Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Inspired by classic strawberry shortcake, this Strawberry Shortcake Cake is two layers of fluffy, buttery sponge cakes filled with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Recipes for both 6 inch and 8 inch layered strawberry shortcake included. Tastes like summer in every bite!
Since I have such a sweet tooth, I always think of those little round sponge cakes you often see in the produce section, right by the strawberries.
As much as I love my biscuit version (see: chocolate strawberry shortcake), I sure do love cake more.
Of course you can go individual sized with my strawberry shortcake cupcakes, but I wanted to go BIG.
Layer cake big.
That’s why I made this Strawberry Shortcake Cake with two layers of soft and fluffy sponge cake with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries.
It’s the same cake recipe I used for my Boston cream pie cupcakes and mini Boston cream pie but with summer flavors.
I’ve tested this strawberry shortcake cake recipe in both 6 inch and 8 inch round pans so you can serve this as a strawberry shortcake birthday cake no matter how many people you’re serving.
Or cut the recipe in half and make a one layer strawberry shortcake layered cake.
Why You’ll Love This Strawberry Shortcake Cake Recipe
- Can be elegant or casual! -Serve it after a casual fun day of strawberry picking or turn it into a strawberry shortcake birthday cake.
- Makes small or large cake! -I’ve tested this recipe as a 6 inch cake recipe and a 8 inch cake recipe so you can make as much (or as little) as you need.
- Versatile in flavor! – Although I went with traditional strawberries and cream, you can use chocolate whipped cream for a subtle cocoa flavor.
Ingredients For Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Here’s what you need to make your strawberry shortcake layer cake:
- Flour: Provides structure so the cake doesn’t crumble
- Baking powder: Helps the cake rise
- Salt: No bland cake batter here!
- Sugar: Sweetens the batter as well as help with browning
- Butter: By using melted butter instead of softened, it forms a fine, uniform crumb.
- Egg: Helps with structure as well as rise
- Vanilla: Flavors the batter
- Milk: Fat that helps produce a tender crumb
How To Make Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Here’s how to make your layered strawberry shortcake:
- Beat together sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla until smooth and moistened.
- Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt gradually with the milk, alternating between dry and wet ingredients.
- Transfer batter to two cake pans.
- Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely.
- Assemble cake with whipped cream and strawberries.
Store unfrosted/unassembled cake for up to 3 days. Refrigerate assembled cake for up to 2 days as the whipped cream will start to deflate (but can be eaten up to 4 days).
How To Decorate Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Of course you can’t have whipped! Stick with traditional vanilla or go double berry with strawberry whipped cream.
You can also use strawberry sauce, strawberry curd, or strawberry jam in the filling as well.
More Strawberry Recipes
If you enjoyed this strawberry shortcake layer cake, check out my other strawberry dessert recipes:
Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Strawberry Shortcake Cake is two layers of fluffy, buttery sponge cakes filled with homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Recipes for both 6 inch and 8 inch layered strawberry shortcake included. Tastes like summer in every bite!
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1 + 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (6 ounces or 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
Filling
- Full batch Homemade Whipped Cream
- 1 cup chopped strawberries
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Strawberry halves, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 8-inch round pans (1 + 1/2 inches deep) then line with parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of the pans. (*For 6 inch pans, see notes for measurements).
- In a large bowl, sift the flour then stir in baking powder, and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl on medium-high speed (with paddle attachment if using stand mixer), beat together sugar, melted butter, egg, and vanilla until smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Turn the speed down to low then 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).
- Divide the batter evenly into the two pans then bake 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.
- Make the filling: In a medium bowl, mix together chopped strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Drain any accumulated juices then fold strawberries into 1/2 cup whipped cream. Reserve the rest of the whipped cream.
- Place one cake layer onto a plate or cake stand. Cover with the strawberry whipped cream filling. Place the other cake on top and gently push down. Top with remaining reserved whipped cream and strawberry halves.
Store unfrosted cake for up to 3 days at room temperature. Refrigerate assembled cake for up to 2 days as the whipped cream will start to deflate (but can be eaten up to 4 days).
Notes
- *For two 6x2 inch cake pans, use the following ingredients and bake for 23-25 minutes (yes same baking time. The cakes will be thicker):
1 + 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 + 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
Small batch Homemade Whipped Cream
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspsoon lemon juice
Strawberry halves, for garnish - Enjoyed this recipe? Check out my Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes and Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake.
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So happy to see the cake stand in use! This cake is gorgeous and I *need* a slice.
Btw your bow is great. ;)
This looks out of this world, Carla! I love it.
Yum! And you know I just picked up all those strawberries at our CSA last night!
It’s always nice to find new ways to make strawberry shortcake! And this one looks very good!
I didn’t even notice the wonky bow until you pointed it out. At least the cake is cute! Looks delicious.
I also prefer cake to biscuits. Its not that biscuits are bad (its dessert afterall) its just that cake is always more induglent and fancy. Btw, strawberries and whipped cream were made for each other. You’re cake looks gorgeous, if it tasted as half as good as it looks than your job as a food blogger is accomplished :) xoxo Aya
Reminds me of the one I made in pastry school, gorgeous!
