I really love the idea of tiny, two-serving desserts for Valentine’s Day, and I could not get over how cute this tiny cake is. I actually made a couple tiny cakes this weekend, and I think I’m going to have to start making more of them just because. Mini automatically makes things cuter, right?
To get a stronger strawberry flavor without adding a gelatin mix, which so many strawberry cake recipes out there call for, this cake gets the flavor from a strawberry sauce. Basically you puree up some strawberries and let it simmer in a pot on the stove until it becomes the texture of jelly. If you were to add straight up pureed strawberries to the cake batter, it would become too thin and you’d probably have to add more flour. By adding a thick jelly, you can all the flavor without messing up the consistency of the batter.
And then you have it, naturally flavored and dyed (if you don’t use food coloring) strawberry cake for two! Also it probably wouldn’t be that bad if you ate this whole thing yourself. You’re allowed to do that on Valentine’s Day.
Also make sure to scroll down past the recipe for a fun giveaway!
Strawberry Cake for Two + Target Giftcard Giveaway!
Ingredients
strawberry sauce
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
strawberry cake
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup + two tbsp strawberry sauce
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
strawberry frosting
- 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
- 2 tbsp strawberry sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
strawberry sauce
- So you aren't trying to make all of this in one day, it might be easier to make this sauce the day before you plan to make the cake. Puree 2 cups of chopped strawberries in a blender or food processor and add the puree to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring the puree to a simmer and reduce the heat slightly to medium low. Simmer, stirring frequently, until it becomes a jelly-like consistency. You can do other things during this time, just don't stray too far from the stove because you'll need to stir this a lot.
strawberry cake
- Spray a 9x13 rectangle pan with nonstick spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In one bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Whisk together and set aside.
- In another bowl, beat butter on medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and mix until combined and fluffy. Next add the egg, egg white, and vanilla, and mix well on medium speed. Then add the strawberry sauce and mix until combined.
- Next add half of the flour mixture and half of the buttermilk. Mix on low until just combined. Add the second half of the flour and buttermilk and mix until completely combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then let it cool completely on a wire rack.
- When the cake is cool, transfer it to a sheet of parchment paper and cut out the circles, which will become the small cake layers. I used a large cup for this, but you can use whatever you have. My cake layers ended up being about 4 inches in diameter.
strawberry frosting
- In a medium-sized bow, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and strawberry sauce and mix well. Next add half of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until mostly combined. Then add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix on medium speed for one minute.
- Place a mini cake layer on a small cake stand or plate. Spread frosting between each of the layers and around the outside of the cake. I had enough left over to pipe some little borders. Garnish with strawberries or a little strawberry heart.
Notes
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Visit www.bhambloggers.com and all the bloggers in the giveaway here:
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Pretty little cake! I love this little cake and want to dig into it right now. Strawberry cake is the best and I love that you used strawberry frosting too. Pinned!
Thanks, Ashley! Strawberry cake is one of those things that I forget I really like. 🙂
Mini strawberry cakes and a giveaway..girl, we’re on the same wavelength today!! I love that you made the cakes strawberry flavored. I need to try out your recipe, because every recipe I saw used Jello or some other gross artificial thing for the strawberry flavor. I love that you used the same technique as I did for my frosting! Pinned 🙂
We’re blog twins today! Haha. Thanks for pinning, Rachel!
I adore mini cakes, especially on Valentine’s day. These are super cute!
Thanks, Natasha! 🙂
PERFECT! Cutest little cake EVER!
Aw thanks 🙂
Beth I may or may not have squealed out loud in response to seeing these tiny cakes. Tiny “hamburger patty” layers or no, I love this idea for Valentine’s Day and it’s so pretty and pink and full of awesome strawberry flavor. What more could I want from a cake?! 😀
Haha, thanks Jess! Glad the hamburger patty thing didn’t change your opinion of this cake lol. 🙂
Too cute Beth! I’m always a fan of desserts made with real, fresh ingredients. This cake is just lovely 🙂
Thanks so much, Allie! 🙂
This cake is beyond adorable! I love your strawberry sauce 🙂
Thanks, Medha! The strawberry sauce is key. 🙂
What a cute little cake! Pinned.
Thanks for pinning! 🙂
So so beautiful!! I adore strawberry cake, it is one of my favorites!
Thanks, Annie! Strawberry cake is one of my favorites, too. 🙂
This cake is seriously so darling!!
Thanks so much, Jocelyn!
Ahhhh! I love how cute this cake is! I need to make more smaller cakes.
Pretty sure smaller cakes = happiness. 🙂 Thanks, Zainab!
This cake is amazing! I love that you used all fresh strawberries!!!
Fresh strawberries are the way to go! Thanks, Amanda. 🙂
What a charming darling cake chuck full of yummy ‘stuff’. You did a simple, but very effective job in decorating. The color just
carried the day.
Aw thanks, Carol! 🙂
This cake is beautiful. I love all these pink, berrylicious desserts I see lately on every blog, you can tell it’s Valentine’s Day soon. Such a lovely time of the year and such an inspiration for bakers. Thanks for sharing!
This is such an awesome cake, Beth! I love the idea of a strawberry cake and of mini cakes. I’m sure I’ll be trying both ideas soon 😉
These are adorable! And mini things totally taste better. I don’t know why, but it’s true!!
Okay, Beth, this is the CUTEST! When I saw the pieces coming together on Instagram I knew you had a good thing going 🙂 I love how perfectly pink this cake is!
Mini things are always cute! These look yummy! I really like how used fruit puree instead of jello or something like that.
Is there a way to make this just in the 9×13 pan to feed more than 2 people? Would you double the cake recipe or leave it? I need one to feed 4 and I’m too lazy to make 2 separate mini cakes. The struggle.
Hello from Chile and thank you for this adorable cake. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and I was looking for a cake for two and I saw your recipe. I wasn’t planning on making a strawberry cake but your cake was just too cute and I happen to have fresh strawberries so I decided to try it. I was very easy to make and cutting the patty cakes was such a great idea. I loved it! I had some strawberry sauce left over so I added a bit of sugar and used it as decoration along with some fresh flowers. Oh my. What a piece of art. Thank you so much for your recipe, I will make it again and again and wont change a thing!
This cake is delicious! I made it for my wife’s birthday, and everyone was so impressed with it! There were 5 of us, so I doubled the recipe to make cupcakes. Doubling the recipe resulted in 2 dozen cupcakes and a 9×9 cake, so the original recipe serves a few more than 2! I don’t bake often, so I didn’t realize that by looking at the recipe. My wife wanted cream cheese frosting, so I made that instead of the frosting in this recipe. The flavor of the cake was so good, and the strawberry sauce cooking on the stove made my house smell like strawberry heaven! I will definitely make this cake again!