Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

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Fresh Strawberry Cake is my Mama’s favorite and a guaranteed showstopper. I mean look at this y’all. I’ve served this at baby showers, bridal showers, brunches and made for birthdays as well. My favorite place to serve it, though, is at my own dinner table.

When Are Strawberries In Season?

I’ve had strawberries on the brain lately. The national strawberry season can be January all the way through to November so it is usually easy to find them at stores. Prices may vary depending on the time of year you want them.   In deeper parts of the South they are usually ready for harvesting April and May.

When I get them I tend to eat them all on the way home, then throw the container in the trash on my way in the house. The trick is always to hide the evidence! So it’s a big restraint for me to have enough left to make fresh Strawberry Cake! Check out some of my other delicious cake recipes like Triple Chocolate Cake (a.k.a Chocoholic Cake)Red Velvet Bundt CakeChocolate Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese Icing and Coca Cola Cake ~Oh So Good!~.

I mean Y’all, look at that beauty.  It tastes even better than it looks!

The ingredients you will need for the cake are:

  • White cake mix
  • Strawberry gelatin mix
  • Cooking oil
  • Milk
  • Fresh strawberries
  • Three eggs

Helpful Kitchen Tools

  • Wash your strawberries and cut the tops off, slice them up a bit.

Mashing Strawberries for Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • Put them in a big old plastic bag and crush them a bit. You can use a rolling pin if you want to be civilized but somedays call for a few fun karate chops!

*The amount of strawberries needs to be one cup after they are crushed, not before.

Mashed Strawberries for Fresh Strawberry Cake

You can use any method of crushing that you like but I find a plastic bag and a can of somethin‘ works just great.

Mixing up Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • In a large mixing bowl, place cake mix, milk, oil, eggs, and gelatin.

Fresh Strawberry Cake Batter

  • Mix that up with an electric mixer until you have a smooth, creamy, pink batter, about two minutes.

Fresh Strawberry Cake Batter

  • Add in your crushed strawberries, juice and all.
  • Mix that up again.

Batter for Fresh Strawberry Cake in Cake Pans

  • Now grease and flour two round cake pans.
  • Divide your batter evenly among the cake pans
  • Bake these at 350 for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Remove from oven and allow to sit in the pans for ten minutes before turning out to cool completely.

Making Cream Cheese Icing For Fresh Strawberry Cake

Now let’s make us some cream cheese icing.

Ingredients needed for cream cheese icing

Important note: If you want to decorate your cake as I have done in these photos, you will need to double this recipe.

Another note: Your cream cheese and butter really need to be room temperature so set them out earlier in the day before starting this.

  • Place your butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar in a bowl. Mix ’em up til they’re nice and creamy smooth, scraping down sides as needed.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • Ice your cake however you like.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

Look how pretty this fresh strawberry cake is!

Fresh Strawberry Cake

And this cake is just as delicious as it is pretty!

Fresh Strawberry Cake

Now cut it quick! The youngun’s are a waitin’!

Store this cake in the refrigerator. It’s even better served cold!

 

fresh strawberry cake

Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Fresh Strawberry Cake is my mother’s favorite and a guaranteed showstopper. I mean look at this y'all. I’ve served this at baby showers, bridal showers, brunches and made for birthdays as well. My favorite place to serve it, though, is at my own dinner table.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: strawberry
Servings: 4
Calories: 393kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 Package Plain White Cake Mix
  • 1 Cup Chopped strawberries with juice
  • 3/4 Cup Milk
  • 1 Package Strawberry Gelatin 3 ounce
  • 3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
  • 3 Eggs

Icing

  • 8 ounce Cream Cheese room temp
  • 4 Tablespoons butter room temp
  • 3 Cups confectioner's sugar

Instructions

  • Grease and flour two 8 inch round baking pans or one 9x13 inch pan.
  • Wash and cut the tops of strawberries. Coarsely chop them. Gently mash strawberries by placing them in a large plastic bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin or large can.You need to measure out one cup once they are mashed.
  • Place cake mix, milk, gelatin mix, vegetable oil, and eggs in large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about two minutes or so. Add in strawberries and juice, mix again until well combined. Pour into baking pans.
  • Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If using two round pans, allow to sit for ten minutes before turning out of pans to cool completely. If baking in 9x13 pan, simply allow to cool in pan.
  • Combine all icing ingredients and mix with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Ice cooled cake.
  • Store cake in refrigerator.
  • Ice cake. Store in the refrigerator.

