Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
I put a little video of me chatting with y’all at the bottom of this post. If you’re new here, WELCOME TO THE FAMILY! I’d love to have you subscribe by email and please feel free to chat with the rest of the family in the comments section!
I’ve had strawberries on the brain lately. This time of year, the prices have gone down and they are so inexpensive that you can purchase whatever you need for cooking and an extra carton just to nibble. I 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! My dad is a retired criminal investigator so I’m privy to all these little tips and tricks ~wink wink~.
There are so many strawberry dishes that I love. My personal favorite is my Mama’s strawberry pie, Ricky’s favorite is Strawberry punchbowl cake, and Bradybug favors good old fashioned strawberry shortcake. Katy does not eat strawberries at this moment in her life because she still has a preference for orange foods over red: Cantaloupe, cheese cubes, carrots, etc. ~sighs and shakes her head~
The fresh strawberry cake I’m bringing you today is my mother’s favorite and a guaranteed showstopper. I’ve served this at baby showers, bridal showers, spring brunches, and sent it to school as a special treat for the teachers. My favorite place to serve it, though, is at my own dinner table.
You’ll need: White cake mix, strawberry gelatin mix, cooking oil, milk, fresh strawberries, and Three Eggs.
The eggs were camera shy so you’ll have to imagine they are there. I hate to force the little fellas to pose when they get bashful like that.
Wash your strawberries and cut the tops off, slice them up a bit.
and put them in a big old plastic bag.
and crush ‘em!
*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.
You know, they have all of these gadgets for the kitchen nowadays but it just seems like most of them are more of an inconvenience to keep up with and clean after wards than just using what you have on hand.
Personally, I’m so unorganized that if I did have half of the gadgets they made I’d never know where I put the things anyway.
Place your oil and milk in a large mixing bowl,
add your gelatin
and your eggs and cake mix.
ACTION!
Mix that up really well til you have a smooth, creamy, pink batter.
Have y’all read Pinkalicious yet? If you have a little girl in your life my Katy’s age you probably have. It’s a precious little book that will have you making pink cupcakes soon as you finish it! This cake will give you a glorious case of Pinkitis!
Add in your crushed strawberries, juice and all.
Mix that up again.
Now grease and flour two round cake pans.
What I do is just dip a paper towel or paper napkin into vegetable shortening and then smear it around with that.
Sprinkle a little flour in and pat it all around to coat.
And just pat your pan over the trash can to get rid of any excess.
Divide your batter evenly among the cake pans
(I really prefer to make sheet cakes and skip all of this dividing batter nonsense but I’m doing this for y’all coz I love ya so much ~kisses your cheek and hugs your neck~)
If you want to have more even cake layers, you need to hit the pans a bit after you pour your batter in like this…
This removes a lot of the air bubbles and helps them bake without so much of a mound in the center.
Here we go, all done.
Let them sit in the pans for about ten minutes.
And then turn out to cool completely
or
Not.
Depending on how badly your kids want to eat this cake. Mine want to eat it pretty badly so we’re gonna pretend we let our layers cool completely
(but you really should)
Now lets make us some cream cheese icing.
We’re gonna need cream cheese, margarine, and powdered sugar.
Your cream cheese and margarine really really really need to be room temperature so set them out earlier in the day before starting this.
That pattern on this plate is called “Memphis” by the way. It’s some of my good ol’ Corelle. I chose it because you always remember the plates you ate on growing up and I wanted my kids to remember bright happy colors. 
Place your margarine and cream cheese in a bowl.
Mix ‘em up til they’re nice and creamy smooth.
Add in your powdered sugar.
Now any recipe is gonna tell you to add this gradually but I don’t do anything gradually so if something’s gonna get baked in my kitchen it’s gonna have to buck up. Recipes say gradually but at Bountiful, we dump all at once. Live on the edge with me.
See? All nice and creamy and I didn’t have to fuss over doing anything gradually. ~winks~
Now Ice your layers and cut it quick! They youngun’s are a waitin’!
Okay seriously, wait for everything to cool completely and then ice it.
Must be stored in the refrigerator and I prefer it served cold but thats up to you.
Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
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
- 8 ounce Cream Cheese, room temp (icing)
- 4 Tablespoons margarine, room temp (icing)
- 3 Cups confectioner's sugar (icing)
Instructions
- Grease and flour two 8 inch round baking pans or one 9x13 inch pan. Gently mash strawberries by placing them in a large plastic bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin or large can. 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.
- *Some people add 1/2 C crushed, drained strawberries to this icing as well. I leave them out to make the cake a bit prettier and easier to ice but feel free to add them in for more great strawberry flavor! Just mix them in after your icing is smooth and creamy and all other ingredients have been added.
Google Recipe View Microformatting by ZipList Recipe Plugin
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
- 8 ounce Cream Cheese, room temp (icing)
- 4 Tablespoons margarine, room temp (icing)
- 3 Cups confectioner's sugar (icing)
Instructions
- Grease and flour two 8 inch round baking pans or one 9x13 inch pan. Gently mash strawberries by placing them in a large plastic bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin or large can. 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.
