Sourdough Strawberry Cake [with fresh strawberries]

This special sourdough strawberry cake is what I love to call an “any occasion” cake. It’s lovely served for a summer time brunch with a dusting of powdered sugar, but just as decadent served for dessert with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and sweet, juicy strawberries.

A golden sourdough pound cake studded with fresh strawberries, both in the cake batter as well as on top of.

You can use active sourdough starter or sourdough starter discard with equal success in this sourdough strawberry coffee cake. It will also work really well with fresh blueberries if you don’t have any strawberries on hand.

If you have loads of strawberries to use up, I highly recommend these sourdough strawberry bars, sourdough strawberry muffins or sourdough strawberry rolls, bejewelled with fresh strawberries, sourdough strawberry shortcakes, sourdough berry cobbler or perhaps sourdough blueberry muffins are more to your taste. Or if you’d prefer a more traditional coffee cake, try this cinnamon pecan sourdough coffee cake.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Use 180g of Sourdough Starter – this sourdough strawberry cake is a great way to empty your discard jar!

Full of Fresh Strawberries – this delicious sourdough strawberry cakes uses 500g of fresh strawberries which means it’s packed full of that sweet strawberry flavor! It’s delicious served with fresh whipped ricotta.

No Special Equipment Necessary – You don’t need any fancy equipment for this simple sourdough cake. Just a bowl and a spatula … and a round cake tin to bake it in (I’ve used a pan that is 20 x 5 cm or 8 x 2″).

How To Make Sourdough Strawberry Cake

Maybe the best thing about this sourdough strawberry cake is that it’s so easy to put together (just like this sourdough cranberry cake)! If you can mix cake batter and chop strawberries, you can pull this one off! You’ve gotta love that!

It uses a huge 180g of sourdough discard, which is perfect if you need to empty that discard jar. But as always, you can also use active sourdough starter too. Because this cake is leavened with baking powder, it won’t make too much difference.

Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and spray a round cake pan with cooking oil or grease with butter and set aside.

Prepare the strawberries before you begin the cake batter. Hull all the strawberries, wash and dry. Take 100g of hulled strawberries and slice them once lengthways and then into small slices. Set these aside for the cake batter.

Take the remaining strawberries and slice them in half and set aside for the top of the cake.

Now in a large mixing bowl add the wet ingredients – eggs, vegetable oil, lemon juice, Greek yogurt, vanilla extract and sourdough starter. Whisk until they are well combined into a smooth liquid.

Now, on top of the liquid ingredients add the dry ingredients – all purpose flour, baking powder and sugar. Stir well to create a thick cake batter.

Spoon half of the cake batter into the round cake pan you prepared earlier and then layer the 100g of thinly sliced strawberries on top of the batter.

Now, spoon the remaining cake batter on top of the strawberry layer.

Take the 400g of strawberries you sliced in half and arrange these, cut side down on the top of the cake batter.

Bake for 50 minutes at 180C (350F) or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake should be golden brown and the strawberries will be juicy, but still holding their shape.

Allow to cool in the pan for 30ish minutes before taking out of the pan and placing on a wire rack to cool. This makes sure that you don’t lose half the cake when you invert it.

To serve, dust with powdered sugar or serve with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Ingredient Notes and Swaps

Vegetable Oil – you can use coconut oil, olive oil or even avocado oil in place of vegetable oil if you prefer.

Greek Yogurt – you can use sour cream instead of Greek yogurt or plain yogurt.

Lemon Juice – if you like more lemon flavor, you can also add the zest of a lemon to the cake batter along with the lemon juice. Alternatively, you could use the juice and zest of an orange if you prefer (this is really very yummy).

Strawberries – fresh blueberries work really well in this cake recipe instead of sweet strawberries. If you’re looking to use up some fresh cranberries, why not try this sourdough cranberry cake.

Share the sourdough love!