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This strawberry layer cake is the first dessert of the year; oh and it’s a good one! Tonya (one of the ladies in our church), made this cake for her son’s birthday. While chomping down my second slice; I asked her for the recipe. It was delicious and I’m sharing this goodness with you.
Also, I’ve finally tried the alternate way of making the biskvit cake layers and they turned out perfect (I believe this to be the a more “fool-proof” recipe. Oh and the strawberry/chocolate decorations were ridiculously easy (plenty of oohs and ahhs over the 3D chocolate); see the tutorial here.
Oh oh and one more thing; the beauty of this strawberry layer cake is that you can really easily cut everything in half (6 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour….blah blah) to make a smaller cake and it will turn out just as dang good.
Strawberry Layer Cake Ingredients:
12 large eggs, room temp, divided
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided *measured correctly
Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
16 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Filling/Decor:
2 lbs Fresh strawberries (1 1/2 lbs to blend and put inside the cake and 1/2 lb to decorate)
Chocolate chips to melt and decorate the top; optional
Baking strawberry layer cake Layers:
If you’ve never made a European Sponge Cake, watch this video for the basic version and see just how simple it is!
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
1. Grease and line only the bottom of a 9×13″ cake pan with parchment paper (line 2 pans if you have 2). I have found that it’s best not to line or grease the sides of the pan or the cake becomes somewhat miss-shaped.
You will bake your cake layers separately so for each biskvit layer:
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together 6 eggs and 1 cup sugar on high speed for 10 minutes and it will be 3-4 times in volume
3. Sift in 1 cup all-purpose flour and use a spatula to gently fold it in just until well incorporated and no more clumps of flour remain. Scrape from the bottom of the bowl to make sure there aren’t any trapped pockets of flour, but don’t overwork the batter or it will deflate.
4. Transfer your batter to the lined baking pan and bake at 350˚F for 17-20 min or until top is golden and toothpick comes out clean.
(While the first layer is baking, start working on your second cake layer repeating steps 1-3 above). Remove baked cake from the pan by running a thin edged spatula around the sides to loosen it, then let it cool to room temperature before removing the parchment paper.
Strawberry Filling:
Cut strawberries into halves or quarters and place them in the bowl of a food processor; pulse 15 times or until the consistency of a chunky applesauce; set aside
Frosting:
Beat together cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth (1 min). Add 1 cup heavy whipping cream and beat on high speed until fluffy (3 minutes)
Assembly:
1. Cut each cooled cake layer in half. Place the first layer on your serving dish (this cake is too big and heavy to transfer so put it on the dish you’re serving it on).
2. Spread the first layer with 1/3 of the strawberry puree. Spread just a thin layer of frosting (just a thin layer or you won’t have enough to frost the sides in the end) on the second half and place it over the first layer so the strawberries and cream are hugging. Repeat with the next layers.
So the order from the bottom up is: cake; strawberry; cream; cake; strawberry; cream;cake; strawberries; cream; cake; cream (frost the top and sides with remaining frosting)
Decorate the top with fresh strawberries and chocolate (see chocolate decorating tutorial here
Strawberry Layer Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 12 large eggs, room temp, divided
- 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
Frosting:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 16 oz cream cheese, softened at room temp
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
Filling/Decor:
- 2 lbs Fresh strawberries, 1 1/2 lbs to blend and put inside the cake and 1/2 lb to decorate the top
- Chocolate chips to melt and decorate the top; optional
Instructions
Baking the Cake Layers: Preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Grease and line only the bottom of a 9x13" cake pan with parchment paper (line 2 pans if you have 2). I have found that it's best not to line or grease the sides of the pan or the cake becomes somewhat miss-shaped.
- You will bake your cake layers separately so for each biskvit layer: in the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together 6 eggs and 1 cup sugar on high speed for 10 min. it will be 3-4 times in volume.
- Sift in 1 cup all-purpose flour and use a spatula to gently fold it in just until well incorporated and no more clumps of flour remain. Scrape from the bottom of the bowl to make sure there aren't any trapped pockets of flour, but don't overwork the batter or it will deflate.
- Transfer to lined baking pan and bake until top is golden and toothpick comes out clean 17-20 min.
- (While the first layer is baking, start making your second cake layer repeating steps 1-3 above)
- Remove baked cake from the pan by running a thin edged spatula around the sides to loosen it, then let it cool to room temperature before removing the parchment paper.
