Strawberry Shortcake Layer Cake

Strawberry shortcake is one of my favorite memories from childhood. Every summer for my dad’s birthday, a family gathering or just because, we’d get a sheet cake from the store. It would be a soft white cake filled with berries and fresh whipped cream. Every year when June rolls around, I start thinking about that childhood cake, which is probably why I’ve posted lots of strawberry shortcake recipes including strawberry shortcake cupcakes, no bake strawberry shortcake dessert and strawberry shortcake cake roll.

The secret to this layer cake is the combination of my signature melted butter vanilla cake and a cream cheese stabilized whipped cream. Using melted butter ensures the cake layers stay fluffy and moist even after being refrigerated. Because regular whipped cream can be too soft for a tall layer cake, I’ve added cream cheese to provide structure without using heavy gelatin or chemicals. It creates a sturdy frosting that pipes beautifully and won’t weep between the layers.

Ingredient Notes

• Yellow Cake: The cake is my classic yellow cake recipe made with unsalted butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, all purpose flour, baking powder, and buttermilk. I always start my cake recipe with melted butter – it helps make fluffy vanilla cake layers. You can use any kind of milk (or nondairy milk) in place of the buttermilk.
• You can also use a cake mix in place of my homemade vanilla cake recipe.
• Strawberries: Use fresh strawberries. I chop them fine and mix with sugar for the strawberry filling and then top the cake with sliced strawberries.
• Cream Cheese, Heavy Whipping Cream, Powdered Sugar: This is what you’ll need to make that stable whipped cream frosting. The cream cheese MUST be room temperature. Watch how to make the frosting here. Regular homemade whipped cream isn’t strong enough to frost a layer cake with.

Dorothy’s Expert Tips for Strawberry Shortcake Cake

• This recipe can be baked in three 8-inch cake pans or two 9-inch rounds, as 24 cupcakes or a 9×13-inch size sheet cake.
• When baking your cake, line the bottom with parchment paper rounds for easy removal.
• For perfectly flat cake layers without doming, use bake even strips around your pans. This ensures the heat is distributed evenly, making the cake much easier to stack and frost without needing to level the tops manually.
• Stabilizing Whipped Cream: To ensure your whipped cream frosting is strong enough for a layer cake, always use a combination of cold heavy whipping cream and room-temperature cream cheese. This method provides a stable frosting that holds its peaks for days and prevents the cake from sliding.
• Perfecting Strawberry Filling: For the most flavorful filling, dice fresh strawberries small and macerate them with granulated sugar for at least 5 minutes. This process draws out the natural juices, creating a syrupy texture that soaks slightly into the vanilla cake for maximum flavor.
• To prevent the cake from getting soggy, you can do a very thin crumb coat layer of frosting on top of each layer before adding the macerated berries.
• For decorating strawberry shortcake, make some swirls on top of the cake with a 1M tip and then place strawberry halves around the edges.