This Small 6 Inch Strawberry Cake For Two is made from scratch using fresh strawberries. No cake mix and no strawberry jello! Makes enough cake to have dessert for two.
Earlier this week I shared my recipe for Small Batch Cream Cheese Frosting.
Today I’m sharing the cake recipe I used it for – Small 6 Inch Strawberry Cake For Two. I tested this recipe 5 times to get the ingredient list just right without it sinking in the middle.
I decided to do a miniseries of 6 inch cakes which includes my small chocolate cake recipe, small yellow cake recipe, and small lemon cake recipe.
When you’re making dessert for two, you definitely don’t need a large layer cake!
I’m hoping to redo a lot of my past layer cakes into small one layer cakes. Leave a comment below if you have a special request!
Two weekends ago Dad and I went strawberry picking like we do every summer. We walked away with about 5 pounds of fresh berries. I knew right away I wanted to work on a small strawberry cake.
Over the years I’ve been working on several strawberry cake recipes. The problem with most strawberry cake recipes is they’re usually made with a cake mix.
Or if they are made from scratch, they’re made using jello and not fresh strawberries.
The problem with using fresh strawberries, however, is it tends to add too much liquid to the batter. The solution?
Cooking the strawberries down to a jam-like consistency. This allows you to add fresh strawberry flavor while also controlling the amount of excess liquid added.
Using only egg whites instead of a whole egg means the pink color shines through.
However, that also means leftover egg yolks. No worries! Check out my list of recipes using leftover egg yolks.
If you don’t have one already, you’re going to need a 6 inch round cake pan.
You can buy one either on Amazon (affiliate link) or you can buy one in the cake decorating section of your local craft store.
I frosted this particular cake with traditional cream cheese frosting, but you can also use Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting, Lemon Buttercream Frosting, or even Chocolate Frosting.
More Strawberry Cake Recipes
- Strawberry Layer Cake – This recipe makes more than dessert for two, but it’s perfect for celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries.
- Strawberry Snack Cake – Made in an 8 inch square pan, this cake is ideal for small get togethers.
- Strawberry Cupcakes – Makes only 6 cupcakes!
Small 6 Inch Strawberry Cake
This Small 6 Inch Strawberry Cake is made from scratch using fresh strawberries. No cake mix and no strawberry jello! Makes enough cake to have dessert for two.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
- 1 tablespoon water
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 egg whites, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Few drops red food coloring (optional)
- Small Batch Cream Cheese Frosting (get recipe here)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease one 6-inch round cake pan then line the bottom with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, stir together 3/4 cup strawberries, water, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 4-5 minutes or until the strawberries cook down and are a jam-like consistency. You should have about 2 heaping tablespoons of cooked strawberries. Remove from the heat and cool 15 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and cornstarch. Stir in the baking powder and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl on medium speed, beat together the butter and remaining 1/2 cup sugar until creamy, 1-2 minutes.
- Beat in the egg whites, one at a time, then add the vanilla.
- On low speed add the flour mixture alternating with the milk, adding the flour in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions (begin and end with dry ingredients). Do not overmix.
- Stir in the cooked strawberry mixture and remaining 1/4 cup strawberries. At this point if the batter isn't pink enough, add a few drops of red food coloring if desired.
- Transfer the batter to the cake pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes then invert cake onto cooling rack. Cool completely.
- Frost cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (get recipe here).
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RossC says
Oh yes… Happy to see a doable (by me) strawberry cake..This will be baked soon.. :O)
Carla says
Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out.
Diego Lopes says
This cake actually looks cute, lol. Delicious too, of course. Can’t wait to try it.
Carla says
Ha I try ;) Enjoy!
JoAnne says
I made this cake today, It’s so pretty and very tasty! This is definitely a cake I will make often. Thank you for the recipe and the other 6 inch pan cakes, I live alone and these are the perfect size. :)
Carla says
Thank you for the positive feedback! I’m working on some more 6 inch cakes – stay tuned :D
Mel says
I tried the recipe this afternoon. It turned out lovely; thank you for sharing! :)
Also for anyone who may wonder if something like almond milk will work in this instead of regular milk, I can confirm it does.
