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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)
I am making this cake again (4th or 5th time) and I double the frosting, the frosting is not too sweet and that way I don’t have to worry about how much I use. I have also taken to using a flour dusted cookie sheet to move the layers around. Cut the layers, then slide the cookie sheet between them, so easy to move them/stack them that way. The layers were the hardest for me. My young friend is having her 40th birthday and I asked, do you want me to bring the Strawberry Cake and she said “yes, PLEASE!!” … this cake is awesome and it freezes so well, if you eat it semi frozen it’s like an ice cream cake. p.s. this time I’m going to make an attempt to decorate the top with the chocolate and strawberries. I have an idea in my head. I’ll let you know how it turns out. 🙂
p.s. does anyone know of a cake carrier that can fit this cake? I’ve been looking and they all look to short to handle how tall this cake ends up being. Thanks!
Yes! I use a rectangular one by progressive. I have it listed in my shop: https://natashaskitchen.com/shop/
The link was broken, but I picked up a white bin with a flat lid about 6 inches deep and inverted it and used that with a cake board trimmed to fit. Everyone said it was genius and it cost me $6. 😀
Great job improvising Peggi :).
That’s awesome to know that you can freeze the entire cake and eat it semi frozen. Thank you so much for the brilliant idea!! Yes do lt me know how it turns out. I’d love it if you cold post a picture here for me to see it when it’s done! 🙂
Omg I made it for valentines this year. My husband and friends LOVED it!!!!! I also used whole blue berries and puréed raspberries inbetween layers. Omg it was a big hit! Awesome. !! Thanks ever so much Natasha. 🙂 wish I could upload a pic of my cake.
Thank you for such a nice review, looks like you have a new favorite 😀. If you on Facebook or Instagram, feel free to share the photo on my page.
Is the cake suppose to have an egg taste to it?. I whipped the mix until it was three it’s volume. Once you had the fresh strawberries and cream cheese you can’t taste. Mine had a sponge like quality. It wasn’t a straight thru cut more like almost sponge cake like. Am I doing something wrong, maybe over baking? All in all this cake is awesome. Just want to get it right. Making it again tonight for my mom’s church per request. Thank you. 🙂
It sounds like maybe you’re under beating it. Did you beat for the recommended time? You can’t really overbeat the egg mixture but you can underbeat it and that is typically the cause of an overly spongy/eggy cake. I hope that helps!
Hi Natasha, I want over the instructions again and this time I did beat it exactly for 10 mins. What a difference it makes. It doesn’t have the spongy/eggy taste. I am about to make the frosting and decorate it. Lesson learned, always follow directions when beatin for a certain amount of time. Lol. Thank you so much. This is my third in two days. 🙂
Yay!!! I’m so happy to hear that! Once you’ve figured out this cake base, you can make so many different cakes with it. I’m so happy for your success 🙂 Thank you for sharing that with me!
This cake is absolutely delicious! It was gone in a day and my husband keeps asking me to remake it.
That’s a good problem to have! ;). I’m so happy you both love the cake 🙂
I’ve made this cake quite a few times and it is always a big hit!! Thanks for sharing the recipe
That’s so great! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
Hi there
My daughter wants a pink strawberry cake for her birthday! Just wondering could i add pink/red food colouring to frosting to have it pink instead of creamycolour?
The frosting isn’t very thick so I don’t think it could handle very much food coloring without thinning it out. Although, I re-made this cake into a round version and used a little different method for the frosting (first beating the heavy cream) then folding it back in (still very easy), and I think that frosting is thicker and could handle a little food coloring: https://natashaskitchen.com/2015/06/30/strawberry-cake-recipe/
Thanks for reply. Might try that. Or any other ideas for a pink cake would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks
Amy
Really lovely, not too sweet. Will be making again
Thank you for the nice review Rumbi 🙂 . This cake is always the first to disappear at the parties.
Wow! Looks fabulous! I’ve recently started baking and have been looking for new recipes.
Next month is my niece’s birthday. Definitely going to try this one.
Thanks Natasha…regards from Bahrain
Anish, welcome to the site :). You are going to love this cake!
Thanks Natasha for the wonderful recipe. I made it on my birthday and put the website of the picture here.
Sara, such a beautiful cake, well done! Thank you for sharing it with me :D.
Natasha, how early can I make cake? If party is Saturday, I make the 2 layers wed evening and make the cake Thursday, is that ok?
