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Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting

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Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting ... this delicious, grain-free cake is full of organic strawberries and packed with real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

This Strawberry Cake is perfectly sweet, delicious and grain free!

My Tiny Love celebrated her birthday last week. When her daddy and I asked her what she wanted to eat for her birthday dinner, she said, “Pink Cake!” I smiled, laughed and asked again {acknowledging that of course I would make her a pink cake}. This time, she said, “pink cake and pancakes!”

So that’s what we had … buttermilk pancakes, bacon and “pink cake.“

My little one loves strawberries … and pink. She’s been asking for this “pink cake” for months now, so I knew I had to make it happen. 

To help make the cake a little more pink, I decided to add in a cooked beet {don’t worry, it doesn’t alter the flavor}. It helps add a little bit of natural coloring + helps add some moisture. 

I also wanted to make a cake with my new favorite flour, Otto’s cassava flour. I love that cassava flour is a resistant starch when eaten cool {resistant starch = prebiotics that feed probiotics + supports digestion and the gut}. 

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting ... this delicious, grain-free cake is full of organic strawberries and packed with real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

Tiny Love wanted to have her cake first thing when she woke up, but it had to wait until the evening. She helped me make the whole cake. She stirred, helped measure the ingredients and stirred the batter using the hand held mixer – her favorite. When her sister got home from school, I made the frosting and they both enjoyed licking the beaters and having a spoonful of frosting before dinner. I may or may not have had a spoonful of frosting too! 

This Strawberry Cake was a huge hit with my family. My husband {who always asks for vanilla cake for his birthday} said, “this year I want THIS for my birthday.” Success! 

I frosted the cake with lots of homemade strawberry frosting and decorated the top in the shape of a heart with my favorite chopped up organic + fair trade chocolate bar. 

You can frost the whole cake with Strawberry Frosting … but it’s also absolutely delicious with a layer of cream cheese frosting or chocolate buttercream frosting in the middle of the cakes too. 

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting ... this delicious, grain-free cake is full of organic strawberries and packed with real food ingredients. | Recipes to Nourish

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting

Yield: 2 8-9" cakes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Inactive Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting ... this delicious, grain-free cake is full of organic strawberries and packed with real food ingredients.

Ingredients

For the Strawberry Cake:

  • 10 ounces frozen organic strawberries*
  • 1 medium organic beet*
  • 6 tablespoons pasture butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup maple sugar
  • 4 pastured or organic eggs, room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups cassava flour (<-- this is the only cassava flour I use and recommend)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Celtic sea salt (<-- this is my favorite sea salt)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup organic buttermilk

For the Strawberry Frosting:

Instructions

For the Strawberry Cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease 2 cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper {I just cut out a circle to fit inside}. Add a light dusting of cassava flour to the cake pans and shake to lightly coat cake pan sides with flour. Tap pans upside down to remove excess flour. Set aside.
  3. Thaw frozen strawberries {I place them in an oven safe dish and pop them in the oven at a low temperature until they're soft and warm, about 7 minutes}. Set aside.
  4. Wash beet and remove the beet leaves/stalk. Peel and quarter. Place beet pieces in small saucepan with about 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low boil and simmer for about 7 minutes or until beets are fork tender.
  5. Add thawed strawberries and soft beets to a high powered blender. Pulse just until fully incorporated and puréed. Set aside.
  6. In a large mixing bowl, cream softened butter and maple sugar with a hand-held mixer, about 2 minutes.
  7. Add eggs and vanilla and mix just until combined.
  8. In a small bowl, combine all cassava flour, sea salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir to combine.
  9. Add half of the flour mixture, half of the strawberry-beet mixture and half of the buttermilk to the butter-sugar-egg mixture, mix on low with hand-held mixture briefly just to barely combine. Add remaining flour mixture, strawberry-beet mixture and buttermilk and mix just until combined, do not over mix.
  10. Evenly pour batter into 2 lined and greased cake pans.
  11. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with no more than a few crumbs {toothpick should not be wet} and sides of cake are slightly pulling away from the pan. Do not over bake or the cake will dry out.
  12. Let cake cool in pan for about 5-10 minutes, then remove from pans to wire rack to cool. Cake must be fully cooled before frosting.

