This delightfully decadent yet deceptively easy-to-make strawberry cream cake tastes like a slice of summer!
A basic cake mix is upgraded with fresh berries and a a few extras, slathered in whipped cream and topped with heaps of fresh strawberries!
This cake is as pretty and delicious as it is easy to make.
An Easy Fresh Strawberry Cake
- Who doesn’t love a moist cake recipe? Even better when it’s super quick and easy!
- This Strawberry cream cake bakes up tall and fluffy and moist and looks so dramatic.
- Ready-made ingredients and a few special tricks take this recipe from ordinary to extraordinary in just a few steps!
- Fancy enough for a party but easy enough to make in minutes!
- Make the cake ahead and keep it chilled until ready to frost or wrap it in plastic and freeze until ready to use!
Ingredients & Variations
Cake – Level up a box of cake mix with fresh chopped strawberries for flavor and a few other additions like sour cream. We use white cake mix but yellow cake or Funfetti will look and taste just as good.
Jell-O – A box of strawberry (or raspberry) Jell-o add flavor and a pretty pink color.
Topping – Keep the topping fresh and creamy by using whipped topping or whipped cream. For a richer flavor, beat 4oz cream cheese with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped topping.
Strawberries – Fresh is always best, but frozen strawberries will do and are easier to chop when they’re still a little frozen. Let them thaw in a colander in the sink after they’re chopped. Any fresh or frozen fruit will work as long as they’re finely chopped so they stay suspended in the batter and don’t sink to the bottom.
How to Make a Strawberry Cream Cake
Sweet, moist, and fluffy; there isn’t much more to ask for in a cake!
- Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Prepare the cake (as per the recipe below) and fold in the egg whites and fresh strawberries.
- Bake and cool completely. Top the cake with whipped topping or fresh whipped cream.
- Garnish with strawberries before serving.
Tips for Success
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper to ensure the cake doesn’t stick. Trace the pan on the paper and cut using scissors.
- For easy cake removal, run a butter knife along the edges and place a plate on top of the cake. Invert the cake and it should release nicely.
- Ensure that the cake is completely cooled before frosting.
- The whole cake can be frosted or it can be served as a naked cake while frosting only the top and between the layers.
- For best frosting results, chill the cake so it’s firmer and less likely to crumble as it’s frosted.
Sweet Strawberry Desserts
Did you make this Strawberry Cream Cake? Leave us a rating and a comment below!
Strawberry Cream Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 4 large eggs separated
- 1 box white cake mix
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 box strawberry Jell-O 3 ounces
- ¾ cup fresh strawberries finely chopped
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup milk
Creamy Topping
- 8 ounces whipped topping* thawed
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper and grease the sides.
- Mix cake mix, egg yolks, oil, Jell-o, sour cream, and milk in a large bowl. Set aside.
- With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 4 minutes. Fold the egg whites and strawberries into the cake batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 32-36 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Place pan on a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pan and cool completely.
- Cut completely cooled and spread a 1-inch layer of whipped topping or whipped cream on one of the cakes. Top with the second layer of cake. Spread with additional whipped topping.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour. Garnish with sliced strawberries.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Cake, Dessert
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
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Another question can you frost the cake the day before ? Will it hold up if I mix the cream cheese frosting with the whipped cream? Thanks I’m trying it as a half sheet right now.
If using whipped cream I don’t know if it will hold up overnight, in this case it’s better to use whipped topping. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Can you make this as a half sheet cake? How many boxes would you need thank you! ?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure Amanda. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Could you please give the ounces of the cake mix? The ounces per box were reduced a while back from approximately 18oz to 15oz. If this is based on an older recipe that used the 18oz cake mix, I’ll know to add some mix from another box I have. I enjoy having a few “quickie” recipes when I don’t have time to bake from scratch and look forward to trying this one. Thanks!
Either will work in this recipe, most often I use a mix closer to 15.25 oz.
Thanks! Sorry it took me a while to check back and thank you. My son has requested a strawberry cake for his birthday so this recipe is appreciated.
Enjoy Penny!
Hi , I am planning on making the next month for a birthday dinner. So about the recipe under equipment it says hand mixer and tube pan. Then in the instructions it says use 2-9 in cake pans. Wanting to make sure I use the correct pan. Picture looks like two pans.
Thanks
Beverly
Sorry for the confusion Beverly. I use 2 9-inch round cake pans for this recipe.
This cake was light and sweet. I made it for Easter dinner and it was delicious.
Happy to hear that Lisa! Happy Easter!
I made the strawberry cake. Used my tube pan. Cake fell half way through baking. A lot….. so I made another. The same thing happened. Very disappointed as I was so excited to make this for company. Patched broken pieces together to frost as it was so thin it was hard work with after cutting. Is there something missing in the recipe? Why is it falling really bad when baking? Double checked oven temp… thanks, Rachel
Hi Rachel. I’m really sorry that happen. I’ve triple checked the recipe and it’s correct. I’ve been making this cake for more than a decade and never had a problem with it. It should produce consistant, reliable results. I’m trying to figure out what could have happened! I’m sure you followed the instructions perfectly, but here are a few reasons cakes in general, not just this recipe, can collapse:
Underbaking: If the cake is underbaked, or if the baking process is interupted by checking on it too much, or if your oven temperature is off, then the physics of baking could be the culprit. This can happen more easily with a heavy batter cake. What can happen is, when the sides of the cake have baked enough to give the cake the structure it needs to rise, but the inside batter has not had enough time to bake to a point it will support itself, and the baking cycle is interuptted or ended too soon, the cake can collapse. You can be following the recipe exactly and your oven could be off. It might be baking too high or too low, both of which can cause this problem. An inexpensive oven thermometer can determine if your oven temperature is accurate. This specific recipe does create a heavy, very moist batter, so underbaking could definitely problematic.
Emulsification: Another common reason this can happen is not mixing per the instructions. Once all the ingredients are combined the batter needs to be beaten with an electric mixer, on medium, for the full 3 minutes.This is very important to have the cake rise properly.
Altitude: If you are baking at a high altitude, even if you follow the directions to a T, the cake can still come out flat.
I hope something in here might help. I’d really love to find out what the heck happened so you can rely on a picture perfect result! Please LMK, Kathleen <3
This is almost the exact strawberry cake recipe I use/love (a la The Cake Mix Doctor) minus the additional sugar and flour. What do you think the additional sugar and flour adds to the cake? Does it make it less heavy?
Hi Aubrey. This recipe was given to me years and years ago. Honestly, I don’t know exactly what properties those ingredients add. I just love the results so I don’t mess with a good thing. Lol! I can tell you that they do not make the cake less heavy. This recipe does indeed produce a heavy, very moist cake :) Kathleen