Strawberry Layer Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
An easy strawberry layer cake made with enhanced box cake mix and scratch strawberry cream cheese frosting.
Servings 12 slices
Cost 5
Ingredients
- 1 box Pillsbury strawberry cake mix (15.25 oz)
- 1 cup buttermilk** (240 grams)
- ¼ cup sour cream or strawberry yogurt (60 grams)
- ½ cup vegetable oil plus 1 tablespoon (60 grams)
- 3 large eggs plus 1 extra yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 block cream cheese, softened (8 oz) (228 grams)
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, omit if using salted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup freeze dried strawberry powder (24 grams)
- 3 to 3 ½ cups powdered sugar, plus more if needed (360 grams up to 400)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans.
- In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, milk, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for two minutes. Divide the batter between the two pans spreading evenly.
- Bake for about 33-35 minutes or until cakes spring back when touched. If you are using 9-inch pans, remember to check earlier. 8-inch cakes are deeper and take longer to bake.
- Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then carefully loosen sides and turn onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- With an electric mixer, beat the softened cream cheese and butter.
- Scrape the side of the bowl and add the vanilla, salt and freeze dried strawberry powder to the butter mixture. Beat until creamy.
- Gradually add the sugar, scraping sides of bowl often, until light and creamy.
Frost the Cake
- Frosting the cake with a thin layer for a crumb coat. Chill briefly.
- Remove cake from the refrigerator or freezer and frost the cold cake with remaining frosting.
Notes
You can substitute regular milk for less buttermilk flavor. The cake will be very tender and but a little less moist. With buttermilk, you get a slight bit of tangy flavor that goes well with the strawberry plus moisture. Mixing lemon juice with milk to make one cup of homemade buttermilk should also work.