Strawberry Lemon Layer Cake

This four-layer strawberry lemon cake is bursting with fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, and bright lemon juice + zest. It's kept moist with oil, Greek yogurt, and buttermilk, then finished with a blush-pink buttercream that tastes just as good as the cake itself.

The Strawberry Lemon Cake that Won My Heart

Some cakes are made for summer, and this is one of them. The combination of ripe strawberries + bright lemon feels like the best kind of afternoon, unhurried, sun-kissed, and worth savoring slowly, which is the vibe I created my four-layer strawberry lemon cake to emulate.

Each cake layer is filled with fresh diced strawberries for their juicy texture and strawberry jam for a bolder flavor than the berries alone. The jam also helps loosen the cake batter, which would be a little dense without that added moisture. Bright lemon zest and fresh-squeezed lemon juice run through both the batter and the frosting, which is tinted a soft blush pink from the strawberry jam.

If fresh strawberries aren't in season, my strawberry layer cake made with freeze-dried strawberries delivers that same bold berry flavor any time of year. And if you love these flavors but don't feel like assembling a whole cake, definitely try my strawberry crunch cupcakes next.

Let's Bake a Strawberry Lemon Layer Cake!

My Tips for Strawberry Citrus Cake

• I highly recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice here, which has a noticeably better taste than bottled lemon juice.
• Don't skip the Greek yogurt, since it's what makes this cake exceptionally moist.
• In testing, I found that the smaller I diced the strawberries, the more evenly they distributed through batter, resulting in cleaner slices.
• It's much easier to zest a whole lemon than a squeezed one, so zest, then squeeze.
• Let your cake layers cool completely before frosting. Even slightly warm layers will melt your buttercream and everything will slide around instead of building up tall & straight.

Strawberry Lemon Cake

developed & tested by:

Carissa Erzen

This four-layer strawberry lemon cake is bursting with fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, and bright lemon juice and zest in the both the cake & buttercream frosting.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 50 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Cool Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 slices

Calories 711 kcal

Equipment

• 8-inch cake pans

Ingredients

  

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Strawberry Lemon Cake

• 1 cup buttermilk (see note below on how to make buttermilk at home)
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• 3 eggs
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 1 large lemon)
• ½ cup lemon juice (from about 2 large lemons)
• 3 ¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, diced
• 1 cup strawberry jam

Strawberry Lemon Frosting

• 2 cups unsalted butter softened overnight to room temperature (4 sticks)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup lemon zest (from about 1 large lemon)
• ¼ cup strawberry jam
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

 

Prepare and Bake the Cake Layers

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease your 8-inch round cake pans.
This recipe can make either a four-layer cake. Grease as many cake pans as you have/need. I made a four layer cake and I have two pans, so I baked the first two layers, popped them out and let the pans cool for about 10 minutes, then I re-greased the pans and baked the second two layers. Keep any cake batter that you're not currently baking tightly covered in the fridge.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the buttermilk, vegetable oil, Greek yogurt, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, lemon zest and fresh lemon juice.
• Add in the 3¾ cups of the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix it all together with a large spoon or silicon spatula just until the batter is combined and you don't see any dry flour.
• In a small bowl, toss the diced strawberries with 1 tablespoon of flour.
This helps coat the strawberries so they don't all sink to the bottom of the cake while it's baking.
• Gently fold the flour-coated diced strawberries and the strawberry jam into the cake batter.
• Divide the batter evenly into your four round baking tins. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let the cakes cool for five minutes in the pans, then remove them and set them on a wire cooling rack to cool to room temperature for at least 2 hours.

Prepare the Frosting

• In a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with a hand whisk, beat the softened butter for about 5 minutes, until it is soft and fluffy.
• Add one cup of powdered sugar and beat it on a low speed until the sugar is incorporated. Continue beating in one cup of powdered sugar at a time until it's all mixed in and the frosting is smooth, fluffy and pale yellow.
• Mix in the strawberry jam until it's incorporated.
If you feel like your buttercream is still too stiff, add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time and beat that in to help loosen your buttercream. The frosting should be stiff enough to stick on the sides of your cake without sliding down.

Assemble the Cake

• Trim the caramelized edges off the four cake rounds. Trim the tops off the cakes so they are level.
• Place the first cake layer in the center of a plate or cake stand. Spread out a few large dollops of the buttercream on top of the first layer.
• Place the second cake layer on top of the buttercream, making sure this cake layer is centered on top of the first layer. Spread out a few more large dollops of the buttercream on top of the second layer. Repeat for the third and fourth layers of the cake.
• Spread the remaining buttercream on the sides of the cake. Use a butter knife or a pallet knife to get the buttercream even and smooth on the top and the sides. Top with fresh strawberries & sliced lemons.
If you plan to transport this cake somewhere, refrigerate the cake for at least one hour, so the buttercream has time to set and harden a bit.

Notes

• Homemade Buttermilk: Combine one tablespoon of lemon juice with one scant cup of milk. Let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to curdle slightly.
• Storing: Cover any exposed cake slices with plastic cling wrap & store leftovers in the fridge. If you decorate your cake with fresh strawberries, the red color might bleed onto your buttercream, so I usually remove the fruit topping when storing it.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 slice (of 16)Calories: 711kcalCarbohydrates: 96gProtein: 6gFat: 35gSaturated Fat: 17gPolyunsaturated Fat: 7gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 347mgPotassium: 144mgFiber: 2gSugar: 67gVitamin A: 782IUVitamin C: 18mgCalcium: 84mgIron: 2mg

Keyword buttercream frosting, layer cake, strawberry lemon cake

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