I love strawberries!
No doubt about that, strawberries have always been a part of my life and recipes. Almost 6 years ago, I blogged about a drool worthy fresh strawberry cake that I made and it has been a BIG hit on my blog, getting pinned and shared all over the place the last few years. The pictures I took are really bad….6 years ago I had no idea how to take decent pics, so it was pretty pathetic. I just went back and edited that post with a good picture and a printable recipe sheet that I’m adding here too.
Best ever strawberry cake
One of my friends I went to college with sent me a funny note recently. She was looking for a strawberry cake recipe and her daughter found one on Pinterest and sent it to her. Yep, it was from MY blog from 6 years ago and I had to laugh. Small world, after all!
After bringing all these beautiful fresh strawberries back from Florida, I had to make another one of these strawberry cakes. So, I’m reprising the strawberry cake recipe today, which I’m also updating on a printable recipe page. We didn’t do that back then, but now recipes can be printed easily.
I pureed the strawberries and used about 3 cups fresh strawberries in this cake. One cup in the batter and one cup in the icing. I had leftovers for adding to the top too, so the strawberry flavor is pretty intense.
The recipe calls for a white cake mix, so I bought a Duncan Hines French Vanilla. Then you add some other ingredients to the cake batter mix, along with 4 eggs.
Mix it all up with a mixer. Puree the strawberries.
Then add the cup of fresh pureed strawberries.
Pour into a 9×13 pan. You could also make this as a layer cake too in round cake pans, I’m sure, if you wanted to. Layer cakes have never been my specialty so I did the sheet cake version.
After baking, it came out golden brown.
Mixed up the frosting, which is butter, cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and strawberries.
The icing is runny and not a hard icing, but it’s very yummy!
Please note that the icing is not a hard icing at all, it’s runny and if you leave out some of the strawberries it should be less runny so be aware of that. I used this icing recipe as I found it online, but the icing needs to be tweaked, it does make a lot of icing (almost too much) and the icing is very runny as is. I’ve read to add more powdered sugar to thicken up icing, so I would use less strawberries and more powered sugar to make the icing thicker.
Let it drip down the cake and then add a dollop of strawberries on top for garnishment. The taste is out of this world!
Invite some friends over and let them eat strawberry cake. It might taste from scratch, but it’s very easy to make and super delicious if you like strawberries! Feel free to pin this one too, I love that it’s been shared so many times! The sweetness is delicious and has such strawberry flavor.
Best Ever Strawberry Cake
Easy strawberry sheet cake made with a box cake mix base, with added ingredients and a cream cheese frosting with strawberries.
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- 3 tbsp plain flour
- 1 (3 Oz) box strawberry jello
- 1/2 cup water
- 3/4 cup oil, I used canola oil
- 2 cup fresh or frozen pureed strawberries (one cup for cake & one cup for icing)
- 4 eggs
Instructions
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Combine cake mix, flour, Jello and water. Add oil and eggs, one at a time, beating well between. Add strawberries. Beat 2 minutes. Pour batter into well greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake at 350* for about 45 minutes.
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CREAM CHEESE ICING: adapted from Paula Deen online recipe
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1 stick butter softened
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1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
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1 cup frozen or fresh pureed strawberries ( or frozen strawberries)
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3 cups powdered sugar
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Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix with mixer until creamy. Pour over cake after it cools from the oven. Add a strawberry to top for garnishment or pureed strawberries to top. Eat and Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Cake recipe Adapted from Cooks.com
For those of you who can’t see the printable recipe above, here’s a screenshot of just the recipe:
Pinned!!! Strawberries and cream cheese…two wonderful words to have in the same recipe! Can’t wait for the local SC strawberries to come in, but that FL ones in my grocery store have been delicious. A farmer sets up his strawberry truck near my house every year, and you can literally drive through to get berries that were picked that morning. Rhoda, have you ever blogged about your camera and photo tips? Practice must make perfect, because you’re very good.
HI, Roxanne, I did a blog post a few years ago about taking better pics, but I still don’t feel like a real expert at all. It’s all been trial and error for me in getting better pics. So many bloggers are super photographers, but it never came really natural to me. I do the best I can!
