Strawberry Cake. No artificial colour or flavour added!
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Strawberry Cake. There is no artificial colouring or flavouring used to get the beautiful pink hues in this delicious, made from scratch, strawberry cake.
There are a lot of recipes out there for brightly coloured, pink strawberry cakes. To be honest, I haven't liked many of them.
When you search around on the web for Strawberry Cake, or see beautiful examples on Pinterest, I'm very often disappointed. I find that they are mostly flavoured and coloured by adding strawberry jelly powder and/or food colouring to the recipe.
So many people have a sensitivity to food colourings, especially those in the red spectrum. I wanted to try to come up with a pretty pink cake recipe to share in time for Mother's Day in about a week's time.
I will not say that I was immediately successful in my attempts at a strawberry cake. One of them was so heavy and dense that it went straight into the garbage bin.
Strawberry Cake. Getting the flavour right.
I tried using straight strawberry puree which did not colour or flavour the cake enough. What was necessary was to concentrate both the colour and the flavour of the strawberries before I added it to the cake batter and the frosting.
I decided to make a slowly simmered and greatly reduced simple strawberry jam for this purpose. When pureed, it worked very well in both the cake and the frosting.
I think the strawberry frosting is pretty essential to this cake. It really does help to carry that authentic strawberry flavour.
To get the best colour possible, I actually did leave the strawberries out on the counter for a few days to get as ripe as possible. I let their colour darken, without leaving them there long enough to go bad.
Plan a Strawberry Cake this summer.
When strawberries are in season we get them at Lester's Farm U-Pick, here in St. John's. When they are next in season, I think I'll pick a basket of them specifically to make this cake.
You know, the one's that get left behind and are a deep dark red. They would be perfect.
You can have this strawberry cake at your Mother's Day celebration or as a birthday cake for a special kid in your life. You know one who loves pink, I am sure.
It's great knowing that you can achieve great flavour and colour by completely natural means.
2018 Winter update: I recently made this cake using some frozen strawberries that I bought at Costco. I've been told that many of the whole frozen strawberries that we buy are actually riper than the fresh ones that go to market.
That kind of makes sense to me because obviously they would have a much shorter shelf life in the fresh market. Better to flash freeze them and sell them that way.
This also means that they have a deeper colour which I found worked well with this recipe.
Lone story short, don't hesitate to use frozen strawberries at any time. You'll still have a delicious cake in the end.
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Strawberry Cake - no artificial colour or flavour added!
Strawberry Cake - there is no artificial colouring or flavouring used to get the beautiful pink hues in this delicious, made from scratch, strawberry cake.
Ingredients
For the strawberry jam puree
- 3 cups very ripe sliced strawberries
- ½ cup sugar
For the cake batter
- ¾ cup butter
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cups whipping cream
- ¾ cup strawberry jam puree
For the Strawberry Frosting
- 6 cups icing sugar, powdered sugar
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup strawberry jam puree
- a little milk, if necessary
Instructions
To prepare the strawberry jam puree
- You will need to prepare this puree in advance so that it has time to cool before being added to the cake batter.
- In a small saucepan combine the strawberries and sugar and bring them to a gentle simmer.
- Continue to simmer stirring occasionally for a half hour or so until the volume of the berries has reduced by at least half.
- Allow the berries to cool before pureeing with an immersion blender or with a few pulses in a standard counter top blender. You will need a total of 1 ¼ cups of this puree for to make both the cake and the frosting. Any excess can be stored in a covered container and used as jam for your morning toast.
To prepare the cake batter.
- Grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper for easy release later. (You can also bake this cake in a large bundt pan which has been generously greased and then floured. The bundt pan may take extra time, just let the toothpick test be your guide.)
- Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift together the all purpose flour, the cake flour, the baking powder and baking soda.
- Mix the strawberry puree with the whipping cream.
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter mixture alternately with the cream and strawberry puree mixture. folding well after each addition.
- Always begin and end with the dry ingredients. As a general rule add the dry ingredients in 3 equal portions and the liquid ingredients in 2 equal portions.
- Bake at 325 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until wooden toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cakes rest in the pans for 5-10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To prepare the frosting
- Cream together the butter with half of the icing sugar, then add the strawberry puree a couple of tablespoons at a time, alternately with some of the remaining icing sugar. Beat until smooth and spreadable.
- The moisture content in the strawberry puree will probably vary from batch to batch so you may need a little more icing sugar if the frosting is too soft or add a tablespoon or two of milk if it is too thick. You want a nice soft, spreadable consistency.
- Frost the cake with the finished icing and garnish with fresh strawberries.
Notes
Prep time does not include the additional time for the jam puree to cool.
If you want to bake this in a bundt pan follow the instructions given. If you want to poor a chocolate ganache glaze over the cake, just heat ¼ cup of whipping cream in the microwave for a few seconds to get it slightly warm then add it to 1 cup of dark chocolate chips in a double boiler until the chocolate is smooth.
