We’re making an amazing Lemonade Strawberry cake Recipe.so let’s get started first off set that oven to 350. now in a large bowl, I’m adding three cups or 360 grams of all-purpose flour. I want half a teaspoon of baking soda. There is some lemon juice in the cake and that acid will react with the baking soda to give us a fluffy amazing lemon cake. I also want two teaspoons of baking powder and for some balance.
I’m adding half a teaspoon of salt in your go if you’re using fine grain salt use a little bit less because it’s more salt in a teaspoon our scale is done we’re going to give this a quick whisk and that’s on to the butter and sugar. you can grab your stand mixer or a big bowl and a hand mixer will work. Now I’m adding one cup or 226 grams of room temperature butter.
Creaming Butter and Sugar with Lemon Zest
Just so you know room temperature means that I can press with a little bit of pressure and the butter will yield it’ll also it’ll bend and not break. so if your butter is a bit cold half power the microwave 10-second bursts to get all that butter off. we’re going to cream this up just mix on medium for about 30 seconds then we’ll add in the sugar and the lemon zest this lemon is naked I’ve already zested it this one is nice and ready the lemon zest has so much beautiful and delicious flavor.
It’s going to add a lot to the lemon cake once that butter is nice and creamy we’re going to add 2 cups or 400 grams of granulated sugar. you’ve probably noticed from the sizes that we’re using but this is a big beautiful cake perfect for celebrations and it’s gonna look so pretty i can’t wait to show you the decoration part started mixing the sugar in and almost forgot the lemon zest i want one full lemon zested.
Lemonade Strawberry Cake Recipe
I haven’t even told you yet the cake itself is an amazing lemon cake but sandwiched between each layer is a beautiful jammy strawberry reduction and then it’s coated inside and out with an amazing but easy strawberry buttercream too. it’s like the perfect spring-summer celebration cake highly recommend this one. Now we’re going to mix this on medium to medium high for about five minutes until it is light and fluffy.
I’ll probably scrape the bowl down once while that’s mixing i’m gonna juice probably two to three lemons to get a nice quarter cup of lemon juice continue mixing if you’re using a paddle attachment a lot of the time it can compact some of the sugar on the bottom while fluffing the top up. I’m also going to crack four large room-temperature eggs into a bowl.
Adding Eggs and Vanilla to the Batter
we’re going to add two teaspoons of vanilla right into the mixture butter sugar combination looks nice and fluffy it also smells amazing so now it’s time to add four room-temperature eggs one at a time let each egg incorporate before adding the next. it helps you get a nice smooth batter instead of having that cottage cheese broken texture. it makes a difference in the baking of the lemon cake.
Now we’re going to add our last egg in I have to show you we have a beautiful fluffy cloud-like mixture and we’re ready for the next step now we want to measure out one cup of room temperature whole milk that’s 240 mils and if you’re wondering why things are room temperature when you make a good cake it’s because if you put ice cold things into the oven the outside will bake up first the inside which is so cold will take a long time to be done and by the time it’s all ready throughout the outside’s going to be burnt.
Alternating Flour, Milk, and Lemon Juice
we want to give this lemon cake a nice head start by using room temperature ingredients so it bakes more evenly they also mix better as I’m going to add in about a third of my flour mixture and we’re going to alternate batches of flour and the milk and the lemon juice goes in at the end. Mixing on low you don’t want to over-mix your cake batter as soon as.
it’s almost there half of the milk another third of the flour the rest of the milk and the remaining flour is not mixed yet but I just want to give this a little scrape the baking powder is happy it’s starting to react with the wet ingredients but the baking soda says where is my acid it’s in the lemon juice with the addition of this you’ll start seeing a foamy crazy reaction.
Filling Cake Pans and Baking
Your lemon cake is going to be so fluffy and great smell like lemonade already. it’s time for this batter to go into the pans after you give it one last mix by hand i always just want to explore the bottom and see what’s going on in here and make sure there’s no like hidden clump of anything. I will say you do want to work kind of quickly at this point which is why I’m taking a break to stop.
I’m gonna line three eight-inch cake pans that I buttered with parchment paper if you take a look in your pan you’ll see it looks foamy and amazing don’t let that go to waste get this into your cake pans right now and you want to kind of preserve as many of the bubbles as you can i’m using a scale just to see if these are evenly distributed. Smooth the batter out with a spatula you want this to have a nice even layer not one of the giant mounds anywhere.
