The {BEST} Fresh Strawberry Cake with Pistachio Italian Meringue Buttercream.
This Strawberry Cake from scratch is covered in a thick layer of Pistachio Buttercream and flavored with fresh strawberries, strawberry jam and a hint of lime.
This is seriously the BEST strawberry cake from scratch
I would not lie to you, dear reader. This cake is the bomb.
A couple of years ago, I made Strawberry Mojito Cupcakes for a friend's 50th birthday party. They are rich, dense, creamy strawberry cupcakes, flavored with mint, lime, and rum and covered in Mojito Italian Meringue Buttercream. They were a hit. One party guest told me, "There was life before these cupcakes, and life after these cupcakes..."
So, when creating the recipe for this Strawberry Cake, I started with that cupcake recipe. I made a few modifications to ensure that the larger cakes would rise as well as the small cupcakes, but the end result is basically the same: an intensely strawberry cake that's dense and unbelievably moist.
This strawberry cake is not anything like what you get from those airy, slightly artificial tasting strawberry cake mixes. The crumb is downright creamy. The batter includes strawberry jam and fresh strawberries in addition to strawberry emulsion.
The strawberry emulsion is completely optional, by the way. It will give your cake a deeper strawberry flavor and more of a pink color. But, the cake is still deliciously strawberry and gorgeously pink without it.
So, the cake is pretty darn good. But...
The pistachio buttercream doesn't hurt
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know what a fan I am of Italian Meringue Buttercream. With a few exceptions, it's really the only frosting I ever make. I don't really like frosting, you see. Never have. But I LOVE Italian Meringue Buttercream.
It's not too sweet, and so ridiculously creamy that it literally melts on your tongue. If you, like me, have never really liked frosting, I promise you'll like Italian Meringue Buttercream.
Until now, my favorite version of Italian Meringue Buttercream was the Salted Caramel version. No longer. Pistachio is my new fave. It tastes like Pistachio gelato. And I ADORE Pistachio gelato.
I discovered Talenti Pistachio Gelato a few years back and quickly discovered that for me, there is no such thing as having a bite or two of the stuff. I either accept the fact that I'm going to eat the entire pint or I don't buy it at all. Most of the time, I don't buy it at all, making the couple of times a year that I do buy it a special occasion for which I do not berate myself one little bit about eating the whole pint. I just enjoy it. Bite after delicious pistachio bite.
The flavor of this Pistachio Buttercream tastes an awful lot like the flavor of pistachio gelato. Yum. Just to guild the lily, I served slices of this Pistachio Buttercream covered Strawberry Cake with scoops of Pistachio Gelato. Double yum.
Giving Pistachio Buttercream its pistachio flavor
In order to achieve a delicious, rich pistachio flavor in this Pistachio Italian Meringue Buttercream, I've used Pistachio Paste. Honestly, I never knew Pistachio Paste ever existed until I used it in this Buttercream.
When I set out to make a Pistachio version of Italian Meringue Buttercream, I did some searching on Amazon to find a good flavoring option and came across Pistachio Paste. It works beautifully.
It's kind of pricy, but so delicious that I feel it's worth it for those special occasions on which you want to spoil people with Pistachio Buttercream. I mean, it's not something you're probably going to use every day. Although, I would really like to use it every day.
Ever since baking this cake, I can't stop thinking about all the other ways I can use it... in cookies, perhaps? Swirled into brownies? Maybe in a pistachio cream filled danish? Yum. I want to bake all those things.
But first, it's time for another slice of this.
Used in this Strawberry Cake Recipe:
Strawberry Emulsion
Pistachio Paste
Other Recipes You might like:
- Strawberry Mojito Cupcakes
- Peaches and Cream Crepe Cake
- The BEST Vanilla Cake Recipe
- Strawberry Cream Pie
For more delicious recipes like this one, follow me on Pinterest.
Fresh Strawberry Cake with Pistachio Buttercream
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Fresh Strawberry Cake with Pistachio Buttercream
- Yield: 12 slices
Description
This Strawberry Cake from scratch is covered in a thick layer of Pistachio Buttercream and flavored with fresh strawberries, strawberry jam and a hint of lime.
Ingredients
PISTACHIO BUTTERCREAM:
- 1 recipe Italian Meringue Buttercream, the Pistachio flavored version
STRAWBERRY CAKES:
- 1 ½ cups good quality strawberry jam (18 oz)
- The zest from 6 small limes
- 6 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp butter (1 stick), melted and cooled to room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 large egg whites + 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 ½ cup plain, unsweetened full-fat yogurt (preferably Greek yogurt), at room temperature
- 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp strawberry emulsion (optional)
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, diced
Instructions
MAKE THE CAKE:
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare three 8-inch cake pans as follows: Grease the inside of each pan with vegetable shorting. Cut three 8-inch parchment paper rounds and lay inside each pan to cover the bottoms. Lightly grease the parchment paper with vegetable shorting. Shake some all-purpose flour around the inside of each pan to coat the bottom and sides.