Looks delish. I don’t see the printable…
I don’t see it either.
Looks wonderful, but I can find the recipe to print.
Thanks!
Your strawberry cake looks wonderful. Hmm…could be Mother’s Day dessert, if I can wait that long! Love your blog and visit you everyday ?
Thank you, Eva!!
Hi, all, I added a screenshot of just the recipe and ingredients below the printable recipe, so you can print it off!
Rhoda, this looks delicious. I printed the recipe to mail to my mama and sister. They live in NC and have fields of strawberries — real berries, not the tasteless, mealy, grocery-store kind we’re stuck with! Wishing I had a piece right now 🙂
Shouldn’t the recipe for the frosting have you cream butter and sugar first and then add other ingreds? Wish I would have thought of this before mixing all together because now I have a mess. Butter and cream cheese didn’t blend together.
Peggy, I added the cream cheese and butter together and creamed it all together, then added the strawberries and the powdered sugar. I am not sure why it wouldn’t all blend for you, was the butter softened?
I did the same. Next time I would cream the butter and cream cheese, add the sugar and after it is all incorporated add the strawberries. My first try was not pretty, but delicious. I took this cake to a 4th family party and everyone loved it.
Looks yummy, I’ve printed it and will give it a go, PDQ! Is your jello like our jelly, in block form which needs melted first in hot water? I’ve never seen jello so I apologise if my question sounds a bit dumb!
Hey, Mary, just use the jello in the box and add it to the cake mix. Not already made jello, the dry jello right from the box.
In the UK, jello mix is sold as dense jelly squares rather than in powder form as in the US. Rhoda is using powdered jello in her cake recipe. Strawberry Jell-O can be ordered from the UK version of Amazon. Also, I wonder if UK brand Hartleys strawberry jelly sweetened crystals would work, too.
Loving this pink strawberry cake. Usually I do not bake cakes at home as it messes up my kitchen. But this is a wonderful recipe and I am surely going to bake it.
This looks delicious. I hope that mine turns out as good as yours looks. I made this for my son’s 18th birthday – birthday cake. He is not real big on sweets but does love strawberry cake. I hope he approves since I don’t have a back up. I will let you know how it goes over with my family. They are the true critiques!! Thank you for sharing! I only had to back mine 37 min. My only concern was the frosting. I used frozen strawberries in syrup-pureed. I hope the icing is think enough.
Hi, Charlotte, hope you enjoy it too! The icing does end up being pretty runny and I couldn’t get it thicker without using a lot more powdered sugar. I don’t mind it runny since it has all the strawberries inside too.
I love strawberry cake, but I’m persnickety about it. I don’t like all types. I love the cake and icing to be completely strawberry. …So when I came across this recipe, it looked like the one my mom used to make when I was a kid. …So I just had to try it. …And I’m glad that I did because it is DELICIOUS! The cake is moist and full of strawberry flavor. …And my icing turned out like a strawberry buttercream. It was light and creamy… not runny at all. Maybe that’s because I mixed it for several minutes, and I only used 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar (I didn’t want it overly sweet). I will definitely keep this recipe and make it again in the future.
HI, Cici, I’m so glad you liked it, it really is delicious! And glad you perfected the icing too, that one is a little tricky.
There is something wrong with the strawberry count??? cannot use the same cup more than once??? Calls for “add” strawberries twice … then says put some on top… all from the same
will try 1/2 and 1/2 and 1/2 C – maybe from pint/quart carton of strawberries?
There are strawberries in the cake mix and also strawberries in the icing. Hope that helps!
Well, you just wrote 1 cup of strawberries for the entire recipe. So how much strawberries go into the cake and how much into the frosting???? I would like to make this for my daughter’s 5th birthday party in Kindergarten. Please answer soon. Thank you.
