I now completely bake my cakes from scratch. The vanilla recipe I use is Roland Winbecklers. In the notes it says you can adjust the recipe to accommodate other flavors. He lists changes for the chocolate and red velvet, but I would also like to be able to change it to lemon cake and strawberry cake. I was hoping that I could use a strawberry pudding for the vanilla pudding in the recipe and then I thought maybe I could change out the water to a strawberry puree. Would that cause issues with baking? Would I still need to add some water and some puree? I don't mess around too much with recipes once I find one I like. Any help would be great. Just in case you aren't familiar with the recipe I posted it below. TIA!

French Vanilla Sour Cream Cake - Winbeckler Recipe 

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose sifted flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. double acting baking powder

1 small pkg. dry instant vanilla pudding mix (approx. 3.2 to 3.6 oz.)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 whole eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1 t. real vanilla

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 F.

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Help? Anyone?

Thank you! I was wondering if I should use half water and half puree. I found the strawberry pudding at HyVee (a local grocery store) and at Walmart. It doesn't seem to always be there though. I believe the name of it is strawberry cream. I hope it works!

You are welcome, thanks for the help!

I would do a tester batch, split the cake batter up into a few bowls, in one do all puree, in another half puree half water, in another just pudding, in another maybe just add some strawberry jam?
I find the best strawberry cakes are the ones that stay away from any artificial flavourings, the fake strawberry flavour tends to overwhelm the real berries. I use puree and powdered dehydrated strawberries. Took a lot of little bowls to work out the right ratios :)

ALemon is easy, just add some zest and flavor with lemon oil or extract.

With strawberry, you might just have to start over with a new recipe. The strawberry pudding is awful, it's nothing but artificial color and flavor. Try using a purée made from frozen strawberries or fresh when they're in season. I know you don't want to start with a new recipe but sometimes you have to in order to have the best product.

Annie Cahill

Thanks, you are probably right. I am not a big fan of artificial strawberry. I have found a few promising leads on scratch strawberry cakes. I am going to give them a try. Thank you everyone for the help. I appreciate it!

Do a search for freeze-dried strawberries in the cake recipe.  I made one about six months ago and it was great.  It adds a lot of strawberry flavor but eliminates the liquid and sugar issues you get from fresh, frozen, and the ones in syrup. 

AI've been experimenting & reading about the chemistry behind baking, it's definitely difficult to perfect a recipe, at least for me. The decorating has always come more naturally to me but I've never been able to go into my kitchen and throw a fabulous dinner together.

Anyway, most of the strawberry cake recipes I've found have been colored to death or artificial as stated above. There's something about the acidity of the strawberries and the baking soda/powder you need to consider, I just read that the other day ;)

I have found a really nice recipe, I'll add the link, it has two options either cooking the berries (which is what I do-it seems to be more flavorful & it also brings more depth to the color) or you can blend/process the berries. The recipe is great for layer cakes & cupcakes, it holds up under fondant/ganache, I haven't even tried carving it. I only do detailed carving with Mudcakes or something dense. I hope this works well for you.

http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/1088/

Thank you so much smckinney07 this looks like a fantastic recipe! I will absolutely give it a shot. Do you know how many cups of batter  this makes?