Four Layer Strawberry Cream Cake Recipes

STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE FROM COOK'S ILLUSTRATED RECIPE - (4.3/5)

Steps:

• CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour round 9 by 2-inch cake pan or 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and all but 3 tablespoons sugar in mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 whole eggs and 3 yolks (reserving whites), butter, water, and vanilla; whisk until smooth. In clean bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat remaining 3 egg whites at medium-low speed until frothy, 1 to 2 minutes. With machine running, gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form, 60 to 90 seconds. Stir one-third of whites into batter to lighten; add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard parchment. Invert cake again; cool completely, about 2 hours. STRAWBERRY FILLING: Halve 24 of best-looking berries and reserve. Quarter remaining berries; toss with 4 to 6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of berries) in medium bowl and let sit 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Strain juices from berries and reserve (you should have about 1/2 cup). In work bowl of food processor fitted with metal blade, give macerated berries five 1-second pulses (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). In small saucepan over medium-high heat, simmer reserved juices and Kirsch until syrupy and reduced to about 3 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Pour reduced syrup over macerated berries, add pinch of salt, and toss to combine. Set aside until cake is cooled. WHIPPED CREAM: When cake has cooled, place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Whisk at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula as needed. Reduce speed to low and add heavy cream in slow, steady stream; when almost fully combined, increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes more, scraping bowl as needed (you should have about 4 1/2 cups). ASSEMBLE THE CAKE: Using large serrated knife, slice cake into three even layers. Place bottom layer on cardboard round or cake plate and arrange ring of 20 strawberry halves, cut sides down and stem ends facing out, around perimeter of cake layer. Pour one half of pureed berry mixture (about 3/4 cup) in center, then spread to cover any exposed cake. Gently spread about one-third of whipped cream (about 1 1/2 cups) over berry layer, leaving 1/2-inch border from edge. Place middle cake layer on top and press down gently (whipped cream layer should become flush with cake edge). Repeat with 20 additional strawberry halves, remaining berry mixture, and half of remaining whipped cream; gently press last cake layer on top. Spread remaining whipped cream over top; decorate with remaining cut strawberries. Serve, or chill for up to 4 hours.

4-LAYER CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line the bottom of four 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.
• Combine devil's food cake mix, water, eggs, and oil in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until batter is smooth, about 3 minutes.
• Spread cake batter evenly in the prepared cake pans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 24 to 29 minutes. Cool in the pans, about 30 minutes. Invert cakes onto a flat work surface and peel off parchment paper.
• Spread some chocolate frosting over each cake. Spread whipped cream over the chocolate frosting. Press strawberries into the whipped cream; cover with more whipped cream. Stack cake layer carefully.

STRAWBERRY AND CREAM LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Fill a small saucepan with about 1 inch of water and set over medium heat until the water steams.
• Meanwhile, coarsely chop about a quarter of the strawberries and combine in a medium heatproof bowl with the sugar. Cover the bowl tightly and set it over the saucepan. Reduce the heat if necessary to keep the water just below a simmer and allow the berries to sit, swirling the bowl once or twice to dissolve any stubborn sugar clumps, until they've released all their juices, are mushy, and swim in a translucent red liquid, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove the bowl from the heat, uncover and strain through a fine-mesh strainer. (You should have 1/2 to 3/4 cup of strawberry syrup.) The mushy berries will have given off their color and flavor, and even though you won't use them in the cake, they're still tasty. Reserve the berries for spooning over pancakes or yogurt.
• In a separate medium bowl, combine the heavy cream, crème fraîche and salt. Whisk the mixture vigorously by hand, or beat with a hand mixer on medium-high, until thick, light and holding a medium peak. Chill the bowl of whipped cream. Thinly slice the remaining raw strawberries lengthwise.
• Invert the sponge cake on a flat serving plate or cake stand. Holding a long serrated knife horizontally and parallel to the work surface, use it to lightly score all around the side of the cake at the midway point. Then, using long, even strokes and still holding the knife parallel to the surface, slice clean through the cake, using the score marks as a guide, to cut it into two even layers. Set the top layer aside.
• Use a pastry brush to dab several tablespoons of the strawberry syrup across the bottom layer, lightly soaking the entire surface. Pull the bowl of cream from the refrigerator and dollop about half of it across the soaked layer, then spread in an even layer all the way to the edges. Arrange half of the sliced strawberries on top of the cream, then place the second cake layer on top of the first, cut side up. Lightly soak the top layer of cake with the strawberry syrup, reserving any remaining syrup for serving. Spread the remaining cream on top of the cake, then pile the remaining sliced strawberries over top. (If not serving immediately, cover loosely and refrigerate until ready to serve.)
• Slice the cake with a serrated knife and serve. Drizzle the slices with any remaining strawberry syrup. The cake is best served the day it's made, but will keep, covered and chilled, for up to 3 days.

