This high altitude strawberry matcha cake has three layers of soft matcha cake, frosted with fluffy strawberry buttercream. This cake gets its natural pink and green colors from matcha green tea powder and crushed freeze dried strawberries. A summery strawberry sprinkle mix makes an easy and pretty decoration.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for matcha loaf cake and matcha chocolate chip cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Decorate. By using a pretty mix of sprinkles, the decorating part is easy. Just frost the cake, and arrange the sprinkles any way you like. This “strawberry fields” sprinkle mix has a lovely assortment of strawberries, flowers, and sugar pearls.
Naturally Pink and Green. There’s no food coloring in the cake or buttercream, just natural green from matcha powder, and pink from freeze dried strawberries.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cake Flour. Cake flour has a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, making a softer, lighter, fluffier cake.
- Matcha Powder. For the green color, you’ll need culinary matcha powder, which I bought at my local King Soopers. The matcha flavor is subtle, which is how I prefer it, as I don’t like the flavor when it’s too strong.
- Freeze Dried Strawberries. For the pink color and strawberry flavor in the buttercream, you’ll need freeze dried strawberries. These are available at most major grocery stores, and are easy to crush into a powder.
- Sprinkles. The “strawberry fields” sprinkle mix is the prettiest mix of strawberries, flowers, and sugar pearls. I’ve used the same sprinkle mix on my frosted strawberry pop tarts.
Instructions
Matcha Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Whisk together the wet and dry ingredients until smooth and combined, about 15 seconds. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 30-32 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, and the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then gently turn them out onto the cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter for one minute, until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, crushed freeze dried strawberries, and salt.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium. Whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Add the milk only if needed for consistency. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for one more minute.
Assembly
- If the tops of the cakes are domed, use a sharp, non-serrated knife to slice off a small portion of the domed tops, so the cakes are level for stacking.
- Fill and frost the cooled cakes with the strawberry buttercream, then frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes, then frost it with a final smooth coat of buttercream.
- Decorate the cake with the “strawberry fields” sprinkle mix.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
For a standard sized three layer cake that serves 16 people, use three 9-inch round cake pans. You can also use 8-inch pans for slightly thicker layers, but the cake will need to bake for a few minutes longer.
For a smaller cake that serves 8 people, you can cut the recipe in half, and bake the cake in three 6-inch cake pans, for 25-30 minutes. The photographed cake in today’s post is a 6-inch cake.
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
For the buttercream, you can easily crush freeze dried strawberries into a powder with a small food processor or Ninja, or simply place them in a freezer bag and crush them manually with a rolling pin.
I used this strawberry fields sprinkle mix.
You Might Also Like
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High Altitude Strawberry Matcha Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 9 Inch Round Cake Pans (x3)
Ingredients
Matcha Cake
- 4 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned, and leveled
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp culinary matcha powder
- 3 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
- 4 tbsp finely crushed freeze dried strawberries
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp milk, if needed
- "strawberry fields" sprinkle mix
Instructions
Matcha Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Whisk together the wet and dry ingredients until smooth and combined, about 15 seconds. Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 30-32 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, and the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then gently turn them out onto the cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter for one minute, until smooth.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, crushed freeze dried strawberries, and salt.
- Add the vanilla, and increase the speed to medium. Whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Add the milk only if needed for consistency. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for one more minute.
Assembly
- If the tops of the cakes are domed, use a sharp, non-serrated knife to slice off a small portion of the domed tops, so the cakes are level for stacking.
- Fill and frost the cooled cakes with the strawberry buttercream, then frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes, then frost it with a final smooth coat of buttercream.
- Decorate the cake with the "strawberry fields" sprinkle mix.
Notes
- For a standard sized three layer cake that serves 16 people, use three 9-inch round cake pans. You can also use 8-inch pans for slightly thicker layers, but the cake will need to bake for a few minutes longer.
- For a smaller cake that serves 8 people, you can cut the recipe in half, and bake the cake in three 6-inch cake pans, for 25-30 minutes. The photographed cake in today’s post is a 6-inch cake.
- Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
- For the buttercream, you can easily crush freeze dried strawberries into a powder with a small food processor or Ninja, or simply place them in a freezer bag and crush them manually with a rolling pin.
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