Carla says
Thank you for the positive feedback! And thank you for letting us know almond milk works well.
Jillian says
This strawberry cake was the perfect size for my family of 4. Everyone loved it!
Carla says
Happy to hear everyone enjoyed it!
Danielle Wolter says
Strawberry season is the best! This cake sound perfect – it’s just the 2 of us so a mini cake is the perfect size.
Carla says
Let me know if you try it!
Arooba says
Can we use oil instead of butter?
Carla says
I haven’t tested it with oil, but I would say no because it’ll throw off the ingredient ratio. You’re beating a solid stick of butter, so liquid oil wouldn’t be a good 1:1 substitute. If you were to use oil, you’d need to adjust the other ingredients to compensate for the extra liquid in the recipe.
Ash. says
Can you use frozen strawberries in this recipe?
Carla says
I haven’t tried it with frozen strawberries. I’d let them thaw and drain them of any excess liquid before using in this recipe. If they’re too wet, it may alter the batter.
Heike says
I did. Haven’t cut into it yet but the little bund pan cake looks like it turned out fine
Carla says
Oh you used a mini bundt pan? I like that idea but haven’t tried it myself.
Helen says
I have those Wilson Easy Layers cake pans. I wonder if I could use 1 or 2 of those? I just love these small cake recipes. Thanks for all your testing.
Carla says
I don’t have them, but I looked them up. Looks like they are 6 inches round (yay!) but only .75 inch deep. You will definitely need two, possibly even three to account for the cake rising (if it rises too high over the edge of the pan, it’ll sink back down and create a dip in the middle). So I bet you can use them as long as you divide the batter accordingly.
Anaïs says
I made this cake (in cupcakes) yesterday and it turned out great. Pretty AND good. We don’t have very tasty strawberries yet so I added some strawberry extract. I’ll try again in a couple of weeks when fruits will be sweeter. I was wondering if this kind of cake could be made with peaches? Or would these have too much water in them?
I ordered a 6 inch pan, can’t wait to try the other small cakes! Thanks for your inspiration Miss Introvert :)
Carla says
Happy to hear this recipe works as cupcakes! I haven’t tried them with peaches. In theory it should work, but like you said peaches have a lot of water in them, probably even more so than strawberries so hard to say without testing. I do have a different recipe for peach cupcakes if you wanted to check them out. I haven’t scaled down the recipe yet, so it does make 12 for now: https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2013/08/19/peaches-and-cream-stuffed-cupcakes/
Alisha says
This looks delicious! I will try this on coming weekend but i have a question that can i make this cake without eggs? Kindly guide me.
Carla says
I’ve only ever made this cake with eggs, so I don’t have an answer for you. You will have to do some research via Google and see what would work best.
zara says
This looks delicious. What if it was an 8 inch pan, how much more of everything do we need?
Carla says
I have a two layer cake using 8 inch pans. You can cut that recipe in half for one layer: https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2014/06/26/strawberry-layer-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/
Karen says
Can I substitute the AP flour for cake flour? If so, would the measurements change?
Carla says
Yes. Use 1 cup cake flour and omit the cornstarch.
Elaine says
I’m not quite sure where I went wrong (or the recipe, if the case), but the flavor was not what I was hoping it would be. It almost tasted like raw flour. Or could it have been the cornstarch? The strawberry flavor was also not as strong as I would have liked. Luckily, I used a very good strawberry frosting recipe (in lieu of the cream cheese one) that elevated the strawberry flavor.
The cake rose quite a bit. It had a bit of a dome shape, but that was fine. It is certainly plenty of cake for 4 people. As for the texture, though the toothpick came out clean (and the cake was baked towards the longer recommended time), it was a little pastey-like. I’m thinking that maybe the cooked strawberries could be cooked down slightly more (with a couple extra strawberries) and the fresh strawberry addition eliminated.
