pans (or 3 x 6-inch cake pans)
- Sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Whip eggs into a mixer bowl using a whisk attachment on medium for two minutes
- Then slowly add sugar one tablespoon at a time whipping constantly on medium
- Once all the sugar is in; turn the mixer to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy – ribbon stage.
- Slowly add the cooking oil
- Followed by the strawberry puree and pink food color
- Remove batter from the mixer to add the flour
- Add the flour in three batches – first with a whisk to prevent lumps
- Then fold the remaining with a spatula
- Pour batter into prepared baking pans
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove from the pan and cool completely before you store or decorate.
Prepare velvet American buttercream
- Use the bowl of your electric mixer with the paddle attachment.
- Add meringue powder, liquid creamer, and approximately two cups of sugar.
- Mix on medium-low for a minute – scraping the bowl as necessary
- Add the vanilla and the salt.
- Continue to mix for two minutes more until you have a light and sticky consistency.
- Start adding remaining sugar slowly.
- Once all the sugar had been added start adding the room temperature butter one cube at a time.
- Once all the butter is in – run the mixer on high for about 3 minutes more
- Whip until you have a light and fluffy, creamy velvety texture very similar to whipped cream.
Assemble
- Cut off any dome on the cake to level them
- Torte/cut each layer of cake into two horizontally so you have four layers.
- Brush each layer with simple syrup
- Spread buttercream and sandwich the flour layers
- Crumb coats with more buttercream. (this helps seal the crumbs)
- Chill the cake for 15 minutes
- Add more frosting on top and sides, use a bench scraper to smooth the sides and an off-set spatula for the top.
- Use to remaining buttercream to pipe borders.
- Garnish fresh strawberries or similar
- Enjoy!
Recipe Video
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Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
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supriti phukan
Hi Veena
I love to follow your recipes.
I want to make a mango cake. Can I use Mango pulp in place of strawberry in the same quantity? What shall be the measurement of the ingredients for 3×9″ layer cake?
Thanks for sharing your recipes in details
Veena Azmanov
Yes, Supriti you can use mango instead of strawberry puree – same quantity. Just change the serving size in the recipe card below to 32 and it will calculate the recipe for you. (a 9-inch cake has 32 servings) Thanks
supriti phukan
Thank you so much Veena for your quick response.
I shall update once I bake the cake with mango pulp.
Thanks once again. love
Supriti
Rashmi
Hi Veena .. thank you for sharing some great recepies. Just a few doubts I have. When you say strawberry purée does it mean strawberry pulsed in the mixer or is there any other process.
If I want to make 3 -8 inch cakes , how should I adjust the quantity
Love
Rashmi
Veena Azmanov
Hey Rashmi, Yes strawberries pulsed in the mixer.- For three 3 x 8-inch you will need 1 1/5 times this recipe. Thanks
veer
Hello Veena, is that i can use the same recipe to make the plain vanilla cake? Like replacing strawberry puree with sour cream or anything? Will the cake be the same texture??? Please help!!
Veena Azmanov
Veer I have a few vanilla cake recipes on the blog, you will like those and won’t need to make any changes. Try this Light and Fluffy Vanilla Cake
veer
Thank you for the reply, but i’m looking for a no butter that is oil based cakes, because my niece is intolerant for butter or margarine. Hence, am searching for a fluffy oil based vanilla cake. Please advice if you have any
Veena Azmanov
Ah.. I know I have an oil based vanilla cake…… but now I can’t remember which…. Yes you can use this and replace the strawberry puree with 1 cup sour cream or 3/4 cup buttermilk.
Aqsa
Thank you soo much,I was constantly checking for a reply as I am about to start on my cake and amazed with such quick response,I will check out the other recipe. Thanks again,much love??
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Aqsa. I hope you enjoy the cake. I was working on the blog today so could reply more instantly. I try to reply in a day on most days. Thanks
Aqsa
Loved this recipe and I will trying this ASAP.Thank you soo much for such easy and well guided recipe.❤️Also I have small OTG so only one pan goes at a time.Is it fine if I prepare the batter at once than bake one after the other or will it affect the other two negatively?
Veena Azmanov
Hey Aqsa. Since this is an oiled based recipe with whipped eggs if you leave it unbaked for long it will lose some volume. It will still taste great but the hight will be less.
One suggestion I can give is that you can bake it all as one 8″ round cake and then divide that into two layers.
Or
You can use my second Fresh Strawberry Cake recipe – this is butter based and you can keep this out while one layer is baking.
Prevish
Hello Veena
What a beautiful cake! Looks delicious. I would like to bake this into a single tier 9 inch cake. Can I use the same measurements?
Veena Azmanov
Prevish, this is for 12 cupcakes. You can bake it in a single tier 9 inch cake pan. If you want more layers just use the recipe card below – change the number of servings and it will calculate the recipe for you.
Anita
I am going to try this recipe.I have tried few of your recipes and they are great.
Can I use melted butter instead of oil?
Also will this cake work hold fondant toppers as was thinking of using it for a theme cake.
