Lemon Strawberry Cake

Lemon Strawberry Cake. Soft, lemon cake with a strawberry filling and strawberry buttercream frosting. Delicious combination of sweet and tang!

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 good strawberries and lemons go together, and how good they would be together in a cake.

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 kind of cakes she likes. She said something about strawberries and I knew what had to be done …. THIS.

I made this lemon cake a couple of times to get the right combination or moist, lemon, and rise. This recipe I’m sharing with you was THE one. And actually, the other cakes are currently sitting in my freezer … any ideas of what to do with those are appreciated. Cake pops??

So, this cake is real good. I’m already thinking about 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!

1/10/19 update: This cake is one of my absolute favorites and I want to make sure it turns out well for everyone! I have heard a few people having problems when making it, so I have updated the instructions to be more exact with times. Also, I have reduced the liquid a touch to ensure everyone has good success with the rising.

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Lemon Strawberry Cake

Lemon Strawberry Cake. Soft, lemon cake with a strawberry filling and strawberry buttercream frosting. Delicious combination of sweet and tang!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Lemon Strawberry Cake

Servings: 1 8" cake

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened 2 sticks
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 extra large eggs or 4 large eggs
• 1 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 tablespoons cornstarch
• Strawberries about 10 large strawberries

Strawberry Frosting

• 1 cup of strawberry puree made from frozen strawberries used in filling
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 4-5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch salt

Instructions

Cake Directions

1. 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).

2. In large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

3. 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.

4. Add in flour mixture, eggs, oil, and lemon juice. Starting on low speed and gradually increasing to medium-high, beat for about 2 more minutes, scraping down sides as needed, until well combined. Stir in sour cream until combined.

5. Divide batter among 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.

6. Let cool before removing from pans and frosting.

Strawberry filling

1. Put thawed strawberries in blender and puree until smooth. Will make about 1 3/4 cups. Place 3/4 cup in small sauce pan to use for filling. Set remaining puree aside until preparing frosting.
2. Add sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch to strawberries and small sauce pan.
3. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens, about 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Squish enough strawberries to make 1/4 cup of strawberry chunks. I used my hands to do this part. Stir strawberry chunks into mixture in pot.
5. Transfer mixture to container with lid and put in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Frosting directions

1. Heat remaining strawberry puree in small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring frequently for about 20 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and transfer to container with lid. Place container in fridge for at least 2 hours.

3. In large mixing bowl, beat together butter and shortening on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

4. Beat in 1/2 cup powdered sugar, followed by 1 tablespoon cooled 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. 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

1. Level cakes and place one layer on a cardboard round.
2. Use frosting bag with large, round opening to pipe border around outside of cake. For this I use a #12 Wilton tip.
   
3. Fill inside of layer with half of cooled filling mixture.
   
4. Layer on second cake round and repeat. Place third layer on top.
5. Coat outside of cake with thin layer of frosting. Place cake in fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
   
6. 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.
   

If you enjoyed this Lemon Strawberry Cake, you’ll probably enjoy these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:

Lemon Cake with Lemon Oreo Filling
Lemon Blueberry Granola
Hot Milk Cake
Mini Fruit Pizza

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