Lemon Strawberry Cake. Soft, lemon cake layers with a strawberry filling and strawberry buttercream frosting. Delicious combination of sweet and tang!
Cake Gifts
Last week my parents came to visit and my mom brought me a delicious strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about strawberries. I’ve also been thinking about how well strawberries and lemons go together, and how great they are together in cakes.
Since I like cake, and since I’m currently making a point of posting recipes to the internet, it only made sense for me to make a cake for Mother’s Day. My sister-in-law is a mother, and deserves a great cake for being a great mother. So, I asked her what types of cakes she generally likes. She said something about strawberries and I knew what had to be done …. THIS.
Lemon Cake
I made lemon cake layers multiple times to get the right combination of moist, lemon, and rise. This recipe I’m sharing with you is THE one. I have tested it over and over to ensure it works, and because I can’t stop keep eating it.
This cake is just real good. I’m already thinking about other ways to use this lemon cake recipe. So stay tuned … I have a feeling this is just one of many ways it will be used!
9/7/19 Update: At one point in time I made a typo with the amounts of butter and oil. Please use the recipe below when making this cake. If you followed a link from another site, the ingredient amounts on that site may be incorrect. The recipe card below is what you need!
If you liked this cake, I use the same lemon cake layers for my Lemon Cake with Lemon Oreo Filling!
Lemon Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 large eggs room temp
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice from about 1.5 large lemons
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest from about 1 large lemon
- 2/3 cup sour cream
Strawberry Filling
- 16 ounce bag frozen strawberries thawed
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Strawberry Frosting
- 1/3-2/3 cup of strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries used in filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch salt
- 6-8 large strawberries for decorating
- 1 lemon for decorating
Instructions
Cake Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line three, 8″ round pans with parchment paper. Flour and butter sides of pan (I use baking PAM to do this).
- In large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
- In base of a stand mixer, whisk together sugar and lemon zest. Add softened butter and beat on medium-high speed until lightened and fluffy, about 1.5 minutes. Then, beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides as needed.
- Stir together oil and lemon juice in a small bowl. Then, alternate mixing in flour mixture and oil mixture in about 3 additions each. After each addition, start on low speed and gradually increase to medium-high for a few seconds. Once all flour and oil has been added, beat on medium-high until well combined. Finally, stir in sour cream until just combined.
- Divide batter among the three prepared pans and bake for 27-30 minutes, or until tops are golden and toothpick in center of cake comes out with just a few crumbs. Do not open oven during baking time.
- Let cakes cool in pans for at least 10 minutes before removing. Cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry filling
- Put thawed strawberries in blender and puree until smooth. This will make about 1 3/4 cups of strawberry puree. Place 3/4 cup of the puree in a small sauce pan to use for filling. Set remaining puree aside until preparing frosting.
- Add sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch to puree in sauce pan.
- Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Transfer mixture to a heat safe container with lid, and place in fridge for at least 2 hours.
Frosting directions
- In large mixing bowl, beat together butter and shortening on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Beat in 1/2 cup powdered sugar, followed by 1 tablespoon strawberry puree. Then beat in salt and vanilla. After this, add 1/2 powdered sugar and 1 tbsp strawberry puree at a time until desired consistency and strawberry taste is reached. NOTE: You will likely not use all of the powdered sugar or all of the puree (I use about 4 cups powdered sugar and about 1/2 cup of strawberry puree). Be careful when watching the consistency, if you put in too much of the puree, your frosting will become too liquid to stick well on the cake.
Assembly
- Level cakes and place one layer on a cardboard round.
- Use frosting bag with large, round opening to pipe border around outside of cake. For this I use a #12 Wilton tip.
- Fill inside of layer with half of cooled filling mixture.
- Layer on second cake round and repeat. Place third layer on top.
- Coat outside of cake with thin layer of frosting. Place cake in fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
- Remove cake and finish frosting. I used the #12 tip to pipe the bottom of the cake and the frosting decor on top. Decorate with strawberries and lemon peel as desired.
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed this Lemon Strawberry Cake, you should check out these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Almond Lemon Cake
Lemon Cranberry Cake
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake
Peach Blueberry Tart
Instant Pot Key Lime Pie
Links to Amazon items used to make this cake:
Baking and Preparing:
- Kitchen Aid Mixer This is the most used small appliance in my kitchen, well besides the microwave, and I love it
- Ninja Kitchen System I adore this thing. It’s a blender and food processor. I used the blender for the strawberries in this recipe.
- Chicago Metallic Professional Non-Stick Round Cake Pan, 8-inch I use these for all my 8″ cakes as I believe they bake well
- Parchment Paper Liners for Round Cake Pans 8-inch These cut out a lot of time in my cake making process
Assembly and Decor:
- Wilton Cake Leveler See about me to understand why I love this thing
- Wilton 10-Inch Carboard Cake Circle This is perfect for transporting cakes
- Wilton Buttercream Tip Set These make buttercream frosting look beautiful. For this cake I used the #12.
