Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
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!
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
- 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
This is THE best! It is also the first recipe I made after finding your site. During fresh strawberry season I made at least 7 of these cakes to share with folks! They thought I was the bomb 🙂 This is a foolproof recipe and I love the simplicity of it. Smashing the strawberries in the ziplock baggie is easy and requires no cleanup. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe.
When I tell you this is the best dog gone cake ever. This is not an understatement! I love icing and I may try to make a three layer cake in the future. When I sliced the cake, it was literally gone in seconds. This is by far my favorite cake ever! Doesn’t take like cake mix at all! I give this two thumbs up and toe.
Ashley you just made my day!! I am so glad to hear that you liked it so well and that it was such a big hit!!
I have tasted this cake with some kind of pink icing that is devine. It’s so creamy and I never tasted anything like it before. YOu have to help! It has a strawberry flavor and it is beyond creamy. The cake came from Birmingham. I’ve looked all over for this recipe for the icing and I was told a 90 year old woman makes this icing on this kind of cake. With this icing and your recipe, we can call that recipe Better than ________ and it won’t be a lie. So please enlighten me if you may no the icing i’m refering to. Words can’t describe it!
Ashley…..I agree with you and I’m pretty much a chocoholic!! Hands down the BEST!!! I say Christy’s Mom knows some stuff and wished I could meet the woman who raised such a loving, fun daughter!!!
how weird
i just checked out pinkalicious for my little girl last night, we have read it twice already and i suppose we are off to the strawberry farm this weekend!
My mother-in-law’s birthday was on Mother’s day this year and I made this cake for her! I screwed it up and didn’t add the milk. The cake did not rise as much as usual in the center, but thankfully it still tasted good. I used your cream cheese frosting from the chocolate cake recipe because it’s my favorite (1 stick butter, 1 brick cream cheese, 1 lb powdered sugar, 1 t butter flavoring). It turned out very tasty and very PINK and happy! Thanks so much!
I would like to make this cake for my niece’s birthday and frost it with buttercream so that I can decorate it. The problem is that I’ll need to freeze it since since her party is on Sunday. Has anyone frozen this cake? Did you have any moisture issues?
Does anyone know if Christy and family are OK since the tornadoes hit in Bama?
Love this recipe … thank you so much for sharing. I am going to make it this weekend for a dessert social at churchc.
I tried this cake. I had fresh strawberries. It did not come out good at all. Very dense and heavy. Had an artificial taste to it. Will never make this again.
I don’t know what you did wrong.. I make this ALL the time and it always turns out perfectly!