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Strawberry Chamomile Naked Cake…because it’s SPRING!
Or it will be on Tuesday, so close enough. And Yes, I know that a lot of you are still covered in snow right now, but I think this cake will bring on the spring vibes, and in turn the weather will play along. It’s all about positive thinking, right?
Yes, right.
Also, happiest FRIDAY!! I am very excited the weekend is here, and hoping for a little bit of down time after a busy week. We have been working endlessly over here on multiple projects, the biggest one being the studio barn. There has been lots of decision making and hair pulling, so I know everyone over here is ready for a bit of a reset. We probably will not get it, but hey, it’s all going to be worth it in the long run!
Thankfully, a lot of my “hard” work and days spent in the kitchen this week resulted in a few beautiful creations, like this strawberry cake that makes ending the work day, extra, extra sweet.
As most of you probably know, I am normally all about the chocolate desserts. Read, the more chocolate the better. See this cake for example. BUT that’s not to say that I don’t still love a good fruity dessert. Granted it took me a while to warm up to fruit based desserts, and I do still think of them as more of a brunch type of item than dessert, but regardless, I now love them.
With spring on its way and Easter coming up in less than two weeks, I knew I needed to share this strawberry chamomile cake that I’ve literally been thinking about since December. I’ve said this before, but sometimes I get ideas in my head months and months before I actually create them. Sharing a strawberry cake in December really does not make sense, so I waited and waited and finally the time has come.
And guys? To be expected, I LOVE this cake.
For one, it’s covered in chamomile flowers, which you all know I am obsessed with.
Two, and most importantly, this cake honestly is so DELICIOUS. It’s light, springy, perfectly sweet, hinted with warm chamomile flavors, and studded with fresh springtime strawberries.
Basically, this cake is spring in cake form, and it is good! I also say this often, but you need this cake in your life. My grandpa said it was the best cake he’s ever eaten!
I made this cake with Easter in mind, but it’s obviously great for any and all spring (and summer) occasions. Mother’s Day, a spring brunch, or just a simple weekend treat.
It’s pretty easy to make, and I love that it’s a naked cake, as opposed to a cake covered completely in frosting. Naked cake means easy, peasy, and doesn’t require any fancy decorating or really any decorating skills at all. Layer everything up, add strawberries, and done.
Yes, please!
The cake base is my favorite vanilla cake with sweet strawberry jam swirled throughout. It’s simple, but really delish. I used a strawberry jam instead of fresh berries in the cake because I found that using jam was easier. The jam actually resulted in a better strawberry flavor, and baked up prettier than using fresh berries in the cake.
For the topping, originally I was planning on doing a frosting, but during my second attempt at the cake I realized that a lighter topping would compliment the cake much better, so I made a chamomile cream to slather all over cake layers. I love that the cream is hinted with the warm tones of chamomile tea and has just the right amount of sweet. It’s perfect topped with plenty of fresh strawberries.
SO, what do you think? Is this your new Easter cake? Are you going to make it next week to celebrate the start of spring? Or maybe save it for Mother’s Day? Whatever you decide, just be sure to make this cake. The sooner the better, because as soon as you make it this cake will be come your new go-to fruity dessert.
Strawberry Chamomile Naked Cake
Servings: 28 servings
Calories Per Serving: 314 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup high quality strawberry jam
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
- honey, for drizzling
Chamomile Cream
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 6 chamomile tea bags
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter/spray with cooking spray.2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a hand-held mixer) beat together the canola oil, yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and buttermilk. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined. Gently swirl in the strawberry jam, leaving large streaks and not fully incorporating the jam. 3. Pour the batter among the 3 cake pans and bake 28-30 minutes, until the tops are just set and no longer wiggly in the center. Remove and let cool five minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the pan and turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack. Cover and let the cakes cool completely before assembling.4. To make the chamomile cream. Add 1 cup cream to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, but do not boil, simmer 1 minute and remove from the heat. Add the tea bags, cover and steep for 5-10 minutes. Remove the tea bag and place the cream in the fridge to chill completely. Next, beat the cream cheese in a stand mixer until fluffy, add the chilled chamomile cream and remaining 1 cup cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Stir in the powdered sugar. Keep stored in the fridge. 5. To assemble, place one cake layer on a serving plate or cake stand and drizzle lightly with honey. Spread 1/3 of the chamomile cream over the cake and add a handful of fresh chopped strawberries. Repeat with the remaining 2 cake layers. Be careful not to over fill your layers with fruit or the cake will be hard to slice. Serve or store in the fridge for up to 1 day. If desired, decorate the cake with chamomile flowers.
Layers and layers of spring strawberry perfection.
Absolutely love your stuff. I’ve made so many of your desserts! If I wanted to cover the cake in icing, would that also work? Should I double the cream recipe or maybe 1.5?
Thanks!
Hi Nina,
I would recommend doubling the recipe if you want to cover the entire cake. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
This cake looks beautiful and am planning to make it as a birthday cake, I discovered in the back of my tea pantry citrus mint tea. Was wondering what you though of that as a substitute for camomile. And if so, would I need the same 6 tea bags
Hi Janice,
I haven’t tested this and it would create a completely different flavoring, but if this is something you enjoy then it will work. Yes use 6 tea bags. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Would it be possible to make this as cupcakes and if so, would any modifications to baking temperature/time need to be made? It looks amazing and delicious!
