I’m trying to find a good/reliable recipe for a strawberry cake to use as a base for my daughter’s birthday cake. She has a rather specific request of a strawberry cake to be frosted in blue and white stripes like one of her stuffed animals in the shape of a cat.
Last year she wanted a chocolate cake so I used Stella Parks" Texas sheet cake without the nuts and it was a thick and sturdy sheet cake which took well to cutting pieces out to assemble into a cat shape and then I frosted in a pink strawberry frosting of some form. I don’t recall but probably buttercream. All off the recipes I’m finding are “light”“airy” “Fluffy” etc and I’m just wondering if any bakers out there could point me run the right direction
I like the look of the Sally’s baking addiction cake- and I like that she says it can be made in a 9x13 pan. I’m thinking I might scale up the recipe and bake it in a 10x15 as I used a half sheet pan’s worth of cake on last year’s cat cake. These are last year’s version- some wine might have affected the final result in addition to it being very warm so the cat was melting
If you have a sturdy vanilla sheet cake recipe you like, you could just add powdered freeze dried strawberries (TJs has them) or the trick from Sally’s recipe where she cooks down fresh strawberries so the batter doesn’t get watery and the flavor intensifies (though if it were me I might experiment with a 6’" cake where I used strawberry jam for the sugar and the strawberries both – since it’s a kid cake)
What an adorable cat cake (listen if you’re going to try and make a cat, wine is definitely called for)
We just made the Stella parks Strawberry cake yesterday! It turned out great- not overly “fluffy” but deliciously moist and with good strawberry flavor. She does have a note about using an aluminum paddle and discoloration. We did not clean our paddle pristinely ( I saw the note after my daughter started mixing) and the cake was not perfectly pink. We’ll take that extra step next time.
If you want something sturdier than the typical “light and fluffy” strawberry cakes, you might have good luck starting with a reliable vanilla or yellow sheet-cake base and adding finely powdered freeze-dried strawberries. It gives you a strong strawberry flavor without adding extra moisture that can make the cake too delicate for shaping.
For my niece’s birthday, I needed a cake that could handle carved edges and detailed frosting, and this method held up really well, even after a night in the fridge. Midway through my search, I also came across Camp Hollow’s whimsical celebration ideas, and their guide to kid-themed parties (you can visit here:camphollow.com for the reference) actually inspired me to reinforce the cake with a slightly denser crumb so it wouldn’t crumble during decorating.
If you want something closer to the texture of Stella Parks’ sheet cake, consider using a traditional butter cake formula and swapping part of the milk for strained strawberry purée. Keep the purée thick so the cake stays firm enough for your cat shape. Chill the layers before cutting, makes a huge difference for clean edges.
– since it’s a kid cake)
(listen if you’re going to try and make a cat, wine is definitely called for)
