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Ingredients
Cake batter
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups milk

Strawberries
1 pound fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar

Whipped cream
2 ½ cups heavy whipping cream, cold
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whether you are looking for something to share with your significant other or need a special dessert to impress your friends, this cake is the perfect sweet treat for Valentine’s Day. This recipe is not too complicated, and is really just a more sophisticated version of your grandma’s Bisquick strawberry shortcake.

Before you start making the cake batter, you will need to prepare the strawberries for the filling. After washing and cutting the leaves off, slice the strawberries into thin pieces. Add those sliced strawberries to a large bowl, sprinkle with sugar and toss to coat them evenly.

Place the strawberries in the fridge for at least an hour to allow the sugar to bring the juices out of the strawberries. The longer these sit before assembling the cake, the juicier they will become.

Next, you will need to prepare three nine-inch cake pans by lining the bottom with parchment paper and greasing the sides. The easiest way to do this is to trace the bottom of the pan onto the parchment paper and then cut the circles to ensure a perfect fit. You can bake the cake in any shape pan, but for Valentine’s Day, I like to use a heart shaped pan.

Once you have the pans greased and the bottoms lined, preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set that mixture aside. Using a stand mixer or a bowl and an electric hand mixer, add butter, oil, sugar and vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy. This should take about two minutes.

Once the butter mixture is creamed together, add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure all of the ingredients are being incorporated well.

After the eggs have been incorporated, add half of the dry ingredients from earlier into the batter and mix until mostly combined. When this looks almost entirely mixed in, add the milk to the batter to thin it out. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth.

Make sure to keep scraping the sides as you mix so that there is nothing left behind, but be careful not to overmix the batter.

Now that your batter is combined, divide the mixture evenly between the cake pans. Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool until the sides are safe enough to touch, which should be about ten minutes. Once cool, remove from the pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

When you are ready to put the cake together, make the whipped cream. Using your stand mixer or an electric mixer, add the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and whip on high speed until medium to stiff peaks form.

To build the cake, place the first layer on a cake plate or serving platter. Add a layer of whipped cream to the cake. You can use a piping bag and tip to make a board around the edge and fill the middle in, or just distribute the filling with a spatula. Add half of the strawberries on top of the whipped cream and then place another layer of cake on top.

Repeat these steps until you reach the final layer of cake. You can top the cake with whipped cream swirls using the piping bag and strawberries or decorate it however you like.

Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve, and enjoy!

Published on February 8, 2023 at 9:24 pm