Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

It’s no secret that I love summer strawberry season. Typically I go strawberry picking with my kids around Mother’s Day here in Kentucky. This year it was a little bit late. For the past several years this Strawberry Buttermilk Cake has been my top summer strawberry dessert. Even when we lived in Japan I made sure to find the ingredients to make this amazing cake. It’s the kind of cake that is simple enough to whip up, and has the wow-factor to serve for company. It really is one of my very favorite cakes and my go-to recipe for whenever I have a pound of fresh strawberries I need to use up. I hope you love it too!

Important Ingredients in Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

• Unsalted Butter: I always bake with unsalted butter. Unsalted butter allows me to control the flavor in my baked goods — there is no standard for the amount of salt in salted butter, which makes using salted butter a little unpredictable.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar gives the perfect sweetness that complements the sweetness of the sliced strawberries.
• Egg: An egg adds richness and structure to this cake.
• Buttermilk: Buttermilk makes this cake light and tender. I recommend using buttermilk if at all possible. If not, you can substitute 60 grams of sour cream mixed with 60 grams of milk. Mix the sour cream and milk together until combined and then add to the cake in place of the buttermilk. 
• Vanilla Extract: This is a very simple cake recipe that lets the strawberries shine. Vanilla extract gives a vanilla flavor that compliments the strawberries.
• All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour with an 11.5% protein content works well in this recipe.
• Baking Powder: Baking powder gives this cake its rise.
• Salt: Salt balances the flavors in this recipe. Don’t leave it out.
• Strawberries: This is the perfect cake to use up strawberries just before they go bad. These strawberries will be cooked low and slow in the oven resulting in the most delicious, jammy strawberry flavor. Wash the strawberries, slice the tops off and cut them in half before adding to the top of the cake.
• Whipped Cream: Freshly whipped cream makes this cake incredible. You can use whipped cream from a can in a pinch, or serve with vanilla ice cream.

Simple and Easy Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

Wet Ingredients: Mix together the wet ingredients, starting with the softened butter and granulated sugar. Use a hand mixer to mix together until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together until combined. Then add the buttermilk and mix again until creamy.

Dry Ingredients: To a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Fluff together.

Mixing Together: Add the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients. Use your hand mixer to mix together until a smooth batter forms, about 1 minute. Pour the batter into a 9 inch round baking pan.

Slicing Strawberries for Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

Wash and dry the strawberries for the strawberry cake. You may think an entire 1 lb carton of strawberries is too much, but it is just about right for this cake. You want to fill the top of the cake with as many strawberries as you can jam on top. This is what gives the cake it’s delicious strawberry flavor. Cut the top off the strawberries and then slice them in half before adding them on top of the cake. Sprinkle sugar all over the top of the strawberries.

Baking Strawberry Cake

The baking is where all of the magic happens in this Strawberry Buttermilk Cake. The cake is initially baked at a higher temperature which helps activate the baking powder giving it a nice rise. The temperature is then dropped and it hangs out in the oven for about 50-55 minutes. This may seem like a long time, but those strawberries need time to react with the heat and sugar to break down into little gooey bites of strawberry jam. The berries create such a condensed, strawberry flavor. They are gooey and delicious giving the perfect flavor to this cake. The strawberries definitely steal the show of this Strawberry Buttermilk Cake, as they should!

Adding freshly whipped cream to the top of this strawberry buttermilk cake really takes it up a notch. It’s like strawberry shortcake, only lighter and more condensed strawberry flavor. Absolutely delicious.

I have found that this cake tastes better after it has mostly cooled. Because the strawberries are doing their magic in the oven, to get the full flavor of the berries the cake really does need to cool a bit. This cake stores well covered on the counter for a day or two and it will freeze well if you have any leftover. Whatever you do, go pick yourselves some strawberries and make this Strawberry Buttermilk Cake this weekend. You won’t regret it!