Mmmm…I’ll happily eat strawberry shortcake with any delicious carb. This cake looks beautiful, Carla. And I think your bow is lovely too. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with it!
Just made this today. It looked too good to pass up. Just a note, I used a 9inch and the cake is much thinner. (possibly half the side of yours). Also you didnt mention what to do with the lemon juice or powdered sugar. I just coated my halved strawberries in lemon juice and plan on dusting with powdered sugar just before they leave the house.. I think this is what you intended?
See that’s what happens when you blog late at night. You combine the sliced strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice together before folding into the whipped cream. Thanks for pointing that out!
This cake was amazing! Not only was it easy to make, it was a crowd pleaser!! Thanks so much
hey… I literally just put this cake in the oven. It is barely even 2″ in ONE 8″ pan!!
I pray that this cake rises 3 more inches in the oven!!!
As long as you followed the ingredient list, it’ll rise! :)
My cake didn’t rise either. In 8″ pans, they’re barely an inch high. I’m newish to cake baking – did I over/under beat something?
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. Here are several troubleshooting tips:
1. Make sure your pan is 8 inch and not 9 inch. As silly as that sounds, one time I bought 9 inch pans that measured at 8 inches…
2. Make sure your baking powder is fresh and not expired.
3. Make sure your eggs are room temperature (I didn’t indicate that – fixed!)
4. Do not overbeat your batter after adding the dry ingredients.
5. Make sure your oven temperature is accurate. If it’s not a true 350F, it does mess with the cake rising.
6. Make sure you beat the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes as indicated and not 30 seconds or anything. This step adds air to the batter.
This cake looks great! One question, how far in advance can you assemble it with the strawberries and whipped cream so it won’t be soggy?
Personal choice would be serving it the day you assemble it. However, for this cake I assembled it one day then the next day I took it into work for coworkers and wasn’t soggy, so you can get away with assembling it the day before.
Can I just say I love how easy your recipe was to make ! Everyone loved it and I love your blog!
Thank you so much for letting me know. I love it when I hear positive feedback :)
Hey Carla,
This was an awesome recipe. I’d probably vote it around 9/10.
To be honest though, I only really made your cake base, and used a tart raspberry reduction as the filling and topping –> Still Great :).
One problem I had though was that the cake was wayyyyy too sweet (at least for my family who prefers less sweet desserts), and that was with using 4/5 rather than 1 cup granulated sugar. Im probably going to use 2/3 cup sugar next time.
Other changes I made included:
1) I used a electric beater (I wasn’t entirely sure if the recipe wanted hand beating so I chose the easier and quicker option)
2) I baked all the batter in one pan together ( I turned the temp down to 340 F and baked it for 26 mins) and then sliced it in half after it had cooled down.
Even with these change it still turned out great.
Glad you enjoyed the cake even with the changes! This is a sweet dessert since it is a cake, but as you suggested, if your sweet tooth isn’t as big as mine, you can reduce the sugar :) All of my recipes use a hand or stand mixer when beating unless otherwise indicated, so sorry for not clarifying that.
Any suggestions for preparing this recipe in high altitude?
I personally don’t have experience with high altitude baking, but I asked my friend Barb of http://www.creative-culinary.com/ who lives in Denver and she says: “It can depend on what altitude but I can speak for Denver area at 5280′ to start the conversation. In order to counteract the faster rise of leavened doughs, raise the temperature of the oven about 10 degrees. Baked goods deflate because they rise too fast in our thinner air and without being baked enough, they get to maximum volume and then deflate before they are set. Raising the temp can hep offset that effect. In conjunction the baking time will be lower so I just suggest testing about 10 minutes prior to the information in your instructions. Higher altitudes will need more adjustments; starting with a eliminating small amounts of leavening to slow that rise even more. There is a very dramatic different between Denver at 5,280 and mountain towns that can be several thousand feet higher”
Hope that helps and good luck!
Thanks! I’m in Denver too, so this is extremely helpful.
Made this cake today after strawberry picking. As the taste was good, I also had the same issue as other people with the cake not rising properly. As an experienced baker I’m not sure where this went wrong. Such a disappointment! Would have been better in much smaller cake pans.
I’m so sorry you had some difficulties. I just quadruple-checked my cake pan measurements. 8-inch round cake pan, 1-1/2 inches deep, 4 cups volume.
I just made this today, and it has such a great flavor and texture! I used 9 inch pans, because I wanted the cake to be a little flatter. It was a hit with my family, even my very picky mother!
Thank you for the recipe. I made it for a friends birthday in Feb 2018 and now his wife wants one for her birthday aug 2018.
Awesome! Glad everyone enjoyed the cake.
The cakes did not rise very much, not sponge like texture, followed the recipe exactly
Was your baking powder expired? What size pans did you use? Were your eggs room temperature? How long did you beat in the flour?
Can you substitute the homemade whipped cream with a tub of cool whip.? Just asking bc some homemade whipping creams don’t hold up very well and I think tubbed cool whip would last somewhat longer without the sogginess.
Yes that’ll be fine.