For the cake, I took inspiration from a Southern classic: jam cake. While jam cake is spiced and usually uses blackberry jam, I aimed for a tender but moist layer cake with a delicate and authentic strawberry flavor. A lot of homemade strawberry cake recipes call for puréeing strawberries and cooking them down—this sounded an awful lot like jam without sugar to me! So I decreased the amount of sugar you’d typically put in a cake like this and swapped it out for strawberry jam. (I use store-bought but you could make your own strawberry jam.)
The powerful fresh strawberry flavor really comes from the frosting, inspired by the strawberry cake frosting on Sally’s Baking Addiction. It’s a quick and easy cream cheese frosting with one key ingredient: ground freeze-dried strawberries. They add tons of real strawberry flavor without adding moisture and turn the frosting a lovely pink hue. They’re available at Target, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and most major grocery stores.
How to Make Strawberry Cake Ahead
If you’re preparing for a party or a birthday, you can make the cakes ahead of time. Let them cool completely before wrapping tightly in plastic wrap. Store in the fridge for up to three days or also wrap in aluminum foil and freeze for up to a month.
You can also make the whole cake up to a day ahead of time. Cover and store in the fridge, then let warm up slightly on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
One really nice thing about this strawberry cake is you can make it all year long. It gets most of its flavor from jam and freeze-dried strawberries, which capture strawberry flavor in shelf-stable form. I’ll be making it for my February birthday next go-around.