Ok, I guess you want people to read your ENTIRE TEXT FIRST to find out what goes into the cake. I would highly recommend that you also write the exact amounts in the actual recipe in the end too. People don’t have the time to read through all that text first to get the right amounts for all the ingredients. It’s only AFTER one reads your text that one can actually realize that there are actually 2 cups of strawberries required and not just one cup! I don’t want to be rude but a similar thing happened to me before when in the actual recipe for another cake said to put in “corn meal” instead of “corn flour”! It was only AFTER I read in the comments section that somebody asked if she meant corn “flour” instead of corn “meal”. The blogger said “yes”, but NEVER corrected it in the actual recipe! So you can imagine that I was EXTREMELY upset when the “cake” turned out to be as flat as a pancake!
HI, Lydia, I wasn’t trying to make it difficult. I did have 1 cup for the cake listed, but went back and added another cup for the icing. So that should be explanatory now by reading the description. I did have the other cup listed under the ICING part of the recipe, but this way you know that there are 2 cups total. Hope you enjoyed the cake!
I have made this recipe before and one very close it I added more strawberries called for cake Still came out perfect
Thanks for answering my question so quickly! I don’t mean to be impatient or rude BUT in your “ingredients” section you still did not change it to “2 cups strawberries, divided”. It still just reads one cup strawberries. I would really recommend you change it for people who do not read the comments section and have no idea to use 2 cups; one for the cake and one for the icing. Thank you! I will make this cake soon and let you know how it turned out. I mean, not everybody is a natural baker and can put two and two together, no matter how logical something seems to everybody else. So it should be very clear to everybody at first glance in the “ingredients” description how much of what one needs for a cake.
HI, Lydia, OK I got it. That last part that wasn’t changed was a screenshot for those who couldn’t see the recipe app that is printable. Not sure if you could see that or not, but the 2nd one was a screenshot so I changed it too. The printable recipe had already been changed. Hope you enjoy the cake!
The frosting is very runny I tried to thicken it by adding more powdered sugar never did get thick, like 2 more cups.
HI, Pamela, I know I had that problem too, I think it just has to be tweaked to get the frosting thicker. I tried to do that but ended up with a lot of frosting. I hope it tasted good!
Just putting my 2 cents in for Rhoda’s sake. I think most people interested in a recipe actually do take the time to read thru the entire ingredient list and the directions. I noticed immediately that 2 cups of berries were called for….1 cup for cake and 1 cup for icing. As far as runny icing, the directions said to “pour” the icing over the cake. I took this to mean that it is not your typical “buttercream” frosting. I’m betting that if you want it more like buttercream with a stiffer consistency, don’t puree the cup of berries quite so much. Then there won’t be as much liquid. Just pulse/chop instead of a puree.
THanks, Sherrie, that icing takes some tweaking to get it stiffer for sure. I didn’t mind the runnier icing for this one. It’s all yummy!
I agree with Sherri. You can also try folding in whipped egg whites, using heavy whipping cream or marshmallow creme. For thickness
I have a question again. Since we don´t have those kind of boxed cake mixes in Germany, I am wondering why one needs to put in 3 more tablespoons of flour if there is already flour in those boxed cake mixes. Could you please explain? I will have to make the cake mix from scratch, so I need to know much flour I need for the cake.
HI, Lydia, I’m not sure why the extra TBL of flour is in the recipe, since I got it online. If you don’t have a boxed cake mix, then just do a regular yellow cake recipe that you might have and add the strawberry jello to it and fresh strawberries. The extra flour might be to offset the fresh strawberries added in the cake mix. I’m just not sure. You may have to experiment.
Oh, ok, thanks for answering ?. Thank goodness we have something like Jello here.
Salted or unsalted butter?
Unsalted
Does the frosting hold up to make it the day before and not refrigerated?
Hi, Nita, the frosting should probably be refrigerated. It’s a little tricky to get it thick enough and not too runny, but it doesn’t set really firm. I would probably refrigerate it though, but you could definitely make it the day before.
This cake is for serious strawberry lovers! Made it yesterday for a birthday party, and it was a big hit. Yes the frosting is gooy and drips down the sides of a piece of cake, but it is wonderful. I will be making this cake again and again.
Great, Sandra, glad you liked it! That’s a very accurate description of it.
I am going to make this tonight!