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Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
sliceAmount Per Serving Calories 626Saturated Fat 17gCholesterol 110mgSodium 238mgCarbohydrates 95gFiber 2gSugar 74gProtein 4g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
i made this cake for my sister's birthday today. I opted for a strawberry cream cheese frosting though. It was really good! Thanks for this recipe 🙂
I’m going to attempt to make this for my husband birthday dinner next week; how far in advanced can I make the cake? Would you suggest just making cake and then morning of make frosting morning of and if I make everything ahead of time should I refrigerate the cake? Thanks.
I think cakes are best served on the day they are baked unless they have a frosting or filling that's better left overnight to set properly I'd see no problem with making it a day ahead and frosting it on the day.
Thank you so very much for sharing this delicious recipe! I searched far and wide for a all natural strawberry cake recipe and pleasantly found this one. I have now made this cake recipe twice with very small alterations. Both cakes were made for my son's 2nd birthday parties with family and both sides of the family loved them!
The first cake I made was with a center layer of frosting and found it to be even better the second day after being stored in the refrigerator overnight! The second cake I made, with the suggestion from my dad, I made extra strawberry jam puree and used it for the center layer. The side of the family that already loved jam cake, really enjoyed the jam in the center! I still prefer the frosting but both were absolutely delicious and rich in flavor. I will be making this cake recipe again!
This cake is amazing! Everyone commented on how much this tasted like FRESH strawberries t(as opposed to that artificial strawberrish taste you often get in mixes). I am lactose intolerant, so I substituted unsweetened coconut cream for the heavy cream and butter crisco for the butter in the cake. For the frosting I used vegan butter. It was fantastic! The cake is so moist and delicious. This is definitely a keeper!
Hi,
Can I use all cake flour instead of all-purpose flour?
In this instance the cake would likely be too soft and possibly crumble.
I'm curious about the cake flour as well. I'm not an expert baker by any means but I'm wondering if adding a little extra cake flour would help compensate. Usually when substituting cake flour for all-purpose you'd use 2 extra tablespoons per cup of cake flour. For example if a recipe called for 2 cups of all-purpose flour you would use 2 cups plus 4 TB (or a quarter cup) cake flour.
I'm wondering if doing that would work for this cake? Again, I'm not an expert, I usually just follow others recipes. Would love some additional input.
This recipe is about balancing strength/structure with a soft moist cake feel; hence the blend of flours. Using all cake flour may make it too soft, but I've never tried it to say so definitely.
Lovely recipe! Thank you for sharing! I couldn't quite get the strong strawberry flavor I wanted with the strawberry puree made with frozen strawberries, so for my second batch I put in a 1.2 oz bag of Trader Joe's Freeze Dried Strawberries. I just crushed the contents and tossed them in the batter.
Hi, I can't wait to make this cake for Mother's Day. I would like to make a three tier cake instead of two. Do I just need to increase each ingredient by half?
Yes indeed.
Hi Barry,
Do you have a metric conversion for this cake? I like to scale everything when I bake.
Regards - Miles Thompson
The metric measurements are now available.
Thanks Barry.
I've made it twice - possibly reducing the berries too much. My cake turned out more a brownish-red than pink. I used the Kirkland frozen berries from Costco.
Regardless of that, fabulousky delicious!
It's a great cake, and anyone wanting a strawberry cake should try it. Now I'm thinking - would the same technique work with blueberries.
This recipe and picture brought tears to my eyes. I will be 70 in November. For years my grandmother made this exact cake for my birthday, every year. I have made it a few times myself, but not for a long, long time now. Maybe I will make it for my birthday this year. Thank you for the trip down memory lane!!!!
Would it be possible to substitute other fruits or would they react differently with the batter? I was thinking blueberries would be nice too.
Never tried it but I'd probably give it a try.
Just wanted to add my thanks for an excellent recipe. A little tip - I put 1tsp of rosewater in with the icing and it brought the strawberry flavour out beautifully!
Thanks for the recipe! I don’t see where to asd the vanilla extract to the frosting. I’m guessing it’s with the butter and half the powdered sugar, because it wasn’t creaming at all until I added it. Thanks again!
Do leftovers need to be refrigerated? This looks sooooooo good!
I do refrigerate.
When I mix the strawberry puree with the whipping cream, do I mix it until the whipping cream thickens or not?
Are you referring to the cream after it is whipped?
Hi Barry, I have been following your blog and wonderful recipes for sometime. and thoroughly enjoy it. I have a couple of questions bout this recipe. I want to make it for my little granddaughter for her third birthday (she requested a strawberry cake!) I was wondering if the frosting was stiff enough to pipe decorations around the cake? Also, have you ever substituted blueberries for the strawberries? (my 4 yr old grandson requested a blueberry cake for his birthday)
Thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes, and for your time
Just add a little more icing sugar to make it stiff. Never tried blueberries though.