Cakes and Cupcakes

Strawberries and cream naked cake

A spectacular strawberries and cream naked cake that’s perfect for birthdays, celebrations, wedding and baby showers. Strawberries and cream are,

Serves 12
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 30 minutes
Total 50 minutes

Jump to the recipe

A spectacular strawberries and cream naked cake that's perfect for birthdays, celebrations, wedding and baby showers.

Strawberries and cream are, for me, summer in a nutshell. When I was little I couldn’t wait for strawberry season and I still greet the arrival of proper strawberries with equal enthusiasm now.

I love using them in baking and desserts, in smoothies and drinks, or just eating them whole with a tiny dusting of sugar and squirt of lemon juice.

Fresh strawberries are such a stunning – and easy – way to decorate this simple naked cake. Arrange them whole over the top of the cake as I have done, or slice them and pile them prettily

They don’t keep very well however so this cake is best eaten soon after it is assembled. Keep the cake in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Close up on a layer cake topped with whole fresh strawberries

I baked this strawberries and cream naked cake for my neighbours’ daughter’s birthday and it was a dual celebration as they had just welcomed a baby boy two days previously. It is a beautifully simple, very tasty cake – I hope you make it and report back!

HAVE YOU MADE MY STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM CAKE RECIPE? Please leave a rating, post a photo on my Facebook page, share it on Instagram, or save it to Pinterest with the tag #Nusde and make my day!

Recipe

Strawberries and cream naked cake

A spectacular ‘strawberries and cream’ naked cake that’s perfect for birthdays, wedding showers and celebrations.

Serves 12
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 30 minutes
Total 50 minutes

Ingredients

For the cake

11 ½ oz (330g) all-purpose flour ((= plain flour))
11 ½ oz (330g) superfine sugar ((= caster sugar))
1 ¾ oz (50g) ground almonds
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda ((= bicarbonate of soda))
½ tsp salt
3 large eggs
7 oz (200g) unsalted butter (cool but not hard, cubed)
3 ½ oz (100g) buttermilk
5 ¼ oz (150g) strawberries (hulled and quartered)
cooked with ¼ cup (50g) (sugar and 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract (or paste)

To fill & decorate

1 ⅔ cups (400ml) cold heavy cream ((= double cream))
7 oz (200g) icing (powdered sugar)
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp elderflower cordial
10 ½ oz (300g) fresh strawberries to fill and decorate

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease and flour 3 x 20 cm cake tins.
2
Put the hulled and quartered strawberries in a small saucepan with the sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes.
3
Drain any liquid and reserve. Blitz the cooked strawberries in a food processor or mini chopper until you have a smooth purée.
4
Put all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, ground almonds, baking powder, soda & salt) in the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix together using the paddle attachment on low speed.
5
Add the cubed butter and mix on medium-low speed until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
6
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well with each addition. You may need to stop the mixer and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a couple of times.
7
Mix the buttermilk with 3 ½ oz (100g) of strawberry purée.
8
Add buttermilk/strawberry mixture and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl. Mix on low then high speed for a couple of minutes.
9
Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure the batter is completely smooth and divide it equally into the prepared tins.
10
Bake for 25-30 minutes.The cakes are ready when springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
11
Cool on a wire rack and then gently tap the cakes out of the tins. Make sure they are completely cool before frosting. Cakes can be made up to 2 days in advance and kept, wrapped, at room temperature.
12
To fill and decorate
13
Put the icing sugar, vanilla, elderflower cordial and double cream in your stand mixer and whisk at high speed until you have firm peaks. Transfer the cream into a large bag fitted with a large round tip.
14
Brush the reserved strawberry liquid over the tops of the cakes.
15
Pipe a wide ring of whipped cream all around the edge of the bottom cake layer and a large dot in the middle.
16
Fill the space between the whipped cream with chopped strawberries. Repeat on second layer and top with the third.
17
Pipe some cream on top of the cake then smooth it down to create a flat surface. Push any excess cream down the sides of the cake.
18
Smooth the cream along the sides of the cake using a plain edge side scraper. You want to create a crumb coating but still be able to see the sponge underneath. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
19
Decorate the top of the cake with whole strawberries (cut the top off so they lie down flat) and some edible flowers if you can find them.
20
Best eaten on day of decorating although it can be kept in the fridge for one day.

Notes

I love ‘naked’ cakes. Almost certainly the invention of a baker who had either run out of frosting or time (or both) they are a very easy way of frosting a cake without having to worry about perfection. If you want to frost the cake ‘properly’, make a little extra whipped cream and frost after the crumb coating sets in the fridge (step 6).