Adam Liaw’s strawberry slab cake

Name: Adam Liaw’s strawberry slab cake
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Contemporary
Ingredients: 300g self-raising flour; 2 tsp baking powder; ½ tsp fine salt; 3 eggs; 300g caster sugar; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 150ml vegetable oil; 250ml milk; juice and grated zest of 1 lemon; 250g strawberries, halved

Adam Liaw

September 8, 2025

easyTime:30 mins - 1 hourServes:10

This simple slab cake is best cooked in a conventional oven and is made for sharing – there’ll be plenty to go around.

Ingredients

300g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine salt
3 eggs
300g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
150ml vegetable oil
250ml milk
juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
250g strawberries, halved

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

100g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g icing sugar mixture
¼ cup thickened cream

Method

Step 1
Heat an oven to 180C (conventional, 160C if fan-forced) and grease and line a 21cm x 29cm baking dish. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a second bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together, then mix in the vanilla, vegetable oil and milk. Add the lemon juice and zest, then fold the wet ingredients into the flour until just combined. Pour into the baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the tray and cool completely.
Step 2
For the vanilla buttercream, combine the butter and vanilla in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until fluffy. Add the icing sugar mixture a little at a time, beating all the while. When two-thirds has been added, alternate with a little of the cream. When everything is combined, spread the icing over the cooled cake. Lightly mark squares in the cake to your desired size and place a halved strawberry in the centre of each square, with all the strawberries pointing in the same direction.