Strawberry Elderflower Cake

This cake is the epitome of the beginning of summer. With the first of the season’s juicy berries and wildflowers, this Strawberry Elderflower Cake tastes like a sunny afternoon picnic. 

Picture soft fluffy cake, slices of fresh strawberries, and creamy frosting spiked with elderflower bourbon. It’s delicious, and I know you’ll love it!

Recipe highlights

• As easy as it gets. Making homemade cake couldn’t be easier than this. I’ve parsed this recipe down so both the cake and frosting are as simple as possible.
• Soft, fluffy, tender. If you like your cakes soft and light, this recipe is for you. Made with egg yolks, sour cream, and less gluten than typical, the cake is ultra tender.
• All the summer vibes. Fresh, bright berries – check. Summer’s wildflowers – check. Less time needed in the kitchen to make it so you can go play outside? Check.

Tips for making the cake

This strawberry elderflower cake is a summery twist on my Lemon Lilac Butter Cake. I made a few adjustments to that cake recipe to simplify it and make elderflower the star of the show.

It’s still a tender, soft cake with a fine crumb. There are several ingredients at play that help to make this cake super soft and moist. Using egg yolks instead of whole eggs adds extra fat, richness, and moisture. The sour cream has a similar effect. And cutting the all purpose flour with cornstarch reduces the gluten, resulting in a softer crumb.

Most of the ingredients for this cake you’ll likely have on hand in your pantry, with the exception of the elderflower flavoring. Before you make this cake, be sure to make a batch of elderflower extract. Alternatively, you could go to the liquor store and pick up a bottle of St. Germaine elderflower liqueur. 

The dried elderflowers in the cake batter are optional, but give the cake a little extra elderflower flavor. These dried flowers can be found in herb shops or online.

Elderflower frosting tip

Add the elderflower flavoring a little at a time. The alcohol can cause the butter to separate a bit. You can decrease the amount to flavor the frosting as you see fit, but I don’t recommend adding any more than the two teaspoons called for here, as it will start to “break” the frosting.

Variations & substitutions

This cake can be made either in an 8×8 square pan (as shown here), or in an 8-inch round cake pan. Keep in mind that the baking time listed in this recipe is for an 8×8 pan and may vary slightly if you use a round pan.

Other variations

Turn it into a layer cake: You could double the cake and frosting recipes if you’d like to turn this into a layer cake. Use two 8-inch round cake pans and add a layer of frosting and berries in between the layers.

Bake it in a 13×9 pan: Another option is to double the recipe and bake it in a 13×9-inch pan to feed a larger crowd. The cake will be a little bit thinner if you bake it this way, and the baking time may need to be adjusted.

Make a less sweet elderflower buttercream: This recipe uses an American-style buttercream, which I make very rarely because I typically find this type of frosting to be too sweet. If you’d like a less-sweet option, make this Italian meringue-style elderflower buttercream. You will only need a half batch for this recipe.

Ingredient substitutions

Elderflower bourbon: I used my homemade elderflower extract for the cake and frosting. You could substitute St. Germaine for this, an elderflower liqueur that is common in most liquor stores.

Cornstarch: The cornstarch is there to make the cake more tender. You could replace this with brown or white rice flour or tapioca starch.

Strawberries: Elderflower also tastes great with raspberries and blackberries. Swap your favorite berry out in this recipe, or even skip the berries altogether if you want this cake to simply celebrate the beautiful flavor of elderflowers.

Happy Summer Solstice, friends! I wish you a lovely summer, and as always, happy baking!