It’ll level out in the oven a bit. but not as much as you want our lemon cake layers are ready to go into the oven at 350 for 30 to 35 minutes or until the centers are springy and you’ll also see the edge pulling away while they bake. we’re gonna make our amazing strawberry reduction. Our cake layers are in the oven so it’s time to make that strawberry reduction.
Making Strawberry Reduction for Filling
I talked about this is gonna be so full of strawberry flavor and have the most amazing jammy consistency i’m gonna haul my strawberries and toss them into the pan don’t worry about quartering them or anything because if they’re not breaking down fast enough just mash them up with the back of a fork it’s a time saver. Once your strawberries are all hauled toss them into your pan.
Grab half a cup of granulated sugar as well as some lemon juice it’ll sweeten things up and you’re making a homemade strawberry reduction which is jam if you’re really in a rush can you use some jam to make this yes you can you can fill this with jam i would mix it with a little bit of lemon juice and just make sure there’s no giant chunks of strawberries anywhere.
Cooking and Reducing the Strawberry Mixture
A quarter cup of lemon juice it’s about the juice of two lemons. this is on medium-high heat and it’ll cook down for 20 to 30 minutes it depends on your heat source induction electric gas propane they’re all different but you’re looking for a nice jammy consistency and yes you’re going to want to stir this frequently especially at the edges.
it’s like a beautiful delicate little flame as it should have been but I’m used to this giant if you know you know all right started to come to a simmer i’m just using a like a potato ricer you can use anything you want just to mash them up and give them a head start break down faster these strawberries look nice.
Easy Cake Recipe
we’re breaking the strawberries down with heat but we’re also evaporating a lot of water and reduction is just reducing something getting rid of the water and concentrating the flavor this will soak into your lemon cake a little bit make it that much more moist but also give you a wonderful hit of strawberry in between each layer and just like it’s a total delicious flavor bunch.
we’re also going to be using this reduction in the buttercream so one of the last steps is to add this in and it’s going to give you that amazing natural strawberry flavor all right just a few minutes later this is a nice jammy consistency you can use your spatula and it’ll leave a streak that takes a while to come back together you can take this off heat.
Strawberry Cake Recipe
if you want it to cool down even faster just pop it into a glass bowl or a pie dish spread it out for a lot of surface area and leave it in the fridge because I’m on propane this only took 15 minutes so that’s a nice consistency right into my pie dish you want it to cool down significantly to room temperature before you use it there we go while this cools down.
Creating Strawberry Buttercream
we’re gonna start our amazing strawberry buttercream this big strawberry cake needs a lot of delicious frosting so we’re gonna add 454 grams or two cups of room temperature unsalted butter into our stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment you can make this with a hand mixer but you’ll need a big bowl now for the fun part we’re gonna beat this on high for 5 minutes remember the color of the butter.
it’ll be different when we’re done while it mixes go ahead and get two tablespoons of lemon juice ready that comes in towards the end okay feel free to give that bowl a scrape back to mixing when you fluff the butter up like this you’re pumping a lot of air into that and giving it a head start before the sugar goes in and give you a luscious creamy buttercream ah about five minutes later what look at this it is so light and fluffy.
Incorporating Powdered Sugar and Strawberry Reduction
it’s almost like a pure white color amazing since our butter is all fluffed up we can start adding eight cups of powdered sugar that’s 900 grams and like I said this is a big strawberry cake. we need a lot of frosting to cover it and we have some really fun easy decorations at the end as well start mixing it on low and you can add this in a cup at a time or in several batches.
it’s up to you and if you don’t love American buttercream you can make this lemonade strawberry cake with swiss or Italian meringue buttercream that is flavored with that strawberry reduction then just add in the same amount of strawberry reduction and it’ll be a delicious light cloud it’ll be less sweet and more creamy but this is a nice balance once half of the powdered sugar is in.
Achieving the Perfect Texture
it’s time to add in a third of a cup or 80 mils of the strawberry reduction this color is so naturally beautiful and it’s going to give you a lovely shade of pink on the outside there we go I didn’t put this through a blender. it’s so I’ll have some larger chunks of strawberry throughout I love the way that it’s a little jammy as it should be because it’s going to be between the layers of the lemonade strawberry cake.
So you might have to use your spatula to take it out it was totally like psych now mix this in and once it’s mixed we’ll add in the rest of the powdered sugar and some other delicious things. it looks so beautiful but there’s some unmixed in the bowl so give it a good scrape then we’ll add the rest of the powdered sugar in now in this buttercream recipe the lemon juice.