Hi,
Yes you could do cupcakes, I would bake for 25-30 minutes. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I used this cake as a base for a wedding cake and it was a huge hit! I added lemon oil as the bride requested lemon rhubarb cake. I baked two 8” layers (and a couple cupcakes to practice on). Split the layers and filled them with rhubarb compote, rhubarb curd pastry cream, lemon curd pastry cream, and lemon curd. And covered the whole thing in rhubarb whipped cream and lemon whipped cream! Thank for for my new go to cake recipe! I bake at high altitude and had several flood with other recipes before using this recipe since I knew it would work!
Wow that is so amazing!! I am really glad everyone enjoyed this cake, Lindsay! Thank you! xTieghan
Hi! Would I be able to use avocado oil or olive oil instead of canola? Or would that not work? That’s all I have on hand right now! Thank you!
Hi Jean,
Olive oil would work well! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
I only have 9″ pans. Do you think I can make 3 layers or just 2? It looks so amazing and I have all the ingredients needed. Company coming tomorrow so I don’t want to mess it up.
Hi Sue,
I think you could do (3) 9 inch pans. I haven’t tested this but I would recommend reducing the baking time just a bit. I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
My daughter made this cake for my dad’s 95 birthday. She made it exactly according to the recipe and it was a 10 out of 10. Beautiful, light moist not so sweet and a very straight forward recipe that looks smashing. Could not have asked for a better cake. Thank you.
Aw that is amazing! Happy Birthday to your Father, Denise! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
Amazing flavors! Just had one issue when making the cream filling: it turned out too runny. Maybe because my cream cheese was at room temperature? Do you have any tips? Will definitely make again though!
Hi Julia,
Thanks so much for trying the recipe. I am wondering if your tea infused cream was completely chilled? This could have caused the filling to be runny. I hope this helps! xTieghan
Could you use a different kind of tea? I am allergic to chamomile, but love the idea of infusing the icing with tea!
Hi Kailey,
Totally, use whatever tea you enjoy! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Hi!
I made this delicious cake for Mother’s Day today. The cake itself was delicious and so easy to make. The icing was a bit of a different story for me. I attempted to make it twice, assuming my first try (and fail) was of my own fault. Once trying a second time and again a fail, I was compelled to write this review and ask for help. Neither times was I able to achieve icing with a consistency thinker than pancake batter. I ended up making a simple whipped cream topping, ditching the cream cheese, and it was still delicious. But I am hoping you can help me, as I’d love to get the cake 100% right including the chamomile icing. Thanks so much. We love cooking your recipes, especially the crinkle top brownies!
Hi there!! So glad you loved the cake, but sorry to hear you are having trouble with the cream. Was the cream very cold to touch? It’s important it is COLD when you go to whip it or you will not get a whipped cream. You can also add cream cheese to the cream to help stiffen it up as well. Can you give me some more info on what is happening? It’s hard to problem solve when I don’t have details. Hope I can help! Please let me know if you have any other questions. So glad you love this recipe! Thank you! xTieghan
Hi there! I am SO excited to make this recipe this weekend for Mother’s Day. I am planning to make one for my grandmas (recipe as is) & one for my Mother, who is celiac. What is your take on baking cake with gluten free flour? Any experience? Looking forward to trying it!
Hi Danielle! I have not tried my recipes with GF flour, I am really sorry about that. I have found that cup4cup works really well to substitute though! xTieghan
This looks so delicious and I’ll hopefully be making it for my mom on Mother’s Day! We are bigger fans of raspberry jam though so I am wondering if replacing the strawberry with that would be good do you think?
Hi Mae,
I think that would be great! I hope you love the recipe, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
FANTASTIC recipe!! I saw pictures of this on tumblr and knew I had to try my hand at making it! It was absolutely delicious 🙂 I do have one question though… The cake part turned out great, but I was having a lot of trouble with the icing. The flavour was lovely, but I couldn’t get the texture right (it was more like the consistency of cake batter). In the recipe, you indicated to use a stand mixer, but I don’t have one, so I (possibly naively) thought that a beater would be sufficient. Is this where I went wrong? Or perhaps I didn’t beat it enough? Any help you could give me I would really appreciate as I would love to make it again 😀
Hi Nicki,
Thanks so much for trying the recipe, I am so glad you enjoyed! The icing is meant to be on the thicker side, but you can always a touch of water to thin it out. I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
This cake is delicious, not too light or heavy and it is perfectly moist. I used peach jam instead of strawberry jam and it was good. I couldn’t really taste the chamomile in the frosting. I’d also recommend making sure the frosting is chilled before assembling the cake (I was too excited and the frosting spread too much lol).
YES!! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you, Thuyen!! Thank you! xTieghan
Made this for my daughter’s boss’ bday.The cake is moist, the chamomile cream isn’t overpowering or overly sweet. The flavors compliment each other really, really well. So well, in fact, that I don’t regret stealing an entire layer just for me! Err, I mean, product testing and quality control assurance…
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Text messages coming in now, the entire office is absolutely thrilled with the cake!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! You have a new Pinterest follower! ?
WOW that is so great! and so sweet of you! Thank you for trying out this recipe Babi! xTieghan