- *Some people add 1/2 C crushed, drained strawberries to this icing as well. I leave them out to make the cake a bit prettier and easier to ice but feel free to add them in for more great strawberry flavor! Just mix them in after your icing is smooth and creamy and all other ingredients have been added.
“The distance between who I am and who I want to be
is separated by my actions.”
~Brian Solis
Just wanted to say “Hidy!” to ya, so I made the video below.
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Apr 12 2010. Filed under Cake, Dessert.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Love this recipe … thank you so much for sharing. I am going to make it this weekend for a dessert social at churchc.
Does anyone know if Christy and family are OK since the tornadoes hit in Bama?
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?
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!
[...] Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing | Southern Plate Apr 12, 2010 … The fresh strawberry cake I'm bringing you today is my mother's …. Great Recipes for Leftover Ham … [...]
[...] slice before serving. More Strawberry Recipes! Fresh Strawberryade Mama’s Strawberry Cobbler Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Print This [...]
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!
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!!!
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.
[...] From the Front Porch – In the last couple of weeks I have made the following: The Strawberry cake and the Butterfinger Cake for a few birthdays at work recently. They were such a huge hit! I have [...]
Quick Tip for the icing if you add strawberries: refrigerate the powdered sugar prior to mixing the icing. This helps it to be more consistent & much easier to ice cake. Actually, I do this for all cream cheese icings. Wish that I had discovered this a long time ago, after years of trying to keep a cream cheese icing on a cake, especially during a hot/humid summer in La.!!
made this cake for a fourth of july bbq and it was a hit! the only thing i did different was make the icing pink. this pretty cake was sliced and gone in a matter of minutes. thanks for a great recipe.
NJ GAL
Hey Christy! Thank you SOOOOOOO much for creating a place to save the recipes!! That makes is so much easier than copying and pasting…..I am really not too good at that! ;o) Now we can all save that much more from your wonderful posts!!
This is the first recipe I have tried from website and I made cupcakes…I gave my friend a surprise birthday lunch and everybody said they were as good as a very expensive cake bought from a bakery that we had tried several weeks ago. I also made the potates that you simply peel, cut and boil..the name has left me…and they were a hit as well. Love your website so far!
[...] – Strawberry cream cheese cake, Mandarin Orange cake, chicken poulet, and mac and cheese…..they were all beyond [...]
I made this last weekend when my brother and his fiance were in town – it was a hit! My husband doesn’t care for sweets that often and he RAVED about this cake! I added fresh sliced strawberries to garnish the icing – it was beautiful! My son will be baptized tomorrow and I just made this recipe into cupcakes for the brunch. They’ll look great on a tiered cupcake stand. Thank you so much for this recipe!!
I am so glad to hear that you liked it Mary!!! Congrats on the baptism!!!
I recently made this cake for our Wednesday night dinner at chruch. It was consumed in less than fifteen minutes! Everyone enjoyed the cake. It is very easy to make and turned out to be a crowd pleaser….thanks.
I am so glad it was such a hit Ruthann!! Isn’t it great when an easy recipe gets rave reviews?!
I’m going to make this cake for my boss’s birthday. Can I use butter instead of margarine for the icing?
Yes ma’am, you sure can! Wonder if you’ll get a raise…
I modified the recipe a bit . .. doubled it and it was the perfect amount for 3 9″ round pans . . . two for a double-layer cake to give away and a single layer cake for me to do the official taste test (I don’t usually give anything away that I haven’t sampled and given the thumbs-up). I used a slightly different cream cheese frosting recipe. The cake came out beautifully and tasted incredible . . . I’ll definitely be making it again . . . and it most definitely deserves a raise!
I am so glad you liked it Cheryl!
thank you soo much. i have been looking for a good easy cream cheese recipe. its awesome. thank you
Oh wow I made this the night before our Thanksgiving dinner and refrigerated it. After my uncle ate his dinner he asked about that Strawberry cake i had made so i sliced him and my dad up a piece. They were arguing about who was going to take it home with them lol. My stepson couldnt get enough of it. This is one that is going to be part of my family recipes from now on. Thanks for sharing your recipes and your stories. Not to mention helping me (if not many others) to cook better for their families!!
This cake looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it. Is it possible to use Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake instead of Duncan Hines White Cake? I couldn’t find Duncan HInes in the market. If the substitution is ok, do I not use eggs and oil as the box only calls for water? Thank you so much for your lovely recipes!
Made this for our Sunday night family dinner. All I heard was joyous sounds as they scarfed down this beautiful cake. The best part was the chunks of strawberry- and I put in extra (about 1/4 cup). Biting into that that strawberry was amazing. I also put in a few Tbl of strawberry puree in the frosting, which added another dimension. Bravo!!!
I went to making this cake and realized I forgot to grab the box of white cake mix! Instead of running to the store to get this, how can I make my own? Thanks!!
This sounds like just what I’m looking for for Valentine’s. I like the idea of adding some strawberry puree into the frosting. Thanks!