This French Strawberry Cake recipe is so easy to make and perfect as a delicious spring or summer treat! Light, fluffy, and perfectly moist on the inside, strawberries throughout the cake, and a crackly top with a layer of sugar to finish it off. This cake is beautifully elegant and the best for any occasion!
What is French Strawberry Cake?
French strawberry cake, also known as Fraisier cake, is an elegant dessert that’s soft and almost custard-like in the center, but crackly and sugary on the outside. The cake batter is made from butter, sugar, eggs, flour, sour cream, and fresh strawberries.
This delicious cake can be made in a cast iron skillet, cake pan, or springform pan. It’s almost like a sponge cake, but even more delicate and lightly creamy. Every bite is SO delicious! Top it off with a dusting of powdered sugar for a delicate treat that everyone will love!
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Ingredients
Butter – Softened butter is a key ingredient in this recipe. To soften, simply let it sit out at room temperature for a couple of hours before starting the recipe.
Granulated Sugar – This light and fluffy cake is perfectly sweetened with granulated sugar! 1 cup for the cake batter, and 3 Tablespoons sprinkled on top.
Eggs – The eggs in this recipe help bind the cake.
Vanilla – Vanilla extract adds so much delicious flavor to this recipe!
Flour – This recipe calls for all-purpose flour.
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Baking Powder/Salt – Be sure to include baking powder and salt to help this cake rise to perfection!
Sour Cream – Sour cream is a must for French Strawberry Cake! You can also use crème fraîche, but the difference isn’t too noticeable since it’s baked into the cake.
Strawberries – Fresh, sliced strawberries baked into the cake are what makes this french cake recipe next level! It’s best to make sure the strawberries are completely dry before slicing them. Another idea is to actually make this cake with blueberries, raspberries, or even sliced blackberries!
Note: fresh strawberries work better than frozen strawberries in this recipe, since frozen may release too much moisture.
How to Make French Strawberry Cake
This recipe is so simple! Here’s a quick overview for how to make French Strawberry Cake in 7 steps:
- Whip together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl.
- Add in eggs and vanilla.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt together a medium bowl.
- Alternate adding in the flour mixture and sour cream to the liquid ingredients.
- Stir in strawberries and pour the batter into a prepared pan (9-inch springform pan or regular cake pan) lined with parchment paper and a little bit of cooking spray.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake 40-45 minutes.
- Let cool on a cooling rack completely, slice, add toppings, and enjoy!
Topping Ideas
This French Strawberry Cake is deliciously sweet and elegant enough on it’s own. However, it can really be taken up a notch with toppings! Here are a few topping ideas:
- Powdered Sugar Dusting
- Whipped Cream
- Dollop of Cream Cheese Icing
- Whipped Honey Mascarpone
- A Drizzle of Maple Syrup
- Dollop of Crème Pâtissière or Mousseline Cream (or any pastry cream)
How Long Does French Strawberry Cake Last?
This cake is best served fresh or within 24 hours! However, if stored properly in an airtight container, it can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
More Desserts You’ll Love
- Lemon Turmeric Cake
- Maple Whiskey Pudding Cake
- Snickers Brownies
- Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies
- Apple Fritter Cake
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The BEST French Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened about 1/2 cup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 16 ounces strawberries, sliced about 2 cups
Topping
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a 9-inch springform pan (or cake pan) with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl (or stand mixer), whip together the softened butter and sugar for about 4-5 minutes, until the mixture is pale yellow.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Mix in the vanilla.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Gradually add in the flour mixture and sour cream, alternating one at a time, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix well between each addition.
- Fold in the sliced strawberries.
- Pour the cake batter into the pan and spread to smooth.
- Sprinkle the granulated sugar topping (3 Tablespoons) evenly over the batter.
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes, or until the top begins to lightly brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely, then remove from the pan.
- Dust with powdered sugar (optional), cut into slices, and enjoy!
This was delicious!
It turned out perfectly! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Such a spectacular cake! The texture is perfect
Love how easy this recipe was. Smoke whole ingredients made this cake so tender and tasty. Thanks
Loved this cake. It was so light and fluffy and the perfect amount of strawberries!
So delicious and perfect for summer!
I think this might just be my new favourite! It was so simple to put together and I loved that it could be cooked in the skillet!
This was my first time making a french cake and I loved it! The cake was so tasty with the strawberries and not too difficult to make.
I made this Fraisier cake today. I followed the same recipe and it turned perfect. Loved the soft custard like center. This recipe is a keeper now.
I can’t wait to make this recipe with my summer strawberry harvest! This is the perfect recipe to enjoy with a hot cup of tea!
This was really yummy and so easy to make! It was super moist and a great lighter cake for spring and summer!!
Delicious cake, way to use all this fresh seasonable strawberries
What a gorgeous cake! This is a beautiful dessert for Mother’s Day coming up and I’m going to surprise my mom with it. This would brighten any holiday table.
I am saving the recipe to make for Mother’s day. It is going to be so delicious and light. I can tell it will be perfect.
This looks absolutely divine! I just bought a carton of strawberries with no plans on how to use them. I need to make this recipe!
This recipe was so fabulous! I sincerely am glad I found it on Pinterest. We made it for our friends on Friday, and they even said it was awesome. I love when guests are happy! Have a great day.
This is so delicious with strawberries, but then decided to try it with raspberries… omgoodness even better in my opinion! Thank you for sharing this easy, seems like you made a fuss, but didn’t, awesome recipe. It will be my go to dessert recipe every summer! 🙂🍓
Made it several times, different berries, sometimes with lemon/orange zest & it’s perfection every time. Thank you!!
Excellent recipe. Added a few more strawberries although it wasn’t necessary. Baked for 40 minutes. One of the best fruit cakes I have eaten.
Wow! Literally so good. Made it without the strawberries, and then made a homemade preserve and some buttercream for the top. Also added a small amount of coconut extract, extra vanilla extract, and used nonfat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. After I took it out of the oven, I added some half and half just to soak into the cake and add extra moisture. Turned out perfectly! My sister said she wants it for her wedding cake. 10000/10
I made this cake today with raspberries and it was amazing. Great texture and wonderful raspberry flavor. I served it to my book club and they all wanted the recipe!
Will absolutely make this again! Turned out great. Subtle but still sweet. Feels fancy even though it is simple.