Since there’s so much fresh strawberries in the cake, I would highly recommend making it on Friday if you are serving it on Saturday. You can make the cake layers in advance. The cake layers even freeze well.
Thank you! I am to do the cake filling tomorrow. A funny question – can I use a blender (like Nutri Ninja, for ex.) to blend the Strawberries instead of a food processor? Or will it be too runny? I would appreciate a quick response, thanks! I am making the other strawberry cake recipe, had to multiply the round cake recipe by 2.5 to have it fit the 14.5 by 11in pan. 🙂 Baked successfully, just have to cut the layers and do filling tomorrow.
Ksenia, you can use a blender, just pulse it so it won’t turn in to puree :).
Thank you!!
can I use fresh peaches instead of strawberry?
Hm… I think it would taste good but peaches tend to discolor. So yes it would work but it might not be the color you want.
Hello, I want to make this for my Aunt’s birthday. My cousin will be here with her children. Two of them are type 1 diabetics. Would you happen to know the carbs in this so I can tell her for insulin adjustments? Thanks in advance.
Hi Erica, I don’t usually put up nutritional info so I don’t know it off the top, but when I need to research something, my best source: Caloriecount.com – sign in for free and then go to “tools” and then click “recipe analyzer” You can copy and paste your list of ingredients and it spits out the nutrition info. It’s a great tool.
i showed a picture of this cake saying I’m going to make this cake next, and a person said I’ll buy one of those, so the first one of these I made was sold, so I could not even try it, but then I made another because I wanted to try and share it so badly. Well I made it on July 4th weekend and put the middle layer instead of strawberry, I used blueberry for that red white and blue look. It was a score. I took a pic, but can’t seems to post it here. Anyway, this cake Is awesome , anyone who does not like this cake is most likely dead.
Thank you Brian for such an awesome review, your comment made me and my husband laugh :D. I would love to see a picture of it so feel free to share it on my Facebook page.
Wondering if I can do this in 2 round tins? Do I need to alter the recipe at all?
Yes! I just posted a recipe for the round version of this cake. Such good timing! https://natashaskitchen.com/2015/06/30/strawberry-cake-recipe/
I usually bake with e-lrg eggs, I want to half to make 2-9″ round cake, will it make a big difference between x-lrg or large eggs?
Susan, I just posted round version of this cake here. With six e-large eggs, I would recommend 3/4 cup sugar and 1 cup + 2 Tbsp of flour. Hope this helps and I’m sorry for the late reply.
Thank you for posting this recipe! I halved it (used only 6 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar) and baked in 9″ round pan. The cake is very fresh and light, everybody in my family liked it.
I was looking for good biskvit recipe for a long time. Now I finally have it. Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it! I recently remade this as a round cake also. I’ve had so many people ask me about how to turn it into a round cake so I figured it would be helpful to just redo it. I’ll post it soon 🙂
J don’t understand some of your directions. You state not to grease or line the sides of the pans, but the pic clearly shows the sides being lined with paper.
Sorry about that! I am going to be remaking and rephotographing this cake in the next month or so, maybe sooner. I posted this a while back and have since discovered that not greasing or lining the sides of the pan works best.
Hi Natasha,
Any tips on cutting the layers horizontally and then put them back together without breaking? it’s my first time. thank you
Yes, cut around the edges of the cake first, going about 1″ deep (basically score the cake first), then cut deeper and through the cake.
Hi Natasha, Could you please tell me if I can make this cake in a round baked pan? If yes, approximately what size it should be? Thank you.
Yes, it can be done but you will have to adjust the recipe. 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 🙂
Hi, Natasha. This cake looks really delicious! I am making a Neapolitan cake for my daughter’s graduation (from 6th grade) in a three tier-cake form. The bottom layer is going to be a 10 in. chocolate cake with Oreo filling and a chocolate buttercream. The middle layer will be an 8 in. basic yellow cake with either Bavarian cream or custard filling with regular buttercream. The top layer, I was going to originally make a strawberry cake, but I think I am going to follow your recipe for the cake and filling and make a just make a strawberry buttercream for the outside of the cake. How do you think it will turn out? I didn’t want too much strawberry. Thanks also for sharing! 😉
This is a sponge cake and the strawbery provides the moisture to the cake to make it a moist cake. Are you planning to leave that part out and just use the sponge cake for the top of your cake? It sounds like a really delicious and elaborate cake you’re making! Are you using a round cake mold? If so, what size? You’ll have to adjust the cake to the size of your cake mold.