- Wilton Pastry Bags I use the 12″ bags for almost all frosting … I use them so much that I buy them in bulk
- Wilton Cake Turntable Great for frosting and decorating cakes
Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry that happened. Thank you for letting me know …. I’ll update that now. It’s 1 cup of unsalted butter, softened and the sour cream is folded in as the last step before transferring to the pans.
Hi.
I am excited to try this recipe.
I’m so glad, hope it turns out well!
Oh my goodness, I hate that happened for you -having a cake fall is the worst! Yes, all of those amounts for the butter, oil, and sour cream are correct. When it rises, it’s a moist, thick cake, so the falling would’ve made it greasy. As far as reasons for it falling, here are a few things to check out if you try again: Did you use the cornstarch? Substituting flour for cornstarch does not work. Did you use the 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda? I’ve seen those get mixed up. Also, were the baking powder… Read more »
Can you use freeze dried strawberries?
Yes, I have actually done that before and it works well. I crush the dried strawberries first so they’re almost like a powder.
And you’ll need to add a tbsp or two of milk or whipping cream.
Thank you.
was the cake good becasue i havent seen any comments on that
It’s one of my faves! If you make it you’ll have to report back on how it goes.
Can you make this using fresh strawberries for the filling?
Yes, you can! I’ve done it before and it has turned out well. I wrote to use a frozen bag simply because the measurement is easy and they can typically be found any time of year.
Does the recipe need to change at all if using 9inch pans?
The only change is that the cake will probably cook a little bit quicker, I would check 3-4 minutes early to see how it’s looking.
I made this cake yesterday and it was delicious! My icing separated and would just fall off the cake in places. Any ideas what would cause that?
Oh no, I’m sorry that happened! Yes, I do have a couple of ideas. If the cake was warm for too long, say it was out in the sun, then the butter melting could cause that. Or, if the butter was too soft when you started, same thing. Usually I keep the cake in the fridge until serving if I think I softened the butter too much. Otherwise I think it may have been using too much puree. If you make it again, try adding the puree about 1/2 tbsp at a time. As sometimes the puree comes out more… Read more »
Thank you! I made this cake for my son’s birthday and it turned out great! Very delicious and the flavors are well balanced! The strawberry frosting was so good!
I’m so glad y’all enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful looking cake, have made it twice, my husband enjoys it with ice cream on the side. But the frosting instructions are confusing. Do we use (a) the cooked and cooled strawberry puree for the frosting or (b) the uncooked puree? Specifically, the instructions call for the thawed strawberries to be put in a blended and pureed to make about 1 3/4 cups total, with some to be cooked and cooled for at least 2 hours “for use for filing” and to “set remaining puree aside until preparing frosting“. But the instructions for “Frosting directions” say in #2 to use… Read more »
Hi Liz! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! The cooled purée is a mistake — it should just say purée, and not cooled. I’ll delete that out. Thanks for bringing that up! I will make a video of the strawberry roses and post it. They’re super easy. I’ll update you once I have it posted. I haven’t tried a 9” two layer cake, but I can certainly try it and let you know. Usually when I’m trying something like that, that would be thicker, I’ll turn on the light in the oven every minute or so after the initial recipe… Read more »
Can you use the cake batter to make cupcakes?
Yes you can! I have not done it, but if I were to try, I would fill the liners about 2/3 of the way full and check the cupcakes after 15 minutes. It might need longer than that, but I would first check at 15 and then check in 2-3 min increments after that.
Could you make this cake in advance and freeze? (cake, not frosting or puree, as I’m sure this would affect texture).
Yes! I wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap once they have cooled and then freeze them. If you’re going to level them though, so that before you freeze them.
So excited to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday this weekend! We are having about 30 people over. How many servings is this 8″ cake? And what would you recommend for more people? I was thinking of doing an 11″ cake, maybe 4 layers, would you double or triple the recipe? Also, I love the beautiful color of the frosting, but have you tried coloring it? My daughter wants a Beauty and the Beast theme so I was thinking yellow, but maybe I’ll just do a separate simple, plain frosting in yellow for accents! Thanks!
That is so fun, happy birthday to your daughter! When I have a party I cut cake into small pieces so get maybe 16 pieces out of an 8″ cake. I would do at least 2 8″ cakes. As far as doing an 11″ cake, if was 4 layers I would do the recipe x 2.5. I have not tried coloring the frosting, but the strawberries make it pink, so I think if you added yellow you’d end up with orange. I think you could do okay with red, but for yellow yes I’d do a buttercream with just yellow!… Read more »
I’ve made this recipe a few times now and it is always SOO good, I’ve even switched up the filling and frosting for raspberry and no matter strawberry or raspberry it is always a hit. I love how the cake itself turns out, and was wondering if instead of lemon, do you think I could switch the lemon for orange (I wouldn’t be using the strawberry filling/frosting)? I’ve tried a couple orange cake recipes and the cake itself never seems to turn out right, so thinking perhaps just switching out the lemon for orange in this recipe would be okay… Read more »