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
Made the cake by the recipe, did not turn out correct. Went back and got more ingredients and its in oven now. I only put 1/2 cup oul and milk this time , hopefully it will be good this time. Really want it to be grandson is helping!
Can you bake cupcakes out of the same recipe?
I haven’t made these as cupcakes but most cake batters work well as cupcakes unless they are something like angel food. When I have tried angel food as cupcakes they collapsed when I took them out of the oven.
Can I use plain geletin, rather than strawberry? Our grandson cannot have red 40.
Yes you sure can. It may not end up quite as dark red but it will still taste delightful.
I have made this cake multiple
Times and am in love with it! However, I’m wanting to make one for a get together this weekend for a friend who is gluten free. It seems impossible to find a gluten free white cake mix around here, but we have yellow… any idea if this would work? I could also of course make a white cake from scratch.. just trying to avoid that lol
Yellow cake would be fine. She will enjoy it and will be grateful to have a friend as thoughtful as you!
Hi! I can’t want to try this recipe this weekend! Question – I notice you used shiny metal pans. If I use 8” round dark nonstick pans how should I adjust the temp and/or bake time?
Hey there, Quick question; So we follow the ingredients you gave us correct, not what’s on the back of the cake box? Will “betty Crocker’s super moist white” cake mix work well with this recipe? Thank you:)
Hey Stephanie, Thanks for your question. I haven’t made it with Betty Crocker Super Moist Cake mix so I would compare the ingredients on that box to the ingredients on the Duncan Hines box. That way you can make sure that you are likely to get the same result. As far as what directions to follow, that is the great thing about recipes is you can adjust them anyway you like. If you want similar results to what we came up with though I would follow the recipe as is in the post. I hope it is exactly what you are looking for. If yes, then wondering if you would consider adjusting the number of stars you rated this recipe. That you so much and let me know how it all goes.
Followed your recipe exactly and ended up with a dense unappealing tan colored cake. Second time around I made some adjustments as follows. I cooked the one cup of crushed strawberries with juice until reduced to 1/2 cup (this lessens the liquid without losing any strawberry flavor). Also added a few squeezes of red gel food coloring to get that beautiful pink color.