Notes

Important note: If you want to decorate your cake as I have done in these photos, you will need to double this recipe.
*Some people add 1/2 cup crushed, drained strawberries to this icing as well. I leave them out to make the cake a bit prettier and easier to ice but feel free to add them in for more great strawberry flavor! Just mix them in after your icing is smooth and creamy and all other ingredients have been added.
Another note: Your cream cheese and butter really need to be room temperature so set them out earlier in the day before starting this.
If you don't want to you can make this into a sheet cake as well.  This recipe would be good for a 9 x 13 sheet pan. 

Nutrition

Calories: 393kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

The versatility of strawberries…

There are so many strawberry dishes that I love. My personal favorite is my Mama’s strawberry pie, My husband’s favorite is Strawberry punchbowl cake, and my son favors good old fashioned strawberry shortcake. 

“The distance between who I am and who I want to be is separated by my actions.”

~Brian Solis

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323 Comments

  1. Hi Chris,
    Is Gelatin a must for this recipe? What if I omit it and make this cake? Will it turn out good? I’m planning to make it today. Please reply.

    1. I’ve never made it without the gelatin so I’m afraid you’re on your own. I *think* it will work fine but it is always best to recognize when you’re going rogue and hang on! It’ll be a little adventure 🙂

  2. I made 2 of these cakes yesterday for the first time! I am a from scratch person. This cake is wonderful! My husband loved it and me too! Thank you! This saves so much time and effort and taste great!

  3. I saw this cake recipe that you posted on Facebook yesterday and just had to make it. I don’t make many cakes, but this one really caught my attention. The two layers had just come out of the oven when my husband came home from work. As soon as he walked in the door the wonderful aroma hit him. Needless to say, it was a big hit for both of us. He could barely wait for it to cool so I could frost it. It will be one of my regular, go to recipes. Thank you!

  4. I made this cake with one addition. I added fresh strawberries (with a little sugar to make them juicy) to the icing. It was probably one of my favorite cakes!

  5. Hi Christy! Just want to say that I love your blog and am a devoted follower. My daughter and I have a Mother’s Day tradition of picking strawberries and I was looking through your blog to find recipes to use up some berries and came across this cake. I had the ingredients on hand so I decided to make this to bring to my office.
    Never in my life have I had such a PHENOMENAL strawberry cake! It was so moist, so rich, so pretty. My coworkers are in heaven as am I! This was a true winner!
    On a side note, I have to admit it was a near disaster. I decided to add some very well drained crushed berries to the cream cheese icing. The icing became very very very runny so I added another couple cups of powdered sugar. Nope, still runny. I iced the bottom layer and placed the other layer on top. It oozed out and slid down onto my cake platter. I acted quickly, removed the top layer and using a spatula, scraped the mess off the bottom layer. I made another batch of cream cheese icing and it turned out perfect 🙂
    Thank you for all you do! You always make my kitchen happy!

    1. I realize this original post is years old however…
      I’m very new to baking but I have been reading a good bit of info on frostings etc. I read (and sorry can’t rememener from who) but she said not to use actual fruit in the icing bc it could make it runny and spoil faster (I think that’s correct). She said to use preserves instead. I wonder if that would fix the problem of the frosting being so runny yet would still add that yummy fruit flavor to the frosting?

  6. I want to decorate this cake a bit by placing a few strawberries around the bottom of the cake, if I do this I would need to refrigerate the cake, would it still taste alright refrigerated?

  7. Christy I really like your website and all the recipes you share. One thing you are doing now bothers me a bit. The imprint on the pic takes away from your great photography. I’m sure you have to protect your work but it just detracts a bit. Again thank you so much for the wonderful recipes and thoughts you share here.

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