Perfectly moist and soft sour cream cake filled with fresh strawberries. Then topped with a sweet lemon glaze to make the ultimate summer cake recipe!
Summer time means fresh strawberry desserts! This classic strawberry shortcake recipe, strawberry bread and my strawberry cake are other favorites!
Table of Contents
Delicious Strawberry Cake
I love baking with fresh fruit in the summer time. It adds the best sweet flavor and tastes absolutely delicious. This strawberry sour cream cake is one of my favorites to make, as well as glazed raspberry lemon cookies, blueberry buttermilk cake and glazed lemon cookies.
This cake is one of our favorite summer berry recipes. Strawberries are at their peak season, meaning they are so juicy and flavorful. And what better way to use them than make a moist and delicious strawberry sour cream cake?!
This cake has the best soft texture and is filled with fresh diced strawberries. The secret ingredient (sour cream!) makes the cake extremely moist and adds so much flavor. It’s then topped with a nice lemon drizzle that gives the perfect sweet touch. Every bite is perfection!
We love to serve this cake with even more fresh strawberries, a dollop of whipped cream or even a scoop of homemade strawberry ice cream. Yum!
What Does Sour Cream do in Baking?
Sour cream is one of my favorite secret weapons when baking! I use it in all of my favorite recipes, like my chocolate cupcakes, sugar cookies and chocolate bundt cake. It makes baked goods SO moist and adds the absolute best soft texture. Trust me, once you bake with it, you’ll become obsessed like me!
Baking Tips
- Grease the pan. Generously grease a 10-inch bundt pan with butter so that every crevice is covered. Also, make sure to dust the pan with flour as well, so that the cake will release from the pan easier.
- Beating the eggs. Beat in the eggs individually, one at a time. Sometimes when you add multiple eggs in at once, they only really mix with each other instead of getting evenly mixed into the butter and sugar mixture. By adding them one at a time, each egg will get emulsified into the butter.
- Fresh lemon. Don’t even think about using bottled lemon juice! Make sure to use FRESH lemon juice and zest for the absolute best flavor. Check out these tips for how to zest a lemon.
- Flour the strawberries. Before folding in the fresh strawberries, mix them together with 1/4 cup of flour. This will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the pan. Once they’re mixed, gently fold them into the batter with a spatula.
- Let cool. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20-30 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. If you try to release too soon, the cake might stick to the pan.
Glaze
The powdered sugar glaze on top is optional, however it does add the perfect sweet touch and looks so pretty! It’s definitely my favorite way to decorate this dessert. I love mixing it with a few Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to add even more flavor. However there are plenty of ways to tweak the glaze to suit your taste. Try any of the below:
- Feel free to swap the lemon juice with milk, strawberry juice or even some thinned out strawberry jam.
- Make a cream cheese glaze for a more rich and tangy flavor.
- If your glaze is too thin, mix in more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, thin it out with more juice or milk.
- Use a spoon to drizzle it over the cake. Or you can pour the glaze into a zip top bag, cut one of the corners off and then pipe it on top of the cake.
FAQs
It adds a very minimal tang to the flavor of baked goods. It’s very subtle, though, and the benefit of a rich moist and tender cake are well worth the slight taste.
You could try a plain Greek yogurt. Whole fat yogurt is best and will replicate the rich taste the most.
It has only been tested in 10-inch bundt pan but may work in a 9-inch springform pan. If you try a different size, baking time will change. If you try let me know in the comments.
This cake will be two heavy for a two layer cake. You could make my homemade vanilla cake and serve it with fresh strawberries for the best option!
Other cake recipes that we love to serve with fresh strawberries include this angel food cake recipe, homemade pound cake and crepe cake!
More Fresh Strawberry Desserts
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Strawberry Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 4 Tablespoons lemon juice , divided
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 1 ½ cups fresh strawberries , diced
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 375°F degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan. Whisk together 2 1/4 cups flour, baking soda and salt. Then add in lemon zest and set aside.
- With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Next beat in eggs, one at a time. Then stir in 2 Tablespoons lemon juice. Alternate mixing the flour mixture and the sour cream into the butter/sugar mixture until all is incorporated.
- Mix diced strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup flour. Then gently fold into the batter.
- Pour batter into bundt pan and reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Glaze:
- Once cake has completely cooled, mix together powdered sugar and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice.
- Drizzle glaze on top of cake with a spoon. Then slice and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Categorized as: American, Cake + Cupcakes, Desserts, Fruit Desserts
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
This sour cream cake was sooo good!!! I love how light and fluffy it is and now I might always bake with sour cream.