For the Strawberry Frosting: 

  1. Add freeze dried strawberries to a high-powered blender or food processor. Pulse until strawberries are a fine powder.
  2. Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium mixing bowl. Pour powdered strawberries through the strainer to remove most of the seeds or any small chunks that didn't break up. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, with a hand-held mixer, cream butter, honey, vanilla and arrowroot powder on low speed until everything combines. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until it begins to turn a lighter white color, about 1 minute.
  4. Stop mixer, scrape down sides if needed and add strawberry powdered mixture. Mix until fully combined.
  5. Use to frost COOLED cakes.

Notes

YOU WILL NEED: Two 8-9" Cake Pans, Unbleached Parchment Paper, Mixing Bowls, High Powered Blender, Small Saucepan, Hand-Held Mixer

  • *The strawberry-beet puree should equal 1 1/2 cups.
  • The cake batter comes together best if all ingredients are room temperature. A great way to bring the eggs to room temperature fast is to place them in a bowl with warm {not hot} water for about 10 minutes.
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: It takes about 2 1/2 to 4 cups of frosting to generously frost a 2 layer 9" cake. The frosting yield is about 1 1/2cups. 
  • If you don't have a problem with sugar, and prefer to use organic powdered sugar instead, then by all means go for it. Omit the honey and arrowroot powder. Use the same instructions as above, just use about 3 cups organic powdered sugar, 1/2 cup pasture butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and about 2-3 tablespoons organic milk. Then add the strawberries.

Adapted from Chocolate Beet Cake from Heartbeet Kitchen

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 332Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 118mgSodium: 371mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 2gSugar: 12gProtein: 4g

This nutritional information was auto-generated based on serving size, number of servings, and typical information for the ingredients listed. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in a given recipe, please calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients and amounts used, using your preferred nutrition calculator. Under no circumstances shall the this website and the author be responsible for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on the given nutritional information. You are solely responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate, complete, and useful.

© Emily
Cuisine: American / Category: Dessert

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. I never would have thought to use a beet to help with coloring! Just like I never knew you could use avocado to make cookies… Loving all the food inspiration I get from other bloggers! Your cake turned out so great 🙂

    Reply

    • I love the moisture beets add. It’s super simple 🙂 use the back of a teaspoon and slowly turn the cake in a simple swirl pattern around the top starting in the center and working your way out. Repeat the same steps around the side of the cake if you want to.

      Reply

  12. I love that this cake is not only strawberry but made with cassava flour! I eat gluten free, so this was a fun surprise when reading through this blog post. I did a little research and it said that it is the closest flour to give the same consistency as wheat flour, did you find that to be the case with this cake? If so I want to try some!!! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

    • Hi Cristin! Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Yes, I have found that to be true with cassava flour. With other gluten free flours I find that you need a combo or other flours like tapioca and even gums like xanthan in order for baked goods to work and not fall apart. Cassava doesn’t need those extras and I love that about it! It’s my new go-to flour. 🙂

      Reply

  19. This cake looks amazing! if I gain 5 lbs it’s all your fault 🙂 Thanks for adding this to Simply Natural Saturdays. I chose this as my featured post for this week. Hope to see you again soon!

    Reply

  23. Yet another recipe of yours to pin and make!! Love this one! I have taken to using beets for my red color too…much cheaper than the natural store bought ones! Featuring your recipe on Allergy Free Wednesday this week, thank you!

    Reply

    • Hi Julie, thank you! I haven’t made this dairy free, but you could try substituting avocado oil for the butter in the cake. For the buttermilk, I would try substituting with a non-dairy version, something thicker like cashew milk or I’ve even seen a cashew-coconut “half and half” at my local natural foods store – to get that “buttermilk” you could try adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to the non-dairy milk. For the frosting, I would substitute with a quality organic palm shortening for the butter. Hope that helps! 🙂

      Reply

  27. Can I use sweet potato instead of the beet? Or substitute something else? I’m afraid I don’t have any beets around and haven’t been able to find them in stores

    Reply

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