- In a small bowl, stir together the strawberry jam, lime zest, and lime juice until combined. Set aside.
- Add the cornstarch, flour, baking powder, and salt to a medium size bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a medium size bowl, beat the egg whites with a wire whisk or hand held electric mixer until firm peaks form. Set aside.
- Add the melted butter, sugar, and whole eggs to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed for 2 minute, until well combined and lightened.
- Add the yogurt and flour mixtures in 4 alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat for about 20-30 seconds at medium speed after each addition - just long enough to incorporate each addition fully.
- Add the vanilla and strawberry extracts along with the jam and lime juice mixture to the batter and beat on medium speed for 1 minute to combine.
- With a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir in the chopped strawberries. Gently fold in about ⅓ of the beaten egg whites to lighten the batter. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites, just to combine.
- Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans and bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into one of the cakes comes out mostly clean, without raw cake batter clinging to it. The tops of the cakes will be cracked slightly, and just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn each cake out of their pan and allow to cool completely on wire racks before frosting.
- Frost and decorate with Pistachio Italian Meringue Buttercream.
NOTE: The frosted cake will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Unfrosted strawberry cakes will keep, tightly wrapped, at room temperature for up to 1 day or frozen for up to 3 months.
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Does this cake have a strong lime flavor? My son wants a layered vanilla (I'm using your vanilla cake recipe) and strawberry cake. I want to make sure the flavors coexist well. :).
Hi Tammy! You really can't taste the lime in there at all. It just gives the strawberry flavor a bit of a "boost". I think this strawberry cake and vanilla cake layered together will be delicious! But, I'd suggest baking thin layers of each flavor and layering them that way - vanilla, strawberry, vanilla, strawberry. The two cakes have slightly different consistencies. I think thin layers will help them "blend" rather than it just seeming that guests have two different cakes on their plate. How big of a cake were you planning on making?
The cake will be in 8 in pans. I was going to use 2 layers (since each recipe makes 3 total) from each cake recipe and then cut them in half and alternate the layers. So 4- 6 layers total (once cut), depending on the height. Does that make sense? 🙂 This is how I’ve done cakes in the past and it makes a nice tall cake that looks so pretty when cut. Do you have any other suggestions. And thank you so much for replying!!
That sounds amazing! Would you send me a picture of it after it's made? I'd love to see it!
This website is amazing. I am going to be so busy with these recipes! Any recommendations for adopting this recipe for a cupcake version?
Thank you Lauran! I am so happy you found this blog! Thank you for reaching out. For cupcakes, I'd actually suggest that you use this recipe: https://ofbatteranddough.com/strawberry-mojito-cupcakes/
The strawberry cake batter is almost exactly the same recipe, just altered slightly to work better for cupcakes. Please let me know if you have any other questions! And, I would love to know what you think about the cupcakes after you bake them. 🙂 Happy Baking! xo
Thank you! For the cupcakes, can I just omit the rum and proceed with adding else as a substitute to the rum?
Yep. Exactly. Just leave the rum out entirely. No need to add anything in it's place. Let me know if you have any more questions and how they come out for you!
Hi I love your site and have made a few cakes with great success. I just made this cake and my cake didn’t turn out well. Could it be that my egg whites broke down from sitting too long? When I went to fold them in they were liquid. Please help I don’t want to make the pistachio cream till I get the cake right. By the way your carrot cake is the BOMB!
Hi Susie! Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm sorry this recipe is giving you troubles! It sounds like you hit on the problem - this is a pretty dense and creamy cake to begin with, so you really need the air in the egg whites to lighten up the batter. If they sat too long, allowing the air to leak out, that could definitely cause some issues. Could you tell me what happened with your cake? Did it not rise well?
I am SO glad you like the carrot cake recipe! It's been a favorite of my family for years and years. 🙂
I made it twice second time I was very careful to whip the egg whites. The cake did not rise . Any advice? Making carrot cake for the third time and that comes out perfect gonna trybthe rum caramel sauce this time too.
Hi Susie! Thank you so much for reaching out to talk with me about what the problem might be. Another reader recently had a similar issue and I'm wondering if the brand of jam might be the culprit. I'm thinking that there might be different enough levels of water in jam varieties to knock everything in the batter off balance. Could you tell me if the jam you used was on the watery side? Also - so glad you like the carrot cake recipe! It's one of my family's favorites as well! xo
Hi, I’m going to be making this cake for a birthday. I was curious what kind of jam you recommend using? Thank you!
Hi Jennifer! I usually use Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves. It's nice and thick and has a good flavor. Tiptree Strawberry Jam is also good. The most important thing is to choose a jam that isn't watery. It should be quite thick so that you're not adding too much excess. moisture to the batter.
Please let me know if you have any other questions! And, I'd love to know what you think of this recipe after you try it. xo