Strawberry Shortcake Cake Recipe

cake with slice missing showing yellow cake and pink filling inside on mint cake plate

5 from 3 votes

Strawberry Shortcake Cake Recipe

Strawberry Shortcake Layer Cake is a fun cake for strawberry season, made with yellow cake, strawberry filling and whipped cream frosting! I'm not a great cake decorator but this was easy to make!

Prep Time2

Cook Time40

Total Time2 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 350kcal

Author: Dorothy Kern

Cost: $10

Ingredients

1 recipe yellow cake (from my recipe or use a box mix)
1 pound strawberries
1 4 pound tub Wilton decorator icing (medium consistency)* , or 3 cans icing or my homemade buttercream (see note for link)
Red food coloring optional
8 ounces (225g) cream cheese
1 cup (113g) powdered sugar
1 ½ cups (356ml) cold heavy whipping cream

Instructions

Bake cakes in 8-inch or 9-inch round pans as directed on box or in recipe. Let cool.
Set aside 6-8 strawberries for garnish. Wash, hull, and dice small enough to make 1 cup diced (about 6-8 berries, depending on size).
Place 2 cups of the decorator icing in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the diced berries. Add one drop of red food coloring, if desired.
Place one cake layer on a cake plate. Frost with the strawberry icing. Top with second cake layer. Chill 1 hour.
Using more of the decorator icing, frost the outside and top of the cake with a thin layer. I chose to leave the cake naked on the outside, but you can do a thicker layer of frosting if desired. Chill to set the crumb layer
Make the whipped cream topping: beat cream cheese and sugar with a hand or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then run the mixer while adding the heavy whipping cream. Beat until stiff peaks form.
Decorate/frost the top and sides of the cake with the whipped cream frosting. I used a Wilton 1M tip to pipe swirls over the top of the cake. Top with berries.
Store in refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Video

Notes

Be sure that your cake is completely cool before you frost.

Make sure not to skip the crumb coat step. Frosting with that light amount of frosting and chilling it helps the cake not be wobbly.

Want to make a naked cake? Just frost the top and skip frosting the sides.

Make sure your berries are dried really well after washing them before adding to the frosting.

You can make this with any kind of berries too, or a mixture.
If you want homemade frosting use my vanilla buttercream recipe.

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