This wonderfully vintage strawberry cake recipe uses the best of all worlds: a cake mix to make it quick, fresh strawberries to enjoy the bounty of the season, AND a strawberry buttercream frosting that will blow your mind!
Retro Strawberry Cake
Now, I don’t mind a homemade strawberry cake (I love my strawberry bundt cake!), but what a lot of bakers don’t talk about is that strawberries don’t always yield the strongest flavor, and when making cakes, that translates into a lighter, sometimes barely noticeable taste. Yes, when you condense and boil strawberries in a sauce, you get flavor, when you make a jam, it’s the same thing.
But simply adding fresh strawberries into a cake, even if it’s a condensed mixture, really doesn’t give you a KAPOW of strawberry flavor.
Strawberry Jello and a Cake Mix
Enter the 1960s, and their love of Jello is in everything.
Strawberry jello gives you that taste KAPOW and color (which I mean, let’s face it, pink cake is the bomb.) Believe it or not, it helps to REDUCE the amount of sugar you need in a strawberry cake recipe to make up for those tart berries.
I have to laugh when people get a hate on for a packet of Jello, then POUR TWO CUPS OF SUGAR INTO THEIR CAKE RECIPE! Hahahah!! I mean, come on, that’s hilarious! I get it if you don’t want gelatin, but when people fuss about whether it’s a packaged product, Oh my. Let’s talk about refined white sugar!
How to Make Strawberry Cake
This is a super easy recipe, but it still takes some time. We make a homemade cream cheese strawberry buttercream icing and frost the cake nicely. The easiest part is baking the cake!
- Combine cake ingredients.
- Pour the batter into two 8 inch round pans,
- Bake the cakes until done.
- Cool the cakes ( freeze if desired!)
- Prepare the frosting
- Frost the cakes!
How to Store This Cake
This cake is better when it’s refrigerated, as the icing needs to stay cool otherwise because between the butter, cream cheese and fresh strawberries it won’t last long. You can refrigerate it until the outer layer of icing is hard ( around 30-45 minutes) THEN cover it with plastic wrap to keep the moisture in. This can be made the day before and kept in the fridge. Simply bring it back to almost room temperature to slice and serve!
More Fresh Strawberry Recipes
- Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
- Strawberry Plum Crumb Cake
- Summer Berry Fruit Salad
This is one of my new favorite ways to welcome summertime strawberries, though nothing beats a strawberry pretzel salad or upside down strawberry rhubarb cake! Happy baking, I hope you give this one a whirl! Let me know in the comments below if you tried it!
And if you are brave….try my lemon buttercream frosting on this…. I can’t imagine that it would be a bad combo!
Love,
Karlynn
Classic Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake
- 1 box Vanilla Cake Mix
- one 3 ounce box strawberry gelatin mix (Jell-O)
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup crushed fresh strawberries
Frosting
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup cream cheese softened
- 1 cup crushed strawberries
- 4-6 cups icing/confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Strawberry Cake Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350°. Prepare the 2 cups of crushed strawberries,
- Grease two 8 inch round baking pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper. Butter the top of the parchment paper as well.
- In a large bowl attached to a stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, add the cake mix and gelatin. Whisk together until combined.
- Add in the milk, oil and eggs
- Beat the mixture on low speed for 30 seconds, then beat on medium 2 minutes. ( just like regular cake mix instructions on the box)
- Mix in one cup of crushed strawberries on low speed.
- Divide the batter between the two pans evenly.
- Tap the pans on the counter gently a few times to release the air bubbles.
- Place the pans into the oven.
- Bake the cakes until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cakes in the pans for around 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks, flipping over gently, then remove the parchment paper.
- Cool the cakes on the rack completely. IF baking on a hot day, freezing the cake layers helps when icing it! Simply place in your freezer (not stacked or they will stick!) for an hour or two to completely chill them.
Frosting Directions
- In a large bowl attached to a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, beat the butter until creamy and smooth. Add in the cream cheese, and beat again until smooth.
- Beat in a half cup of crushed strawberries and the vanilla extract.
- Gradually beat in enough confectioners’ sugar to reach desired consistency and sweetness.
- Assemble the cake by placing the first layer on the serving plate or platter you will use to serve. Spread some icing over the top, then place the remaining 1/2 cup of crushed strawberries on top in the very middle. (see photo)
- Place the other cake layer on top, pushing down gently to spread out the crushed strawberries in the middle, but try not to let the filling leak out the sides. Spread the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake to cover.
- Place the iced cake in the refrigerator and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. The icing needs to get nice and cold to set for slicing.
- When ready to serve, remove the cake from the refrigerator and slice.
Notes
- I used 6 cups of icing sugar for my icing. How much you use will depend on how juicy your strawberries are, how much water content is in your butter and cream cheese , and your own personal tastes.
- This needs to be refrigerated for a few hours before eating!
- You don’t need to use all of the icing. If desired, halve the recipe and make a thin glaze instead. It all depends on how much icing sugar you add.
- Freeze any leftover icing!
Nutrition
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Lynne Ginsburg says
I got rave reviews when I served the cake with a glaze on it. And I will make it again. It even so the icing was runny as I served it.
Lynne says
Hi, I made this cake today and followed all your helpful tips. It was quick and easy . However I had trouble with the icing . I made the icing recipe twice and the second time I drained off all the juice to try and make it less runny that the first one. I put it in the frig for four or five hours to harden it and froze the cake as you suggested but as soon as I started to spread the icing it became runny again . I made a half recipe and added three cups icing sugar. I was reluctant to add more sugar because that made a very sweet icing .
Any suggestions for a better icing experience for next time . I ‘ve never made my own icing before . Always used the canned stuff from the store which is much thicker than the one I managed to
produce . Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks .
Lynne says
Hi, I made this cake today and followed all your helpful tips. It was quick and easy . However I had trouble with the icing . I made the icing recipe twice and the second time I drained ood all the juice to fry and make it less runny that the first one. I put it in the frig for four or five hours to harden it and froze the cake as you suggested but as soon as I started to spread the icing it became runny again . I made a half recipe and added three cups icing sugar. I was reluctant to add more because that made a very sweet Ivo if .
Any suggestions for a better icing experience for next time . I e never mad my own icing before . Always used the canned stuff from the store which is much thicker than the one I managed to produce . Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks .
Donna Fleming says
This is the recipe that my Mother and Grandmother made for my birthday every year in the 70s, but they never added cream cheese, just buttercream. I gave the recipe 5 stars because it isn’t your fault that I hate cream cheese. I guess I am the only person who actually hates cream cheese, but I do. Nobody ever had it in red velvet cakes or carrot cakes before the 70s. Other than the cream cheese, this my family’s favorite cake recipe. I love all of your recipes!!
Dianne says
This sounds delicious.I will try it today for my family
goody says
I’m hoping that 71 grams of sugar is for the whole cake and not just 1 slice!!
Karlynn says
The nutritional calculator is really off on this one, I can’t get it to work properly. It’s only cake mix and icing and fresh strawberries, I’ve never seen that much sugar OR 700 calories for a small slice! It’s the same as a CUP of pure white sugar! Something’s off but I can’t fix a third party app sadly!