Strawberry Filling:
- Cut strawberries into halves or quarters and place them in the bowl of a food processor; pulse 15 times or until the consistency of a chunky applesauce; set aside.
Frosting:
- Beat together cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth (1 min). Add 1 cup heavy whipping cream and beat on high speed until fluffy (2-3 minutes).
Assembly:
- Cut each cooled cake layer in half. Place the first layer on your serving dish (this cake is too big and heavy to transfer so put it on the dish you're serving it on)
- Spread the first layer with 1/3 of the strawberry puree. Spread a very thin layer of frosting on the second half and place it over the first layer so the strawberries and cream are hugging. Repeat with the next layers. So the order from the bottom up is: cake; strawberry; cream; cake; strawberry; cream;cake; strawberries; cream; cake; cream (frost the top and sides with remaining frosting).
- Decorate the top with fresh strawberries and chocolate (see chocolate decorating tutorial below)
Natasha, is this a moist cake?
With all the strawberries and cream, it is moist 🙂
I am excited about trying this cake, however, my concern is all the eggs used. Will this cake be extremely hard (tough)? Just curious just unsure of why the use of so many eggs…. Thanks
The volume in this cake comes from the eggs. If you beat the eggs according to the instructions, it incorporates plenty of air. It’s actually the same recipe that is used for European lady fingers, except these aren’t dried out into cookies 🙂 It’s a European sponge cake.
Hi Natasha, I came across your website few days ago and I love it.
This cake looks amazing !!!
I want to make this cake tomorrow but I have a question. Most of the cakes that I made, I had to separate egg whites from yolks and beat each separately then fold them together. I wonder why don’t we have to do this for this recipe!!
Thanks
I used to do that but found this method was easier and had better, more even results. I hope you love it! You are welcome to use the egg separating method if you feel more comfortable doing it that way. It is a biskvit after all! 😉
I made this cake last night with my daughters. Are the cake layers suppose to be super thin or did I miss a step? I baked the two cakes and they ended up being about an inch high and very hard to divide for the filling. We ended up separating one cake filling it then left the other and covered. Very delicious.
I bet it was still delicious even as a 3 layer cake. 🙂 Did your batter look different in any of the steps. The cake layers aren’t super tall, but normally a little taller than 1″. Did your batter look the same in all the steps? You might beat the eggs a little longer next time and make sure you don’t over mix with a spatula when adding the flour.
Hi i just wanted to ask how is this cake raising as it’s age with plain flour and no baking soda or anything?
It relies on the volume of the beaten eggs. Classic European sponge cakes don’t generally add the baking soda or powder.
Not that this needs another 5 star review… I made this for my husbands birthday, it turned out amazing and everyone loved it! Followed the recipe to a T, thank you so much!!
Awesome, thank you for the great review Paula :).
I made this cake but it took along time to cook. I’m assuming its because of the altitude I live in. I’ve never made this type of cake before is the texture suppose to be different from a normal cake. It was still delightful but I was curious.
It may be. How many feet above sea level are you?
I made this cake for a potluck at church but in a round form and everybody LOVED it. One lady asked me to make it for her wedding. Great reviews all around and super easy to make. Thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
Woweee a wedding request?! That’s fantastic! I’m so glad it was a great success for ya! 🙂
I was wondering if I can cover this cake with fondant with using this kind of frosting? Will it hold the fondant? Any tips? I’ve made this cake and it was really really good. Thanks in advanced.
Let me start out with saying that I don’t have any experience with fondant so you probably don’t want tips from me. lol. I’m so glad you liked the cake! If you try it with fondant, let me know how it goes and do post a picture online somewhere! 🙂
I’m going to try making this cake for my husband for his five year cancer free celebration.I need to make it the day before, though. Do I need to do anything to the fresh strawberries (like freeze them or spray lemon juice on them) to preserve them on the cake for the next day? Or will putting it in the refrigerator be enough?
You should probably decorate the top of the cake just before serving if decorating with fresh strawberries. You don’t have to do anything special with the filling in the cake. It’s perfectly fine to make this a day ahead 🙂
Hi there have just come across your recipe via a friend on FB I would love to make it but not sure of the measurements ?? I live in Italy and we have different size cups!!! One cup = ????? Thanks
Yes, 1 cup = 8 oz 🙂 Hope that helps!