Carla says
Hmm the cake is definitely not domed nor tastes like flour. If it tasted like raw flour, then you either measured too much flour or something is up with the brand of flour you used. Did you measure the flour using the proper technique of spooning flour into the measuring cup then leveling the top with a knife? Or did you scoop your cup into the container and pack it in (which adds too much flour – you can google more about it). Did you measure out 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons or did you guess and/or round it up to 1 cup? Did you sift your flour and cornstarch together as directed in Step 3? What kind of flour did you? For the strawberries, did you use fresh or frozen? How ripe were the berries? Did they taste flavorful on their own? If it’s not strawberry season, there’s a chance your berries didn’t start out with great flavor. The other possibility is you didn’t cook the strawberries down enough. For the domed cake, how hot was your oven (measured with a digital thermometer for accuracy)? If it’s baking hotter than 350, then the edges would have baked too quickly while the middle wasn’t done yet. There’s also the possibility of too much flour (again, I think this may be your issue if it tastes like raw flour) or perhaps too much leavening if you added more than written.
Holly Chueh says
Hi there! Happy to have found your site :-) I made your 6″ strawberry cake last night and unfortunately, it was very dense and did have a faint taste of Bisquick (aka flour). I measured the flour and dry ingredients as you recommended earlier. It also did bake with a bit of a dome. I’ve been baking up a storm during the pandemic and not having many issues, so was wondering your thoughts? I’d really love to bake a strawberry cake in my 6″ pan. I did top it with homemade cream cheese frosting (tinted with a touch of red food coloring), so it looks pretty, but just too dense. Thanks for your thoughts!
Carla says
Hmm if it tasted like Bisquick, are you use you didn’t accidentally use Bisquick? What kind of flour did you use? Did you use 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons flour or did you round it up to 1 cup? Did you sift together your flour and cornstarch? Is your baking powder expired? Did you change any of the other ingredients? Did you measure your oven temperature using a thermometer for accuracy?
Holly C says
Hi, no, I didn’t use Bisquick as I don’t buy it. I used King Arthur AP flour and measured everything carefully. My baking powder wasn’t expired and I didn’t change any of the ingredients. I will check my oven temp. I’m going to try making your small coconut cake recipe next. Happy Thanksgiving!
Bernika says
If I wanted to make this a two layer cake. What ingredients would be changed?
Carla says
You would double everything.
Karen says
My dog eats all the strawberries growing in my garden so those are spoken for but I can definitely buy some to try this recipe. I love the idea of cooking the strawberries down to something similar to jam!
Carla says
Let me know what you think!
Angela Shuman says
Can you substitute blueberries? Doing the same steps? Same ingredients?
Carla says
I haven’t tried it with blueberries, but I treat blueberries and strawberries the same way so yes I believe you can. Let me know how it turns out!
shamas ahmed says
very delcious recipe i have a question are we used the butter cream as well as cheese cream both for frosting.????
Carla says
You can use either frosting you want. I personally recommend cream cheese because it balances the cake well with its tanginess.
Krista says
Hello, if I don’t have cornstarch can I sub it for anything else? Thanks !
Carla says
I’ve only used cornstarch. However, I believe you can use arrowroot or tapioca starch. You’ll have to look up what the substitute ratio is.
Krista says
Thanks :)
Ronak Mehta says
Baked this cake for my birthday and it was an absolute hit! So moist and tasty. Thank you for doing what you do
Carla says
Happy birthday! Happy to hear you enjoyed the cake.
Aviva says
Thank you for the recipe, came out great! I only had frozen strawberries, so I just used them for the cooked strawberry part and didn’t add them later in case it would make it too wet. It was a more subtle strawberry flavor. My 3 year olds loved it too.
Carla says
Glad the frozen strawberries worked out for you!
Jen says
Can 3/4c strawberry preserves be substituted for the cooked strawberries? Or do you think frozen would be a better substitute? I’m looking to make this for Valentine’s but strawberries will not be in season.
Carla says
Yes, I think the preserves will work since you’re cooking down the strawberries into a sauce. I haven’t tried it with frozen strawberries yet, but I’m guessing if you let them thaw and drain the excess liquid, it should still be ok.