This soft, incredibly moist cake is a happy experiment that successfully combines my favorite strawberry cake with cinnamon roll cake. Instead of cinnamon sugar, it has a swirl of strawberry sugar. It’s bursting with fresh strawberry flavor and it’s so good it doesn’t even need frosting. But of course, I added strawberry cream cheese icing, in the tradition of cinnamon roll cake, which takes it over the top.
Strawberry Swirl Cake
Fresh strawberry cake with a strawberry sugar swirl and strawberry cream cheese icing
Ingredients
Strawberry Swirl
- â…“ cup (10g) freeze dried strawberries Not dried strawberries
- â…“ cup (66g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted
- Small dash fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) lemon juice
Strawberry Cake
- ¾ cup (170g) puréed strawberries
- 1 cup (128g) all purpose flour, sifted
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55ml) vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure strawberry extract
- 1 drop pink gel food coloring Optional
- â…“ cup (75g) sour cream
Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing
- 2 tablespoons (28g) cream cheese, softened
- 1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (60g) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons strawberry reduction Reserved from cake recipe
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) buttermilk or whole milk
Instructions
Strawberry Swirl
- In a small food processor or a clean spice grinder, pulse the freeze dried strawberries to break them up a bit. Add the sugar and process to a fine consistency. Strain the sugar mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Mix in the flour, melted butter, salt and lemon juice until well combined.
- Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip. I used an Ateco #12 tip.** Alternately, you can snip the corner off a disposable piping bag or food storage bag, creating a 3/8-inch wide opening.
Strawberry Cake
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer the puréed strawberries until reduced by half. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan*** with parchment paper. Grease and flour the inside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, egg, egg white, and extracts, with an electric mixer at medium speed, until smooth. Alternately, you can whisk the mixture together by hand until smooth. Stir in 1/3 cup of the cooled strawberry reduction and the food coloring. (Reserve the remaining strawberry reduction for the icing.)
- Stir the flour mixture into the batter, in 2 additions, alternating with the sour cream. Mix just until combined. Transfer the batter to the cake pan.
- Pipe the strawberry swirl mixture onto the batter in a spiral pattern. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a cooling rack.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing
- In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and strawberry reduction and beat until smooth and well combined. Whisk in the buttermilk a little at a time until your desired consistency is reached. Drizzle over the cooled cake.
Notes
*To find the food coloring I used, click here.
**To find the piping tip I used, click here.
***To find the cake pan I used, click here.