I made this cake the other week and let me tell you it was AMAZING! Thank you Natasha for this recipe. My family loves strawberries so much and this cake was like a little piece of heaven for us all. The only thing I did different was use a box strawberry cake mix which is my favorite and it turned out just as delicious. I’ve had so many positive comments from people who had some when I made it a 2nd time and I even have people leaving orders for me to make them the cake for parties. So again thank you Natasha!!
I’m only 17 and I really want a career in Baking so by baking this cake I was able to try new decorations styles with the chocolate and strawberries and I absolutely loved baking it. Very exciting and can’t wait to bake it again. 😀
What a great idea to use a boxed strawberry cake, especially if you are in a pinch and pressed for time. What’s your favorite brand of boxed cake? Thanks so much for sharing your success with me. You’re awesome!
Would the cream cheese filling/frosting and strawberry filling work in a strawberry flavored cake too?
I don’t see why not! 😉
Hello Natasha, thank you for another wonderful recipe, I was wondering if I was to bake this cake in 9″ round pans would I divide the recipe exactly by half? Planning on making it for this Thanksgiving hoping it will turn out 🙂
Thank you
Yes, cut the cake ingredients in half. You can just make it with half of the eggs and divide the finished batter between 2 round 9″ cake pans. I would probably make 3/4 of the cream and the filling just for good measure 🙂
This will be the first cake I bake ever! I was not a cake person, but this one made me into one! I tried it at a birthday and I was directed to your website. my question is, I only have the round baking pans, if I cut all the ingredients in half, how many round pans do you think I need to use?
You will need 2 round pans and divide the batter equally between them then bake them together. You can slice the layers in half if you like. 🙂
I just made this recipe for a coworkers birthday. Oh my goodness!! It was easy to make, looked beautiful, and was de-lish!!! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂 🙂
You are welcome Kelli, your comment is music to my ears :D.
I just finshed my cake ,looking really good;)unfortunatelly my strawberries are a bit waterry;(hope it’s gonna be ok as this is made for my sons Birthday !
It should still work fine! It’s a sponge cake so even if it does absorb a little extra juice, it will still be awesome!
Can you use cake flour instead?
I think you’d need more of the cake flour and I haven’t tested it to be able to tell you adequate substitution amount. Sorry, I can’t really make that recommendation without testing it. At least all-purpose flour is easier to come by 😉
No problem, I’m going to try it as you have written it, wish me luck! 🙂
You’ll do awesome! Let me know how you liked it 😉
Hi Natasha,
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I’m making a large (12 x 12 in) cake for my son’s birthday this weekend. My husband doesn’t like eggs much, so I need to use an alternative for the cake layers that doesn’t use as many eggs. I was thinking about doing just a simple white cake or vanilla cake. Do you think that would work just as well? The cake will be a themed cake (construction theme for our Bob the Builder party) and I need to cover it in “dirt”. I’m thinking graham crackers – do they go well with it? I’m also putting some fondant decorations on top 🙂
Thank you for your input!
I think a white cake or vanilla cake would work well, just nothing too soft like angel cake since the topping and frosting will weight it down. I think graham crackers would taste great with this. I’d love to see it when you’re all done. If you remember, please tag me on instagram (@natashaskitchen) or facebook (@natashaskitchenpage). It sounds like it’s going to be one super awesome cake!
Thanks!! This is my first themed cake – no idea how it will turn out :-). I will send you a pic!!
Oh please do! My first theme cake was hilarious but I’m glad I took a picture of it 🙂
I just tagged you on Facebook. I hope the tags worked. The cake was a huge success!!! It looked great and tasted even better!!! Thanks again 🙂
I didn’t see anything come through my feed, but I’m so so glad you loved it 🙂 Thanks for reporting back 🙂
Hi Natasha, I want to make the cake in a bigger size 🙂 how do you recommend I do that? I want to make it using what I think is approximately a 12*14 pan, thank you.
Hi Dulce, sorry for the late reply. Your pan is 30% larger than my pans. You could either make the recipe as is or make it 1 1/2 times all of the ingredients in the recipe. I’d probably stick with the same recipe and maybe just make it a 2 layer cake (instead of 4 layer) and not cut the layers in half since hey will be to skinny to do it if you’re baking in a larger pan.