Strawberry Shortcake for a Crowd
If you’ve ever had traditional strawberry shortcake before, you know it’s a tasty but rustic and humble-looking treat, made of biscuits, whipped cream, and fresh, macerated strawberries. I wanted to do a slightly more impressive and elegant take on this springtime treat and ultimately ended up with my version of strawberry shortcake cake that I’m sharing today. My recipe combines not-too-sweet vanilla cake with slight variations of the fresh berries and chantilly cream you know and love. It’s light, perfectly sweet, and absolutely amazing with spring and summer strawberries!
What’s to Love:
The cake layers are moist, tender, and flavorful, thanks to a few key ingredients like buttermilk and a combination of oil and butter. Technically strawberry shortcake cake can be made any time of year, since we will be macerating our strawberries. This technique makes even lackluster December strawberries taste great (though I really must recommend my peppermint bark cake if you’re looking for a December cake!). Using stabilized whipped cream frosting means our frosting holds its shape without any weeping or melting. And the best part is, it tastes incredible and is NOT at all too sweet, like a buttercream could be. Similar to my recent ding dong cake, this recipe cake takes a smaller, individually-portioned treat and turns it into a party-ready dessert for a crowd!
Ingredients
Before we start our mixers, there are a few key ingredients in this strawberry shortcake cake recipe that I’d like to briefly discuss.
Buttermilk. Buttermilk adds flavor and moisture to the cake layers. While some of my recipes need real buttermilk, this recipe will work just fine with my buttermilk substitute. It’s made with milk and vinegar or lemon juice, so easily accessible ingredients you might already have on hand. Oil + butter. I typically use a combination of oil and butter in my cakes (like my hummingbird cake and coconut cake I just shared. This guarantees moist (from the oil) and flavorful (from the butter) cake layers–the best of both worlds. Avocado oil is my choice here, but any neutral oil (like canola or vegetable) will work! Gelatin. This stabilizes our whipped cream frosting to help it hold its shape and to keep the cake sturdy and sliceable as possible. Heavy cream. Whipping cream or double cream will also work. This will be the base for our whipped cream frosting. Strawberries. I don’t recommend frozen strawberries–they will break down far too much and make your strawberry shortcake cake soggy. Stick with fresh berries. Since we’ll be macerating the strawberries with sugar, it’s okay if your berries aren’t the brightest, juiciest berries; however, if you can get in-season, sun-ripened berries, those are obviously preferable!
SAM’S TIP: Room temperature eggs will incorporate into your batter much more easily than cold ones (meaning a more uniform, tender cake crumb), so try to set yours out ahead of time if you can remember to. If you forget, don’t worry! I have an easy trick that will allow you to quickly bring eggs to room temperature. This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post.
How to Make Strawberry Shortcake Cake
Make the Cake Layers
Prep the Strawberries
Make the Frosting
Stabilized whipped cream is a bit more involved than my classic homemade whipped cream, but it works well here to keep the layers from sliding and for keeping the cake sturdy, so it’s my preferred choice with this cake. Take care to pay attention to the cues in the written recipe and follow the steps carefully so you don’t end up with little gelatin lumps in your frosting, that’s the worst!
Assembly
SAM’S TIP: Strain the juice from your berries before adding them to the cake, otherwise you will have a messy, soggy cake! If you’re looking for another spring/summer cake, my lemon blueberry cake is always a big hit! Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
More Berry Recipes to Try:
