Strawberry-Lime Cream Cake
Light and luscious, this refreshing strawberry-lime cream cake is elegant in presentation, while still being phenomenally delicious.
Light and luscious, this strawberry-lime cream cake is elegant and phenomenally delicious.
Layer upon layer of tender white cake, fresh strawberry syrup (helps the cake stay tremendously moist!), and citrusy lime cream is enveloped in an ethereal cloud of vanilla whipped cream frosting.
While the recipe may seem daunting with all of its components, each one comes together quickly and all of the pieces can be made at least a day or two in advance so you can assemble the cake in a snap.
A refreshing summer cake that is so beautiful in presentation, you won’t want to eat it. But get over that fact and dig in anyway. It would be a tragedy of epic proportions to let this cake go untasted.
Strawberry-Lime Cream Cake
Ingredients
White Cake:
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (424 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ⅓ cups buttermilk
- ½ cup (113 g) butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 egg whites
Strawberry Syrup/Puree:
- You can sub 1 1/2 cups of strawberry jam for the puree
- 1 pint fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Lime Cream:
- 4 limes, for 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
Whipped Cream Frosting:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup (57 g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 envelope about 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
- 4 tablespoons water
Instructions
- For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Add the egg whites and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Pour the batter into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. (I lined the bottom of mine with a parchment circle and greased the top of the parchment circle.) Bake the cakes for 28-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake or the cakes will be dry. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a butter knife and remove the cakes from the pans to cool completely.
- For the strawberry puree, combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
- For the lime cream, zest and juice the limes into a medium bowl. You should have about 1/2 cup lime juice. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix well. Add the whipping cream and beat until medium-stiff peaks form. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
- For the whipped cream frosting, in a small bowl, place the water and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let the mixture stand for 3-4 minutes until the gelatin has thickened. Microwave for 20-30 seconds until the gelatin dissolves and the mixture is warm. Remove from the microwave and let the mixture cool to room temperature (don’t let it set up!). In a large bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add the cooled gelatin to the whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form.
- To assemble the cake, slice each cooled cake round in half horizontally to form 4 cake circles. Place one cake layer on a cake plate and spread an even layer of strawberry syrup over the top. Spread a thick layer of lime cream over the jam, leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge as the top cake layers will press the cream out toward the edges. Repeat the same layering process with the next two layers. Top with the final cake layer and frost the entire cake with the whipped cream frosting. Garnish with fresh limes and strawberries, if desired. Chill for 1-2 hours before serving to let the cake set up.
Notes
Multiple Steps: this recipe looks like it has a lot of steps, and it does, but each can be made in advance and the cake assembled later. Plus, none of the steps are very difficult. The end result is worth it, trust me!
Serving: 1 Serving, Calories: 752kcal, Carbohydrates: 89g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 41g, Saturated Fat: 26g, Cholesterol: 143mg, Sodium: 293mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 64g
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Recipe Source: White cake adapted from Betty Crocker, other components adapted from my friend, Reyna M.
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I really don’t like cakes but I LOVE this cake! By far the best cake I have ever had.
This recipe has been around for a long time – so happy to know you loved it!
I am confused on how much gelatin goes in. Is it the whole envelope or 2 tsp?
Sorry for the confusion – 1 envelope is about 2 teaspoons gelatin.
Yes! I did make it! It is absolutely delicious!!
My son said “mom, this is the best dessert that you have ever made” and I have made many desserts through the years.
Thank you for such a great recipe❤️
My daughter wanted a raspberry lemon cake for her birthday. I came across this recipe and wondered if we could switch out strawberries for raspberries and limes for lemons. We gave it a try, and it was DELICIOUS (and so pretty, too). The cake was so moist and the fillings were delicious. We ate it with ice cream but we didn’t even need it because the cake was so good.
Like others who’ve commented, we had extra puree and lemon filling. We decided not to make the frosting at all since we had enough lemon filling to use as “frosting.” My daughter wanted to add raspberry to the “frosting” so we mixed some extra puree with the extra filling. It was a bit runny after doing that so I added 4 oz of softened cream cheese. That seemed to thicken it up enough to use it as “frosting.”
Everyone loved this cake – even those who said they weren’t big cake fans. Can’t wait to make it for something else.
Thanks for the detailed review!
Made this for my son in laws birthday! This cake is absolutely delicious. Added fresh strawberries in between each layer on the edgess. The lime cream is out of this world.
Will be making again for my mothers birthday!
Thanks Mel for another great recipe!
Excited to make this cake today. I am worried about the frosting. Geletin and I don’t get along very well. I don’t have a microwave. Can I use the stove?
I think so!
Made this on the weekend for mom’s bday and was AMAZING. Was worried about it falling apart like some of the readers- so chilled the layers before putting together and also made the lime cream and strawberry sauce early on the day and kept in fridge for 3 hours before putting on the cake. When lime cream was first whipped- was not thick and didn’t make peaks at all so was worried- but after put it in the fridge for a few hours- was soon thick as normal whipped cream and worked amazingly in the layers with no problems or dripping. After strawberry sauce and lime cream layers were put in between the layers- I popped the entire unfrosted cake in the freezer for about 20 min to stop any of the strawberry sauce/ lime cream from oozing out and down the cake- the cold stopped any drips in it’s tracks! Then took out and applied the final vanilla whipped cream and there was no dripping or mixing of inner and outer creams! This cake looked magazine worthy and tasted even better- HUGE hit!! THANK YOU MEL!!
I bake it in 8″pans and haven’t had any problem with the cake splitting or being destroyed while filling.