Sift your self raising flour into a mixing bowl and add the caster sugar, eggs, butter, strawberry flavouring, and your freeze dried diced strawberries. Using a stand mixer or hand whisk mix this up until all combined.
This step is optional, but to make it look more like a strawberry cake, add a small amount of pink gel colour and mix it through.
Prepare your 2 x 6 inch cake tins, by running a small amount of butter around the sides, dusting over some flour, making sure to remove any excess. Add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom. This will stop your cakes sticking to the side. Divide your mixture between the 2 cake tins.
Bake your cakes in a preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 1 hour.
Once baked, poke with a cocktail stick or skewer into the center. If it comes out clean then the cakes are baked all the way through.
Leave your cakes to cool on a wire rack.
Once cooled, level the cakes using a serrated knife. Also take off the caramelisation from around the edge to reveal the pink colour. Divide your cake layers into 2, giving you 4 layers in total.
To make the American buttercream, sift the icing sugar into your mixing bowl. Then add the room temperature butter (make sure you are using real butter and not spread, as this would make it too soft) and milk.
Mix the sugar and butter on a high speed for around 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
You can then add the freeze dried strawberry powder. Add more or less, depending on your desired flavour.
You can then use the buttercream to fill and decorate your cake. Watch the video to see how to I decorated the cake with a fondant strawberry on the front!