Strawberry Cake from Scratch

If you want a great strawberry cake recipe from scratch that doesn't use jello, then your in the right place! This is a great moist cake with real strawberries. I tried a couple of different recipes that I wasn't thrilled with, so I played around a bit and found that the changes I made worked out quite well. I wanted this recipe to make cake balls and it worked very well since the cake wasn't too sweet. I mixed them with homemade strawberry cream cheese frosting!

• Ready In: 35 mins
• Serves: 16
• Yields: 40-50 cake balls

Ingredients

• 2 1⁄4 cups cake flour (sifted)
• 2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1  cup butter, room temp (2 sticks)
• 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
• 2  teaspoons  strawberry extract (you can use vanilla if you can't find strawberry)
• 1  cup  whole milk, room temp
• 3  eggs, room temp
• 3⁄4 cup  pureed fresh strawberries (or frozen, thawed)
• 1  teaspoon lemon zest
• 1  teaspoon lemon juice

• strawberry cream cheese frosting

• 1⁄2 cup butter, room temp (1 stick)
• 1⁄2 cup  pureed fresh strawberries (or frozen thawed)
• 8  ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 1  teaspoon  strawberry extract (or vanilla)
• 2 -3  cups confectioners' sugar (powder sugar)

Directions

1. Combine sifted flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time; mix well after each addition. Next add pureed strawberries and extract and combine well. Gradually add the flour (and baking powder) and the milk alternating between them until completely mixed. Then add lemon zest and juice and mix well.
2. Lightly grease and flour a 13 X 9 pan or (2) 8" round pans. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 - 30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I did (2) 8" pans and it was done perfectly right at 25 minute Oven times may vary.
3. For the icing : using a mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until nice and smooth. Add the extract and pureed strawberries. Gradually add the powder sugar until it has the consistency and sweetness you desire. You can alter this to your liking. If you make it a bit too sweet, add just a little bit of lemon juice. This will help balance out the sweetness.