I love baking with sour cream! It adds so much to my cake recipes!
I love baking with fresh fruit….this cake looks phenomenal! Perfect for summer!
This cake is perfection!
Such a beautiful and delicious cake for summer dessert!
This sounds delicious, only question I have is , do you mix the sugar, butter, egg mixture with the sour cream? I read the recipe couple of times and it says to alternate the sour cream with flour but nothing about mixing the sour cream with the egg, butter, sugar mixture. Thanx
Hi Dina! You alternate between mixing the sour cream and the flour into the sugar/butter/egg mixture. :)
Fabulous
Moistest cake ever. This is the second time I made it and it is perfect.
Thanks for posting for all of us to enjoy!
Of course! I’m so glad you loved it!
normally the cakes i bake doesn’t turn out great , this is my first official cake i made which is soo good!!!! my parents love it!! its so soft and moist but i realise my strawberries go down to the pan … is that normal ?? i would definitely make this again!!! so yummy!!!!
I’m so glad you liked it! My strawberries usually stay towards the top. You could try adding them in the middle of the batter instead of mixing them in the batter.
I’m so glad you liked it! My strawberries usually stay towards the top. You could try adding them in the middle of the batter instead of mixing them in the batter.
This is a wonderfully delicious cake. I have made it three time over the last year.
My only problem is that they all turned out EXCEPTIONALLY dense and heavy, which I expected to some degree. I follow recipe/instructions except for adding a little more lemon zest and juice.
I am wondering if I am not beating long enough during the creaming of butter/sugar or perhaps while adding the eggs (one at a time). Also should I be hand stirring when adding the flour and sour cream rather than using electric mixer? It has an almost eggy taste but certainly not enough to keep the entire cake from disappearing within 48 hours in my house ! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I would cream and the butter and sugar longer. It should be pale, pale yellow. Sometimes, I let it go in my standing mixer for up to five minutes. The eggs should be added individually until incorporated, but not necessarily beaten longer than that.
Also, the volume on how much extra juice you’re adding into the cake batter could be throwing it off. Try adding half a teaspoon lemon extract but not extra juice and see if that helps, too. (I’m a big zest fan, you can double that it and it shouldn’t throw the chemistry off!)
I made this cake today and I love it! So soft & moist… DELICIOUS. I was looking for something to do with my strawberries besides the traditional strawberry shortcake… I’ve found a keeper with this recipe for sure.
This sounds really delicious and something new to try. Thank you for sharing this.
Simon
Hello again! I commented last year about winning a cake bake-off with this recipe and am planning on doing it again this year. What are your thoughts about using frozen strawberries? If so, would you recommend that I completely thaw them ahead of time or just use them frozen?
I would definitely use them frozen and do a test run and see if it works! If you can find frozen, diced strawberries without anything added that would be best! :)
After days of rain & clouds, my tiny chef – 4yr. old and I tried this recipe as a sunshine dance to usher in summertime in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Well it worked, the cake was a mind blowing slice of summer favors and the temperature here today is 76F!!! The only modification I made to the recipe: replaced AP flour with cake flour (add an additional 2T of cake flour for every cup of AP flour). YUMMERS!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Pamela! Thanks for the tip. Now send some of that sunshine my way!
O… M… G… This cake was amazing!!! I was expecting it to be super sweet with 2 cups of sugar but went ahead and followed the recipe exactly. It was just sweet and tangy enough and very moist. I don’t usually leave comments but just had to let you know how much my family and I loved this cake. We (my 3-year-old and I) will definitely be making this again… very soon!
I am so glad you and your three year old loved it! Thanks for your comment Amy! :)
I made this recently in a cake bake-off contest with my friends, and my team’s cake (this recipe) won the taste category by more than double the points! I haven’t stopped thinking about it and am anxious to make it again!
Wow! Thanks for commenting to let me know! This cake really is delicious, I need to make it again too!
Hello! I have a couple of questions regarding this cake. I am about to do some cake decorating and need a sturdy base cake made in a 9×13. I want it to be strawberry, and I am wondering if this is a good option. Will it hold a little bit of weight? It’s not that it needs to be as sturdy as a pound cake, but most strawberry cakes are so fluffy that they would crumble under any weight. I’m a novice and don’t really know how I’d adjust the baking time. Also, do you think a cream cheese frosting could work with this? I’m doing it with some friends, and we are making 4 cake flavors but trying to simplify with the frosting. Thanks!
Can’t wait to try this recipe!
All the good recipes got me gaining more pounds everyday.