FOUR-LAYER STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease four 9-inch round cake pans and line with parchment paper.
• Combine sugar and butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in 1 cup flour. Beat in 1/2 cup milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk, beating briefly after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix in vanilla extract.
• Pour batter evenly into the prepared cake pans. Smooth the tops with a spatula.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool cakes in the pans for 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes.
• Mix sour cream and sliced strawberries together in a large bowl. Spread evenly between the cooled cake layers.
• Frost top and sides of cake with whipped topping. Decorate top of cake with whole strawberries and mint leaves.

WHITE LAYER CAKE WITH WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING AND STRAWBERRY FILLING

Steps:

• Rough-chop 1½ pounds (about 3 cups) strawberries.
• Halve the remaining 1 pound of strawberries and reserve for the topping.
• In a large saucepan, whisk together the water and cornstarch until smooth.
• Add strawberries, sugar, and salt; stir well.
• Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring often. After the strawberries cook about 3 minutes, mash about half of them.
• Continue cooking and stirring the mixture until thickened, about 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• Add lemon juice and stir well.
• If desired, add red food coloring; stir well.
• Pour the mixture into a heat-resistant, airtight refrigerator container. Cool to room temperature, stir, cover and refrigerate until ready to use (at least 2 hours and up to 5 days).
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the whipping cream on medium-high speed until thickened. Add ½ cup powdered sugar and whisk until very stiff peaks form. Set aside.
• Place cream cheese, ¼ cup powdered sugar, vanilla, almond, and salt in another mixing bowl. Whisk on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, scraping downs the sides as needed, until creamy and fluffy.
• Add the whipped cream and whisk, on low speed, until fully incorporated.
• Increase the speed to medium-high and whisk until light and fluffy and the mixture has firm peaks.
• Keep refrigerated in an airtight container up to 24 hours
• Adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 325°F.
• Line 2 (if making a 4-layer cake) and 3 (if making a 3-layer cake) 8x3-inch aluminum cake pans with parchment and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
• Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl; set aside.
• Add butter, coconut oil, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. Set the mixer to low to moisten, then switch to medium speed and cream until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping as needed.
• With the mixer running, add egg whites, one at a time.
• Add vanilla and almond extracts and mix 30 seconds.
• Scrape down the bowl and paddle.
• Set mixer to low speed and slowly add one-third of the flour, followed by one-third of the buttermilk. Mix just until each addition is roughly incorporated. Add the remaining flour and milk, alternately, one-third of each at a time. Mix just until smooth.
• Turn off the mixer and use a rubber spatula to scrape all dry ingredients from the bottom. Mix on low speed just until dry ingredients are incorporated.
• Divide batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake about 40 minutes or until the cakes internal temperature registers 210°F. The cakes should be pale, brown around the edges and firm. A toothpick inserted in the middle of each cake should come out almost clean - with just a few crumbs attached.
• Transfer cakes to a wire rack and cool 15 minutes. Remove cakes from the pans and remove the parchment. Return them to the wire racks to cool completely.
• If not serving the cake within a couple of hours, wrap the cake layers tightly with plastic wrap up to 24 hours ahead. Keep the frosting and filling refrigerated until ready to frost.
• If the Whipped Cream Frosting is too stiff to spread, leave it on the counter for about 15 minutes, stir or beat it for a few seconds and it should be good as new.
• Place one cake layer on a plate or cake stand and spread about 1½ cups Whipped Cream Frosting on top. Spread it evenly while building a ½-inch "barricade" of frosting around the edge to keep the filling from leaking out.
• Add about ½ cup Fresh Strawberry Filling in the middle of the frosting and spread it out evenly to the frosting "barricade".
• Add the next layer of cake and add the filling and frosting as before.
• After adding all the layers, frost the sides of the cake with Whipped Cream Frosting.
• For the top of the cake, arrange halved strawberries as desired.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve and serve within 6 hours.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• To make the cake layer: Mix together the ingredients and blend on high for 2 minutes. Pour into a greased and floured 13"x9" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until done. Cool completely.
• To make the cream layer: Beat the whipping cream on high until soft peaks form; set aside. Beat the cream cheese until smooth and then gradually add the powdered sugar. Gently fold in the whipped cream until well incorporated.
• Spread over the cooled cake and refrigerate.
• To make the strawberry glaze: Slice the strawberries in half or quarters. Sprinkle the desired amount of sugar over the sliced strawberries, tossing to distribute the sugar and allowing the juices to run. Try to keep from over-smashing the berries. Set aside.
• In medium sauce pan over high heat add strawberry gelatin, vanilla pudding mix and water; bring to a boil. Stir constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes.
• Remove from heat and let the mixture stand about 10 minutes or cool enough to the touch.
• Spread or arrange the sweetened strawberries and juices over the cream layer and pour or gently spread the glazing mixture over the strawberry/cream cheese layer of the cake.
• Refrigerate for 4 hours before serving.

