A gorgeous, flavor-packed easy strawberry upside down cake made with seasonal fresh strawberries. Super easy, and perfect for a casual treat or even breakfast. This post was created in collaboration with Domino® Sugar.
Why it Works
This cake is super easy to put together. All it requires is a few simple ingredients and fresh, in-season strawberries. No crazy or hard to find ingredients, special techniques, or special equipment.
The cake itself is a super soft and moist vanilla cake. The fresh strawberry juice seeps into the cake just a bit to really infuse the cake with more strawberry flavor throughout. It is inspired by my caramel apple upside down cake and uses a lot of the same elements.
It makes just enough to serve your family and a guest or two. Plus, it stores well to snack on later.
Key ingredients
There are only a few key ingredients we use in this strawberry upside down cake. A lot of them are pantry staples, so you probably have them in your kitchen already or at your local grocery store! Let’s go over a couple of the key ingredients.
- Strawberries - This recipe works best with those juicy, ripe berries you get during strawberry season I recommend sticking to those. In a pinch, or when you have a craving for this cake in winter, you can use thawed frozen strawberries because they are flash frozen at their peak ripeness trapping in all that flavor.
- Sugar - For the best results, you should use Domino® Golden Sugar because it brings out a light caramel flavor that really enhances the strawberries. It also bakes up beautifully in the cake for an unforgettable flavor and texture. In a pinch, you can use Domino® Granulated Sugar. For added depth, you can also experiment with using brown sugar in the strawberry topping.
- Flour - You should use all-purpose flour or white whole wheat flour. You can also try using cake flour in this recipe.
- Butter - I recommend using unsalted butter. In the past we’ve experimented with shortening and margarine, but the results are never consistent.
- Sour Cream - Sour cream adds a light tang to the cake that adds to how delicious the flavor is. It also has the added benefit of tenderizing the cake. You can substitute the sour cream with nonfat Greek yogurt.
How to make
Nothing beats how easy it is to make this strawberry upside down cake. The cake comes together quickly and in two parts.
- Start with the strawberry layer. Slice your strawberries at a medium thickness. Coat with the arrowroot starch (or cornstarch), sugar, and vanilla extract, then set aside in a medium bowl.
- Start the cake. Mix the egg with half the sour cream and the vanilla extract and set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add in the butter and mix until it resembled pea-sized crumbs.
- Add in the remaining sour cream and mix. Then add in the egg mixture.
- Pour the strawberry mixture into your prepared pan. This will be the top of the cake, so make sure they are in an even layer that reaches all the edges.
- Top with the cake batter. It will be thick - this is normal. Make sure to spread it out to the edges.
- Bake until the cake is a beautiful golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean or with crumbs clinging to it. Flip the cake out of the pan and let the cake cool to room temperature and enjoy!
Amanda's expert tips
The most important way to ensure you get the best results is to make sure you are correctly measuring your ingredients, particularly the all-purpose flour. You should fluff up the flour and then spoon it into your measuring cup then sweep of the excess. If you want to make sure you get consistent results, you can convert the recipe to metric and use a kitchen scale.
It is important to use all room temperature ingredients because it helps everything to incorporate well together. You can quickly bring your eggs to room temperature by leaving them in very warm water for five minutes before cracking them.
I recommend cutting the strawberries in rounds. It makes it easier for the berries to evenly coat the bottom of your baking pan. You are free to cut them in any shape you like, however.
If possible, I also like to leave the strawberries to sit in their mixture for about 15 minutes before you start making the cake batter. It will allow the sweet strawberries to release more juices (macerate) and you can coat your cake with that delicious syrup once you’ve flipped it out of the pan which will not only make it taste better, but it will also look prettier.
You don’t need to flip the cake immediately. You can also wait for the pan to cool longer if it makes it easier to flip. Since we line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, it makes flipping the cake easier if you decide to wait.
I recommend finishing the cake with a dollop of fresh whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream.
Store the cake in an airtight container for up to 2 - 3 days, preferably in the refrigerator because of the use of fresh fruit.
F.A.Q.s
Yes, you can use blueberries, raspberries, pitted cherries, and other similar fruits.
Yes! You can use an 8x8 baking pan. The baking time will be slightly different, so I recommend checking at about 20 minutes.
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Recipe Card
Strawberry Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
Top
- ½ cup Domino® Golden Sugar
- 2 tablespoons Arrowroot starch
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 lbs Strawberries
Cake
- 1 large Egg room temperature
- ½ cup Sour cream room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- ¾ cup Domino® Golden Sugar
- ¾ teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Sea salt
- 9 tablespoons Unsalted butter room temperature & cubed
Instructions
Cake Topping
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut out a round of parchment paper and line the bottom of an 8-inch cake pan.
- Whisk the Domino® Golden Sugar and arrowroot starch together in a medium bowl.½ cup Domino® Golden Sugar, 2 tablespoons Arrowroot starch
- Add the strawberries and stir so the berries are fully coated and add the vanilla; set aside.1 lbs Strawberries, ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
Prepare cake:
- Mix the egg, half the sour cream, and vanilla together in a medium bowl; set aside.1 large Egg, ½ cup Sour cream, 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla extract
- Mix the flour, Domino® Golden Sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in the mixer.¾ cup Domino® Golden Sugar, ¾ teaspoon Baking powder, ¼ teaspoon Baking soda, ½ teaspoon Sea salt, 1 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- Add the remaining sour cream and butter to the flour and mix until just combined.½ cup Sour cream, 9 tablespoons Unsalted butter
- Slowly add egg mixture and mix until just combined.
- Spread the strawberries in an even layer in the prepared skillet, do not worry about arranging them in a pattern as long as they touch the edges of the pan.1 lbs Strawberries
- Drop the batter onto the strawberries, then gently spread evenly.
- Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool one minute, then run a knife around the edges and flip the pan over onto a plate to release the cake.
Stephanie Peterka says
Do I need to refrigerate this cake if I make in the morning for an evening dinner party?
Amanda Powell says
No, it'll be fine at room temperature as long as you haven't topped it with anything like whipped cream!
Shirley Tucker says
If I use the cake flour would I need to add the bacon soda baking patter in salt
Amanda Powell says
Sorry for the delay! If you are using cake flour, you still need to use baking soda and baking powder! Self-rising flour has all of that in it, but the cake flour does not.