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 Cake, Chocolate 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.
- 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.
You can use any method of crushing that you like but I find a plastic bag and a can of somethin‘ works just great.
- In a large mixing bowl, place cake mix, milk, oil, eggs, and gelatin.
- Mix that up with an electric mixer until you have a smooth, creamy, pink batter, about two minutes.
- Add in your crushed strawberries, juice and all.
- Mix that up again.
- 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.
Now let’s make us some cream cheese icing.
Ingredients needed for cream cheese icing
- Cream Cheese (check out our recipe for easy-peasy homemade cream cheese).
- Butter
- Powdered sugar.
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.
- Ice your cake however you like.
Look how pretty this fresh strawberry cake is!
And this cake is just as delicious as it is pretty!
Now cut it quick! The youngun’s are a waitin’!
Store this cake in the refrigerator. It’s even better served cold!
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
Nutrition
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
My son has requested a strawberry cake for his Bday next week and this sounds magnificent! Was wondering….
can it be made as bundt cake and if so, any changes? Thank you so much. Can’t wait to try it!
I was wondering if this can be made with thawed frozen strawberries and if so why adjustments would need to be made. Thanks and have a blessed day.
You sure can! They usually have sugar added so if that is the case it will be a little bit sweeter. Thank you so much and you too!
Bless your heart Christy, I’m glad you’re so sweet. I’m making some Strawberry Cheesecake cupcakes for a high school graduate’s party this weekend and wanted a recipe that was simple and tasty and as always, I knew I’d find something here. Checked both my Christy cookbooks and if a strawberry cake was in one of them, I missed it. All the same, reading through the comments and I had to giggle. Me personally, if it isn’t something I can’t carry in from the store and start eating, then it’s from scratch. My dictionary tells me that “from scratch” means from the very beginning or starting point. So when I start reading the recipe, I’m working from scratch. I shared this one with you before and I shall again cause it’s a favorite — If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. ~Carl Sagan. So between Carl Sagan and my dictionary, I’m going to print this recipe out and make a batch of cupcakes from scratch. I appreciate all the recipes, stories and goodness you share. Thank you for sharing! Time for me to hit the bottle aka color my hair 😉 But one more quote: The kindest word in all the world is the unkind word, unsaid. ~Author Unknown
I like the way you think Valerie!!!
I am very pleased with how this cake turned out!! It was super easy and It baked very evenly and flat across the top. Took 25 minutes exactly. I sprayed and floured the 9″ pans and the cakes came out perfectly!
Changes I made: I added a bit more smashed strawberries to ensure the strawberry flavor in the cake. I thought the frosting had too much powdered sugar and not enough cream cheese flavor so I added 4 more oz of cream cheese and 4 more Tbsp of butter. And some vanilla. I liked this much better! I think next time I will add strawberries to the frosting as well to get even more strawberry flavor.
Thanks for a wonderful and easy strawberry cake recipe!
Just wondering if these would do well as cupcakes and how many they would yield? Also, if you have any tips for anything I should do differently in making cupcakes, suggestions are welcomed! 🙂 I made this cake recipe for a friend’s birthday and it turned out wonderfully…our waiter asked to have a piece because his mouth was watering so much, we spared him a piece 🙂 Thanks!
They would work fine and I guesstimate it would make about two dozen. I’m so glad you liked the recipe!!!
Have you ever made these as ice cream cone cupcakes?
I haven’t but they would work wonderfully.
Do you think your could follow this recipe and make a Blueberry Cake? just substitute the strawberry jello for blue berry and the strawberry for blue berrys???
My mom uses this recipe and its one of my favs she substitutes with strawberry icing tho
I think that would be like serving up Heaven, one slice at a time. Brilliant idea!
I have made a similar cake for years, only using thawed frozen berries. Part of the box (it was an old recipe) went in the cake and the rest went in the buttercream frosting. It makes very soft frosting and very moist cake, but to me that’s the best kind. One of my granddaughters requested “strawberry splash cake” for her 5th birthday, and this is what I made. She was not disappointed.