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My Strawberry Shortcake Cake recipe layers of moist vanilla cake filled with fresh juicy strawberries and topped with a stable whipped cream frosting. It’s soft and sweetIt’s the PERFECT cake for strawberry season when you have so many fresh berries!
Strawberry shortcake is one of my favorite memories from childhood. Every summer for my dad’s birthday, a family gathering or just because, we’d get a sheet cake from the store. It would be a soft white cake filled with berries and fresh whipped cream. Every year when June rolls around, I start thinking about that childhood cake, which is probably why I’ve posted lots of strawberry shortcake recipes including strawberry shortcake cupcakes, no bake strawberry shortcake dessert and strawberry shortcake cake roll.
This is the best strawberry shortcake cake with a tender vanilla cake – it’s so much better than traditional strawberry shortcake. This is the perfect cake recipe for spring and summer!
Ingredient Notes
- Yellow Cake: The cake is my classic yellow cake recipe made with unsalted butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, all purpose flour, baking powder, and buttermilk. I always start my cake recipe with melted butter – it helps make fluffy vanilla cake layers. You can use any kind of milk (or nondairy milk) in place of the buttermilk.
- You can also use a cake mix in place of my homemade vanilla cake recipe.
- Strawberries: Use fresh strawberries. I chop them fine and mix with sugar for the strawberry filling and then top the cake with sliced strawberries.
- Cream Cheese, Heavy Whipping Cream, Powdered Sugar: This is what you’ll need to make that stable whipped cream frosting. The cream cheese MUST be room temperature. Watch how to make the frosting here. Regular homemade whipped cream isn’t strong enough to frost a layer cake with.
Tips for How to make Strawberry Shortcake Cake
- When making cake from scratch I like to whisk the dry ingredients first. Then I use a hand mixer (or a stand mixer) and mix the butter with the sugar, then mix in the eggs one at a time and then add the flour mixture with the milk or buttermilk alternately.
- Bake your cake in 8-inch cake pans or 9-inch rounds and then let them cool. You can also make 24 cupcakes or a 9×13-inch size cake.
- Prepare filling: Stir together the chopped berries with sugar and let them macerate for a bit; then add the mixture between the cake layers.
- Make Whipped Cream Frosting: Adding cream cheese to whipped cream helps to stabilize it without gelatin or chemicals. You beat the cream cheese with sugar, then beat it all together with heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. The frosting pipes great and lasts for a few days in the refrigerator without weeping.
Cake Frosting Tips
- For best results, be sure that your cake is completely cool before you frost it so the frosting doesn’t melt.
- Fill cake: Place one layer on your cake plate then top with fresh fruit. Add the second cake layer and repeat.
- How to frost the outsides of the cake: I just did a quick crumb coat on the sides so you can see the cake peeking through. You could do a thicker layer of frosting if you want. Want to make a naked cake? Just frost the top and skip frosting the sides.
- I did some swirls on top of the cake with a 1M tip and then placed strawberry halves around the edges.
- You can make this with any kind of berries too, or a mixture.
- When baking your cake, line the bottom with parchment paper rounds for easy removal.
Storing Homemade Strawberry Shortcake
- I don’t recommend freezing the frosted cake.
- Store the cake in the refrigerator, loosely covered. After a day, the berries will get a little weepy.
- To make ahead of time, bake and cool the cake layers up to a day ahead. You can also freeze the cake layers wrapped well in plastic wrap.
- The frosting can be made ahead up to 24 hours.
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes
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Make the Cake:
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour three 8-inch or two 9-inch round pans.
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Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
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Mix melted butter with sugar using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in eggs one at a time. Then mix in buttermilk and flour mixture in two additions, mixing between each.
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Divide batter among the pans and bake 25-33 minutes for 8-inch pans and 24-27 minutes for 9-inch pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before assembling the cake.
Filling and Frosting:
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Make the whipped cream topping: beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth with a hand or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then run the mixer while adding the heavy whipping cream. Beat until stiff peaks form.
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Wash and hull one pound of strawberries. Dice them small and add to a bowl with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
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Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Frost with a bit of the whipped cream frosting and top with berries. Repeat for any additional layers.
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Frost the top and sides of the cake as desired. To make it more naked looking as in the photos, just give the sides a light crumb coating.
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The swirls on top the cake are made with a Wilton 1M tip. Decorate around the top and edges with remaining strawberries, cut in half.
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Store in refrigerator for up to 2 days. Freezing is not recommended.
- You can use a cake mix in place of making the layer cake from scratch.
- For even baking, I recommend using bake even strips (then there is no doming of the cake layers).
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 40g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 106mg | Sugar: 31g
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Strawberry Shortcake Recipes