SOUR CREAM STRAWBERRY CAKE

Steps:

• Coat a 10-inch Bundt pan with shortening, then dust with flour to ensure the cake does not stick. You could also use Baker's Joy spray or cake release. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
• In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes.
• Once the butter and sugar have been creamed, add in the eggs, vanilla, milk, and sour cream. Whisk the ingredients together until smooth.
• Add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and slowly whisk until no clumps of flour remain in the batter. You will want to scrape along the bottom of the bowl to ensure there are none there. Be careful not to overmix.
• Add the diced strawberries and gently fold them into the batter until they are evenly distributed.
• Pour batter into the Bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the cake tests done.
• Allow the cake to cool while you prepare the strawberry glaze.
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp milk, food coloring, and Jell-O powder until smooth. You can add more milk 1 Tbsp at a time if you would like the mixture to be thinner.
• Turn the cake out onto cake plate. Then drizzle the glaze over the top.
• Store at room temperature in an airtight container until serving.

STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM LAYER CAKE

Steps:

• Butter and flour 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan.
• Using electric mixer, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk, and butter in large bowl until moistened, about 30 seconds, and then beat on medium speed 4 minutes.
• Beat in both extracts.
• Transfer batter to pan; and bake cake at 350 degrees until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 28 minutes.
• Cool in pan on rack 20 minutes; turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.
• Puree thawed berries with syrup in food processor; if using just-picked strawberries, disregard this step.
• Beat cream with sugar in large bowl until peaks form.
• Using serrated knife, cut cake horizontally in half; transfer bottom half of cake, cut side up, to platter.
• Spread 1 cup strawberry puree over cake (puree will soak into cake); again, if using just-picked strawberries, disregard this step.
• Arrange 1 1/2 cups sliced berries in single layer atop strawberry puree on cake.
• Spread 2 cups whipped cream over strawberries.
• Top with second half of cake, cut side down; spread remaining strawberry puree over top of cake or place a single layer of just-picked strawberries.
• Spread remaining whipped cream over top and sides of cake.
• Garnish cake top and sides with sliced berries.
• Can be prepared eight hours ahead; refrigerate.

STRAWBERRY CREAM CAKE

Steps:

• Make filling:
• Trim and slice strawberries and in a bowl stir together with sugar and lemon juice. Let strawberry mixture stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, 4 hours. In a large sieve set over a bowl drain strawberry mixture and reserve strawberries and liquid separately.
• Make custard:
• In a saucepan whisk together all custard ingredients except Punsch until combined well. Bring mixture to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, and simmer, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Whisk Punsch into custard and transfer to a heatproof dish. Cool custard, its surface covered with a round of wax paper. Chill custard, covered, at least 3 hours, or until cold, and up to 2 days.
• Make cake layers:
• Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter two 9- by 2-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with rounds of wax paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess flour.
• Into a small bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In bowl of a standing electric mixer combine eggs and sugar and beat, beginning at moderate speed and gradually increasing to high speed, for a total of 9 to 10 minutes, or until very thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beaters are lifted. Transfer egg mixture to a large bowl (for ease of folding).
• Sift one third flour mixture over egg mixture and with a large rubber spatula fold in gently but thoroughly. Sift and fold remaining flour mixture into egg mixture in 2 more batches in same manner. Fold in butter and vanilla gently but thoroughly.
• Divide batter between pans, smoothing tops, and bake in middle of oven, rotating pans on oven rack after 15 minutes (to ensure even baking), a total of 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake is springy to the touch and a tester comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans on racks 10 minutes and invert onto racks. Peel off paper and cool completely. Layers may be made 1 day ahead of cake assembly and kept, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
• Assemble cake:
• With a long serrated knife halve each cake layer horizontally to make a total of 4 layers. Put 1 cake layer, cut side up, on a serving plate and top with half of reserved strawberry slices, arranging them in an even layer. Drizzle half of reserved strawberry liquid evenly over berries.
• Top filling with second cake layer, cut side down. Whisk custard until smooth and spread layer evenly with custard. Top custard with third cake layer, cut side up. Spread layer evenly with remaining strawberries and drizzle with remaining strawberry liquid. Top filling with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Chill cake, covered with plastic wrap, at least 8 hours and up to 1 day.
• Make frosting:
• In a chilled bowl beat cream with sugar until cream just holds stiff peaks.
• Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. Cake may be frosted 4 hours ahead and chilled. Bring cake to cool room temperature before serving.
• Garnish top of cake with strawberries.