Strawberry Recipe – Fresh Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Buttercream Icing

This is the real deal! After scouring my all my cookbooks and countless recipes online, I developed a recipe for homemade strawberry cake, no gelatin required! This cake has a wonderful, fresh strawberry taste similar to the flavor combination of strawberry shortcake in a delicate pink layer cake. The color and the flavor are subtle yet delicious. No neon pink here! Just fantastic strawberry flavor. I served this at my daughter's sixth birthday with friends and family and everyone loved it, describing it as 'bakery quality'.

Ingredients

• 2 pints fresh strawberries
• 6 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 ¼ cups white sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
• 4 drops red food coloring
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 (16 ounce) package confectioners' sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 round 9-inch cake pans that are at least 1 1/2 inches high.
2. Sprinkle strawberries with sugar in a bowl and let sit for at least 20 minutes, or until juices accumulate.
3. Puree strawberries in a blender until smooth and set aside.
4. Combine sugar, butter, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and beat with an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat until smooth. Add 1 cup strawberry puree, oil, strawberry extract, and food coloring. Mix well. Add flour, gently folding until well mixed. Pour batter evenly into the prepared cake pans.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Run a table knife around the edges to loosen. Invert carefully onto a serving plate or cooling rack. Let cool, about 30 minutes.
6. Make the frosting while the cakes cool. Combine confectioners' sugar, butter, heavy cream, 4 tablespoons of strawberry puree, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whip thoroughly, adding more puree to color and taste as needed.
7. Sandwich cake layers with frosting. Cover the top and sides with remaining frosting.

Nutrition Facts

• calories542.7
• carbohydrateContent80.9 g
• cholesterolContent94 mg
• fatContent23.4 g
• fiberContent1.8 g
• proteinContent4.4 g
• saturatedFatContent12 g
• sodiumContent23 mg
• sugarContent62.7 g