Let's make a gluten-free strawberry cake to celebrate the start of strawberry season!
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About This Strawberry CakeRecipe
This cake is a modified version of the Fresh Strawberry Cake recipe from Once Upon A Chef. The cake looked wonderful, so I decided to modify it to be gluten-free with fresh strawberries from our CSA. It's a great summer dessert, perfect for a 4th of July or Memorial Day barbecue, or just if you want to have something special right at home!
It has a delicious, fluffy consistency, and a great sponge cake taste. Combined with fresh strawberries and a sprinkle of sugar on top, it's seriously good. While it's tasty on its own, you can also add some fresh whipped cream for extra decadence!
Ingredients You Will Need
- Gluten-Free Flour (See below for my recommendations)
- Baking Powder: This will provide the rise we need for the cake.
- Salt: For balance.
- Granulated Sugar: I reduced the sugar from the original recipe.
- Unsalted Butter: This is the fat content for our cake recipe.
- Vanilla Extract: Added sweetness!
- Egg: This will be used to thicken the batter and also add moisture.
- Milk - I used cow's milk and this turned out fine. You could also substitute with non-dairy milk.
- Strawberries: Fresh strawberries work best here!
Gluten-Free Flour Blend
Gluten-Free Flour: I use Cup4Cup multi-purpose gluten-free flour for this recipe. It is my #1 choice for cookies, pastries, and yeast-based baked goods. Cup4Cup has given me great success in the kitchen over the last eight years, helping me to create delicious croissants, empanadas, naan, chocolate chip cookies, pierogi, bagels, and more. Please note if you use a different gluten-free flour your results may vary.
INGREDIENT CHANGE: Cup4Cup changed its Multipurpose recipe in August of 2024. It is now Top Nine Allergen Free and no longer contains milk powder. They also have reformulated the ingredients so it is now primarily rice-flour based. This ingredient change, according to the President of the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, who I spoke to directly, should not affect recipes using Cup4Cup. So far, in my recipe testing, I have not noticed a difference in taste or texture using this new blend. Please be aware that might be different for you - you may need to adjust liquid or leavening agent. I will continue to provide updates as I continue my recipe testing. Thank you.
Can I Make This Recipe With Almond or Coconut Flour?
I do not recommend substituting a single gluten-free flour, like almond flour or coconut flour, for my recipes. My recipes use a gluten-free flour blend, a mixture of different gluten-free grains, starches, and thickeners, to substitute for all purpose flour. Using just one of them, like almond or coconut, will not give you the same results, and will probably lead to a lot of frustration in the kitchen. For most of my recipes, you'll need a blend, like Cup4Cup, King Arthur Measure For Measure, Bob's Red Mill, or GF Jules, to name a few.
For more my top tips on gluten-free baking with success, check out this post!
How To Make Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake
The recipe is straightforward. After whisking the gluten-free flour, salt, and baking powder with a whisk, you cream the butter and sugar. After that, the egg and vanilla are mixed in, followed by the flour mixture and milk until the batter forms. It will be very thick, so make sure to spread it evenly in your pan. After, you top the cake with freshly chopped strawberries and sprinkle sugar on top.
Can I Make This Cake Dairy-Free?
Yes, but I haven't tried it. The gluten-free flour blend I recommend for this recipe contains milk powder. So if you were to modify the recipe to be dairy-free, you'd need to use a different gluten-free flour blend, such as GF Jules or King Arthur Measure For Measure. You would also need non-dairy milk and dairy-free butter. I can't speak to your results, but please feel free to leave a comment if you need help troubleshooting.
Tips For Making Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake
Strawberry Size: As the notes suggest in the original recipe, make sure to not make your strawberries too big, or it can cause the cake to sink. This happened to me when making it one or two times, and by making the strawberries smaller, it turned out much better.
Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?
You can try, but I believe fresh strawberries work best here. Frozen strawberries will inherently have more moisture, due to freezing, which could create a more watery cake. I'd advise using fresh strawberries to be safe!
How To Serve Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake
This strawberry cake is decadent on it's own, but I love sprinkling powdered sugar on top, or even a scoop of fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. It reminds me of eating pound cake when I was younger, and the only thing I ever wanted with my pound cake were some strawberries and whipped cream!
How To Store This Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake
Store the cake at room temperature covered in foil for 2-3 days. Gluten-free baked goods tend to harden quickly, so it's best eaten with in a few days. You can also freeze the cake for up to 3 months: just wrap it thickly in aluminum foil. Thaw it overnight before serving.
Looking for more 4th of July/Memorial Day recipes?
Make this fruit galette in a star shape for another patriotic dessert.
Use up fresh berries in a gluten-free crisp. You can substitute other fruit too!
Bring a no bake pie everyone will love - gluten & dairy free key lime pie.
Go for a classic - Apple pie! This one is gluten-free with a lattice design so you'll look extra fancy.
Here's how to make gluten-free strawberry cake!
If you love this recipe, please leave a comment! Thank you so much!
Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
- 1-½ cups gluten-free flour blend, like Cup4Cup
- 1-½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pan (or you can use your favorite oil to grease the pan instead)
- ¾ cup of sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk of choice
- ½ to ¾ pound strawberries, hulled and halved
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch circular or square cake pan with butter or oil of choice.
In a medium bowl, add the gluten-free flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and ¾ cup of sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, and then the vanilla, continuing to beat on low speed until well combined. Slowly, alternating with the milk, add the flour mixture, beating on low speed until smooth and incorporated, until all of the milk and flour mixture is added. The batter will be very thick!
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Again, the batter will be thick! Arrange the strawberries on top, cut side down, in a circular pattern. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar all over the strawberries.
Bake the cake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then lower the heat to 325 degrees and bake for 1 hour. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Serve it with fresh whipped cream for extra decadence!
Notes
Storage: Store the cake at room temperature covered in foil for 2-3 days. Gluten-free baked goods tend to harden quickly, so it's best eaten with in a few days.
You can also freeze the cake for up to 3 months: just wrap it thickly in aluminum foil. Thaw it overnight before serving.
Nutrition Information
Yield 6 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 394Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 8gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 63mgSodium 364mgCarbohydrates 63gFiber 2gSugar 28gProtein 7g
The nutrition information on each recipe card is provided as a courtesy and for your convenience. The data is calculated by Nutritionix. You are encouraged to make your own calculations based on your ingredients and preferred nutritional facts calculator. While I try to make sure they are accurate, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of these calculations.
What's your favorite way to enjoy fresh strawberries?
Do you have a strawberry recipe to share?
Let me know in the comments below!
Ann says
Baking powder only no baking soda? Looking forward to baking this. My previous strawberry cakes have been turning out mushy/too moist.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick says
No baking soda, just powder and it's worked for me! Let me know how it comes out for you, Ann.
Ann says
I can't thank you enough for this recipe! Every gluten free cake I have made prior to this one was gooey. Almost like they never fully cooked. I am using BRM 1 to 1 gluten free flour. This recipe worked perfectly. I finally have a good cake! I used my mixer for creaming the butter and sugar but I hand mixed the flour and milk into the batter. I think one of the reasons previous cakes turned out mushy was that using mixer made the batter more like a dough. I am going to double the ingredients for this recipe and make one in a large bundt pan. Please post more cake recipes in the future. Thank you.
Jennifer Fitzpatrick says
Hi Ann, I'm thrilled you enjoyed this cake so much! Thank you for sharing and will work on more cakes in the future!