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We’re gonna add in is gonna give this a nice bit of balance if you want you could add a pinch or two of salt in but it’s optional and up to your taste the rest of the sugar is in we’re going to mix this on low don’t you dare explode my sugar is incorporated but right now this is too thick and too sweet need to mellow this balance this out and make it nice and silky to start that off.
Perfecting the Flavor Balance
I’m adding two tablespoons of lemon juice i had an extra juicy lemon normally I don’t measure it out but this is way more i’m also adding in two to three tablespoons of cream this will help give my buttercream a beautiful silky consistency and you can add this in kind of to your taste do you want it to be extra like slack or be a little bit thicker so it sets up better in this lemon cake.
The buttercream needs to support my big strawberry cake it’s a layer cake but you also want it to be silky enough that it pipes beautifully and tastes delicious okay grab a tasting spoon it’s so good it’s like strawberry lemon amazing scrape the bowl down there will be chunks of butter less delicious and also after you taste it feel free to add in a little bit more lemon juice strawberry reduction salt.
Assembling and Decorating the Cake
I’m going to grab a strawberry cake stand for my cooled cake layers and get to assembling my lemon cake layers baked up nice and flat they’re cool to the touch when you want to take them out of the pan in case you don’t know just run a knife or a little spatula around the edge and then give them a little tap on the side there we go that dislodges them lift the paper off and repeat my first lemon cake layer is ready to go on be gentle with it.
it’s very delicate i’m so excited for this decoration portion right now you’re going to want to grab a piping bag and a decorative piping tip this is a 4b you could use any star tip you love though cut a hole in the piping bag all right you probably want maybe two cups of frosting in this piping bag. I’m going to use it for the assembly and the decoration of your first layer.
Preparing and Measuring Strawberry Jam Ingredients
we’re going to add about half a cup of frosting plop it on and now we’re going to spread it out into a nice even layer of strawberry and lemon together are magic and what I want to do is create a nice flat layer upon which I can have a lake of that strawberry reduction. if you’re doing this on a super hot day and this is kind of falling apart. it’s happened to everybody don’t worry just pop this into the fridge to set it up and then continue the process normally with another half cup to smooth it out.
Tips for Perfect Lemon Cake Layer Removal
this is also the time when you check to see if things are askew that’s not cool you want it to be all nice and even so give it a turn. I was a little bit conservative with my frosting on that first first layer so you want a thicker border. The last layer goes on top i’m going to smooth some of this frosting out that I add on top but then I’m going to add it directly onto the sides it’s the easiest way to go.
I’ll refill my piping bag because this is all my my decorative piping I was supposed to be doing on top grabbing my favorite tool a bench scraper i’m going to start just my complete coverage of this strawberry cake. We’re going to cover the top completely just make sure it’s pretty level using that same offset spatula just to get the sides started this lemon cake is fairly tender so you want to be gentle on the side.
Piping and Decorating Lemonade Strawberry Cake
now I’m using my bench scraper just to clean the side up. I think is important if you let buttercream sit out for any length of time it’ll get kind of bubbly and lose that silky texture even with American buttercream. So give it a quick whip and you can also just kind of work it up the sides and it’ll press those bubbles out you’ll end up with a much more finished beautiful look that still tastes the same piping bag is refilled.
i’m gonna do a really pretty rope border just make those circles and it looks so cute tuck this little bit in where everything met. Now at the edge, I’m doing an optional little skirt too. These are just little puffs that I’m piping on a piped puff if you will optional but I think it looks cute just little tiny ones this is pretty but it’ll be even more beautiful crowned with strawberries so I hulled and sliced and quartered a few.
Final Touches with Fresh Strawberries
it’s really up to you you can have a few scattered around the edge. you can completely cover the top like this is a big lemonade strawberry cake so you might have some stability issues. if anything is looking wobbly just go ahead and pop strawberry cake into the fridge for half an hour the frosting will set up a bit and it’ll be really easy to slice into and transport.
if you’re making this strawberry cake in advance just go ahead and add the strawberries at the very end because they will dry out in the fridge little strawberries cradled in buttercream. what could be a better look at strawberry cake beauty it’s a celebration of summer so a beautiful and delicious time for a bite strawberry cake is an explosion of strawberry lemon deliciousness and the cake itself melts in your mouth it is so soft and fluffy. I hope you get a chance to make this Lemonade strawberry cake recipe.
