Homemade Strawberry Cake with Chocolate Frosting Recipe

A one-bowl chocolate sheet cake under a pink frosting that tastes of strawberry, with no fresh fruit: ¼ cup of ground dehydrated strawberries does the work.

It bakes in 25–30 minutes in a 9-by-13-inch pan. Let it cool completely before you spread anything on it, or the frosting melts and slides off.

Ingredients

This one-bowl sheet cake fills a 9-by-13-inch pan and serves 12. Everything is standard grocery-store stock.

For the cake:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons espresso powder (King Arthur)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2½ teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• ¾ cup boiling water

For the strawberry frosting:

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
• ¼ cup dehydrated strawberries, ground to a powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3–4 tablespoons heavy cream

Optional topping:

• ¼ cup dehydrated strawberry pieces, for decorating

Method

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-by-13-inch pan and line it with parchment.
2. Whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder and salt. Add the milk, oil, vanilla and eggs, then stream in 3/4 cup boiling water while you mix. The batter is thin.
3. Bake 25–30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake completely in the pan.
4. Beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar, strawberry powder, salt and vanilla. Add heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time, up to 3–4 tablespoons, until the frosting is smooth and pink.
5. Spread the frosting over the fully cooled cake. Top with a chocolate drizzle, chocolate-covered strawberries or fresh strawberries if you like.
6. Serve, or refrigerate. The frosting can be made a day ahead; let it sit 25 minutes at room temperature to soften.

Other Strawberry Toppings

Freeze-dried or dehydrated strawberries pulsed into a powder flavor the frosting without any fresh fruit. The shortcut is to stir 1½ cups of freeze-dried strawberry powder into an 11-ounce container of store-bought vanilla frosting.

Fresh berries work in buttercream too.

Mince them and beat them into 1 cup butter and 6 cups powdered sugar. Add 1–3 tablespoons strawberry puree to adjust the color until it looks the way you want.

Whipped cream is the third route: beat 1½ cups heavy cream with ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, then pair it with 1 quart sliced berries.

If you want to leave the chocolate frosting as is, fresh strawberries on top make an easy garnish.

Cool Before You Frost

Frosting a warm cake melts the frosting and sends it sliding off the sides, so let the layers cool completely on a wire rack before any frosting touches them.

Leave round layers in their pans for 10–15 minutes, then turn them out onto the rack. A small gluten-free cake in 4-inch pans needs at least 30 minutes in the pans first.

Skip the early toothpick.

Opening the oven door too soon, or stabbing the center before the cake has set, can make the middle deflate and sink. Wait until the bake time is nearly up, then check once.

Bake times shift with the pan.

Two 9-inch rounds take 28–32 minutes, two 8-inch rounds about 35 minutes, and a sheet cake 25–30 minutes. Start checking at the early end of each range.

Ganache and Chocolate Strawberries

Put 4 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate in a bowl, bring ½ cup heavy cream just to a boil, and pour it over right away. Whisk until smooth, then drizzle over the top and let it drape down the sides.

For a dairy-free version, heat ½ cup dark chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon coconut cream and 1 teaspoon coconut oil over low heat, stir until smooth, and let it cool before using.

Fresh strawberries are the easier topping.

Hull 1 pound, pile them on, and brush with warmed seedless jam if you want shine. Chocolate-covered strawberries take more work, but they suit the ganache better.

Leftover ganache keeps up to 1 month in the refrigerator. It sets hard there, so reheat it before drizzling again.

Storage and Make-Ahead

Each part of this cake has its own clock, so you can spread the work over a few days.

• A frosted cake with a buttercream-style chocolate frosting keeps in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
• Make the frosting ahead and refrigerate it overnight. Let it sit at room temperature for 25 minutes to soften before you spread it.
• Wrap unfrosted layers in plastic, then foil, and freeze them for weeks. Thaw them in the refrigerator for 24 hours before frosting.
• Freezing the layers is the best make-ahead move. The frosting takes little time, so you only need to do it fresh.
• If you use whipped cream instead, the cake holds about a day. Don’t leave it out more than 2 hours.
• For a party, stabilize the whipped cream with dissolved gelatin or a commercial stabilizer so it holds its shape.

Gluten-Free and Vegan Swaps

A gluten-free, dairy-free and refined-sugar-free chocolate-strawberry cake from another recipe uses a gluten-free flour blend, nut milk, coconut oil and coconut sugar, then finishes with store-bought vanilla frosting.

It’s a different build from this cake, so swapping those ingredients in will change the crumb and the flavor.

If you only need gluten-free, the easier route is a gluten-free cake mix.

A scratch gluten-free batter works too, but it takes more fussing. Either way, check that your pudding mix is gluten-free, since it’s an easy one to miss on the label.

For a vegan cake, bake a vegan chocolate cake in two 9-inch round pans and use vegan butter in the frosting. The ganache may not hold up without dairy, so plan to leave it off.

Frequently Asked Questions