Vanilla strawberry cake is a single layer vanilla cake topped with a light and creamy cream cheese & whipping cream frosting, and fresh sweet strawberries.
This vanilla strawberry cake is so light and fresh, perfect for spring and summer time. The vanilla cake is perfectly moist and tender, and the creamy frosting is my absolute favorite part. It's a great cake to serve for Mother's Day, summer BBQ's, or any other celebration.
If you love fresh fruit desserts you should also try my blackberry apple crumble, almond raspberry cake, or my white chocolate raspberry blondies.
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Why You Will Love This
- Fresh Strawberries: When the season is right, fresh strawberries bring so much flavor to the simplest of desserts.
- Easy to Make: This is a simple single layer cake that doesn't take much effort to make or frost. You can bake it in a round, square or even rectangle pan depending non what you have.
- Cream Cheese Whipping Cream: This light and tangy frosting is the perfect balance with the fresh berries and vanilla cake.
Ingredient Notes
Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card below.
- Cake Flour: I always prefer cake flour for cakes because it helps the cake have a lighter crumb, but all-purpose will work if you prefer.
- Butter & Oil: This cake uses both so you have the wonderful taste of butter, but the extra moisture from the oil.
- Vanilla Bean Paste: I don't always use this, but I love it where the star flavor is vanilla.
- Sour Cream: I always opt for full fat to bring more moisture to my cakes.
- Heavy Cream: This is the only ingredient that you will not want to be room temperature, or it will not whip up properly.
- Strawberries: I always used fresh, but thawed frozen strawberries would work as well. Just drain and blot any extra moisture.
Step by Step Instructions
Start by making the cake.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325 F, and spray and line an 8 or 9 inch round or square baking pan with parchment paper.
Step 2: In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Step 3: In a medium bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add oil and eggs and beat again for another 2 minutes. Mix in vanilla and sour cream.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk, in three parts, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
Step 5: Pour the batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for about 28-33 minutes or until a light golden brown around the edges, and a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. Set aside to allow to cool.
Next, make the frosting.
Step 1: In a small bowl, blend ½ cup powdered sugar with 4 oz of cream cheese until completely smooth.
Step 2: In a medium size bowl, whip heavy cream, vanilla and ½ cup powdered sugar together on high until stiff peaks form.
Step 3: Fold the two mixtures together until well blended.
Step 4: Cut strawberries and mix with a little sugar if needed to sweeten more. Frost cake with whipping cream frosting. Place strawberries on top before serving.
Expert Baking Tips
This cake can also be made in a 9x13 pan for a thinner cake. If doing that I would bake it for 22-26 minutes. OR, double the recipe (including frosting) and bake in a jelly roll/cookie sheet to serve a crowd.
Cakes will have the best results if made with room temperature ingredients. I like to pull my eggs, milk, cream cheese and butter out of the fridge an hour or two before I start baking.
This cake is good topped with blueberries, blackberries, peaches or anything really! My best advice would be to not top the cake with the frosting and fruit until ready to serve.
FAQ
Yes, you can make the cake ahead of time and store in the freezer til the day of. Just allow it to cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Pull it out a few hours before you need it and let it come to room temperature. I would not make the frosting ahead of time since it's done with whipping cream.
I would suggest fresh because of the moisture. But if using frozen, just allow to thaw completely and wipe off any excess moisture before topping the cake.
Yes, I would just suggest one that's full fat for the extra moisture.
Storing
This vanilla strawberry cake should be stored in the fridge once assembled. The whipping cream frosting will start to loose it's "whip" after about two days, it's best to eat fresh.
I would not suggest freezing this cake once assembled.
Other Popular Strawberry Recipes
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Vanilla Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Cake:
- 1¼ cups (175 g) cake flour all-purpose will work also
- 1 ½ tsp (1.5 teaspoon) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- ¼ cup (56.75 g) butter room temperature
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon (42 g) neutral oil
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- ⅓ cup (76.67 g) sour cream room temperature
- ½ cup (122 g) milk room temperature
For the Whip Cream Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
- 4 oz (113.4 g) cream cheese room temperature
- ½ cup (60 g) powdered sugar
- 1 cup (238 g) heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
Fruit Topping:
- 1½ cups (216 g) strawberries
- a little sugar if needed to sweetend berries
Instructions
To make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 325 F, and spray and line an 8 or 9 inch round or square baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add oil and eggs and beat again for another 2 minutes. Mix in vanilla and sour cream.
- Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk, in three parts, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Pour the batter into prepared baking pan.
- Bake for about 28-33 minutes or until a light golden brown around the edges, and a toothpick comes out clean from the middle. Set aside to allow to cool.
To make the Whipping Cream Frosting:
- In a small bowl, blend ½ cup powdered sugar with 4 oz of cream cheese until completely smooth.
- In a medium size bowl, whip heavy cream, vanilla and ½ cup powdered sugar together on high until stiff peaks form.
- Fold the two mixtures together until well blended.
Fruit Topping:
- Cut strawberries and mix with a little sugar if needed to sweeten more.
Cake Assembly:
- Frost cake with whipping cream frosting. Place strawberries on top before serving.
Jamie M.
Made this for Mother's Day and it was a huge success. My hubby who is not a big dessert guy said it was his favorite cake I've ever made. Will definitely be on repeat in our house.
brooke
I love that!! Thank you so much Jamie!💕
Meredith
Made this cake yesterday, it was absolutely DIVINE. The perfect size too. We'll definitely be enjoying this recipe again (hopefully soon!!)
brooke
Thank you SO much Meredith!!!❤️
Kelly
Do you think this would work for a 8 in layer cake? Any suggestions on bake time?
Angie
This was so delicious and everyone absolutely loved it! I bought a little jar of Trader Joe’s lemon curd, and warmed that up, and just put a little drizzle of it on top of the cream & strawberries on each slice right as I served it. It was so good!
kelly
would this recipe work subbing with gf-flour?
Sandy
I made this cake with Cup4Cup gluten free flour today for my son’s birthday. It was fantastic! Moist, flavorful and thoroughly enjoyed by all! Will definitely make again and again!
Catherine Rose Curran
This cake was absolutely delicious!!! Perfect spring/summer dessert.
Catherine
Absolutely delicious! Perfect dessert for spring/summer!
Barbara
This was divine! Easy to make and tasted soo good!
Gail M Yaeger Guerra
Delish! I didnt really tweak. I used a box chocolate cake( time crunch). And added some berries to the frosting mixture. Loved it. Thank yoy
Lindsay
I doubled the recipe and it turned out soooo yummy. Kids were licking their plates clean and it wasn’t too sweet. Will definitely be making this again
Dayna Mattsson
Made this for Easter Sunday and everyone loved it. I didn’t read the whole post first and ended up doubling it and putting it in a 9x12. Haha. But I just had to bake it a little longer and it turned out great. My picky youngest child said, “Mom, no notes.” Thank you!
Dayna Mattsson
Made this for Easter Sunday and everyone loved it. Thank you!