Channeling strawberry shortcake cake with this one!
Tell Me About This Fresh Berry Cream Cake
Using practically any soft/light cake recipe of your choice, you can create a naked-style cake with three lovely layers of whipped cream and fresh berries. If decorating layer cakes makes you nervous, this cake is FOR YOU; no complicated decorating involved! I chose my vanilla flavored white cake because it’s ultra soft and sponge-like, which pairs beautifully with light whipped cream and summer berries. Heavier cakes would make this difficult to cut and serve. I have a list of other cake flavors you can use below. This cake is:
Towering tall with whipped cream and berries Light, fresh, and naked-style Very easy to decorate—less is more! Celebrating the season’s fresh flavors Like a fruit pizza in cake form Adaptable to many cake flavors
What a beautiful choice for Memorial Day recipes or 4th of July desserts!
Use Any Cake You Love
Let’s talk cake flavors. As I mentioned above, I use my white cake recipe. I divide the batter between 3 round cake pans. I used 8-inch cake pans for the pictured cake. Three 9-inch pans work too, but the cake layers will be pretty thin. I love using this white cake recipe because it’s soft, moist, and doesn’t overpower the delicate whipped cream or fresh berries. It’s made with cake flour, egg whites, and sour cream to guarantee the softest crumb. Highly recommended! If white cake isn’t your ideal choice, I have a few other flavor ideas. Most are actually adapted from my white cake recipe:
Pistachio Cake Coconut Cake Lemon Cake Chocolate Cake (spongey and delicious!)
You Could Also Make a 6-Inch Cake
Don’t want to make such a large cake? You can use this exact decorating technique on a 6-inch cake. I have plenty of 6 inch cake flavor ideas in my 6-Inch Cake recipes post. (Use my vanilla cupcakes batter or any cupcake batter!) Simply halve the amount of whipped cream and berries.
Prepare the Cake Pans
No matter which size round cake pans you use, I always recommend lining them with parchment paper rounds. Cakes release seamlessly from the pans this way: If it’s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video & post.
Garnishes for Fresh Berry Cream Cake
Whipped Cream: I recommend the whipped cream recipe below, which yields plenty for a 3 layer 8- or 9-inch cake. (See recipe note about a 6-inch cake.) It’s a slightly scaled up version of my vanilla whipped cream. I add a little almond extract for extra flavor like I do in my berry icebox cake, but that’s optional. You know what would be equally tasty? The mocha whipped cream from my flourless chocolate cake—double that whipped cream to ensure you have enough for a 3 layer 8- or 9-inch cake. Interested in chocolate whipped cream? Add 3 Tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 extra Tablespoon of confectioners’ sugar to the recipe below. You could also flavor the whipped cream with various extracts such as lemon extract, orange extract, coconut extract, etc. Leave out the almond extract, replace with 1/2 teaspoon of your desired flavor, taste the finished whipped cream, then fold in more extract if desired. Fresh Berries: Layer fresh berries into the cake on top of the layers of whipped cream. You can use blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, or even fresh sliced cherries. Florals: Use edible flowers or flowers that haven’t been sprayed with pesticides. Avoid strong-smelling flowers as the smell may linger on the cake. The pictured white flowers here are called kalanchoe flowers.
3 Final Success Tips
See Your Fresh Berry Cakes!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge! Feel free to email or share your recipe photos with us on social media. 🙂 Like pound cake with fresh berries and cream, but much lighter!