This cake looks fabulous!
Thankyou
Anita
Veena Azmanov
Hey Anita. This recipe is light and airy because of the oil in there. I highly recommend keeping the oil. Yes, this cake would work great to cover in fondant as well as to hold fondant toppers. Thanks
Anita
Hi Veena,
I tried the recipe and it came out very well.Thankyou so much for a wonderful recipe.
Thanks
Anita
Veena Azmanov
Thank you so much, Anita. So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for coming back to write this feedback.
Ker
Made the strawberry cake. It was delicious.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Ker. So happy you have success with this recipe and enjoyed it. Thanks for coming back to write this feedback. Have a wonderful week.
Ker
Wow! I am surprised at how quickly you replied. Thank you for that. It shows that you are dedicated to your blog.
Next I am going to try your velvet American buttercream. Never used that method before. Keeping my fingers crossed. Hope it turns out good.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Ker, Yes, I try to reply within 24 hours. Sometimes I’m on the blog writing a new recipe so I manage to be more prompt but sometimes I’m away with a cake so takes longer. I think you will love the Velvet buttercream recipe. Let me know how it goes.
Ellen
Such an impressive cake. Simple but stunning. Another special occasion cake.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Ellen. Yes another one for a special occasion
linda spiker
The color is lovely and that icing is perfection!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Linda.
Cathy
I love this cake. Just made it yesterday and it was the best strawberry cake I ever had. I used your strawberry buttercream recipe you shared with the strawberry cupcakes instead of this Velvet buttercream. Everybody was raving about it. Thank you so much
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, So happy to hear you had success with this recipe. Sounds delicious! Thank you for coming back to write this feedback, appreciate it very much. Always a great feeling to read such success and positive comments. Thank you. Yes, that .strawberry buttercream would definitely be perfect for this recipe.
Michelle
Absolutely gorgeous cake, I love that it is triple layers and perfect. I plan to prepare it for my family reunion this summer
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Michelle. I love tall cakes – so often I will make one that’s three rather than two layers
Christine Slete
Looks beautiful. I don’t know what you mean by “When cooled tore the strawberry cake layers.” What does “tore” mean in this context? Thank you.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Christine – Torte means to cut the layers horizontally. I made two layers then cut them horizontally again in half to have four layers. Thanks
Michelle
This cake is a show stopper, absolutely gorgeous. I will be attempting it soon, thank you for your clear instructions.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you michelle. I’m sure you will enjoy this.
Calleigh K
I’m not into baking yet but this strawberry cake is tempting me to recreate this one. So, I will challenge myself to tackle this cake since the kids are in spring break mode.
Veena Azmanov
This one is really so simple and easy Calleigh. You must try.
Albert Bevia
You have created a masterpiece using such simple ingredients…this cake is like beyond stunning….very impressive
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Alberta. it really is simple and easy
Silvia
That looks so decadent and delicious!! It’s so beautifully made. Congratulations on the skills.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Silvia
Amy Nash
Look at that tall beautiful slice of cake! I love strawberry cake and this one looks so fantastic!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Amy. I love strawberry cake too
swathi
Spring and summer means strawberries to me. Love this layered strawberry cake, Perfect frosting. I need to try it. I couldn’t get the smooth as yours. May be with your recipe I can make it well.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you, Swathi.Yes, its’so strawberry time right now. It’s not really necessary to make it so smooth, you can go the rustic look too! Or piped frosting which works too.
April
My birthday was on the first but next year I’m going to need you to make my birthday cake because this cake is gorgeous! Haha!
Veena Azmanov
Thank you April It will be an honor to make you a cake for your birthday. Happy Belated Birthday
Karyl Henry
What a beautiful cake! I love how tall it is, with all those layers. Very elegant. I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since I’ve had strawberry cake…this one looks so good
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Karyl. One disadvantage of being a cake decorator is that you only appreciate tall cakes. You get to use to only tall cakes.
Amanda Dorich
This is just beautiful! I am not the best baker but I really want to try a triple layered cake!!
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Amanda. This is just one recipe with three layers and you can sure doe it easy peasy!
Claudia Lamascolo
you really posted this at the right time for me, its Strawberry season in Florida I adore this cake its so pretty and impressive my whole family will go nuts when they see something so decadent on our tables!
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Claudia – I know its’ strawberry season here too!I hope you try it – its so easy
Wajeeha
This is such a pretty looking cake and I love how you’ve used fresh strawberries. The velvet American buttercream sounds really delicious, so I’ll be trying this cake very soon. It’s perfect for spring and summer parties! 🙂
Veena Azmanov
I love using fresh strawberries when I can Wajeeha. My buttercream recipe is absolutely heavenly! You must try
Kavitha
Hi Veena, The quantity of sugar is missing.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Kavitha – it’s 300 grams ( 1 1/2 cups)
Yocakes
Very nice blog and strawberry cake recipe, i will try this recipe for making cake. Thanks for sharing.
Veena Azmanov
Thank you Yo! I hope try this – its’ delicious.