Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

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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! Check out some of my other delicious cake recipes like Triple Chocolate Cake (a.k.a Chocoholic Cake)Red Velvet Bundt CakeChocolate Velvet Cake With Cream Cheese Icing and Coca Cola Cake ~Oh So Good!~.

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

Helpful Kitchen Tools

  • Wash your strawberries and cut the tops off, slice them up a bit.

Mashing Strawberries for Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • 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.

Mashed Strawberries for Fresh Strawberry Cake

You can use any method of crushing that you like but I find a plastic bag and a can of somethin‘ works just great.

Mixing up Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • In a large mixing bowl, place cake mix, milk, oil, eggs, and gelatin.

Fresh Strawberry Cake Batter

  • Mix that up with an electric mixer until you have a smooth, creamy, pink batter, about two minutes.

Fresh Strawberry Cake Batter

  • Add in your crushed strawberries, juice and all.
  • Mix that up again.

Batter for Fresh Strawberry Cake in Cake Pans

  • 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.

Making Cream Cheese Icing For Fresh Strawberry Cake

Now let’s make us some cream cheese icing.

Ingredients needed for cream cheese icing

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.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

  • Ice your cake however you like.

Fresh Strawberry Cake

Look how pretty this fresh strawberry cake is!

Fresh Strawberry Cake

And this cake is just as delicious as it is pretty!

Fresh Strawberry Cake

Now cut it quick! The youngun’s are a waitin’!

Store this cake in the refrigerator. It’s even better served cold!

 

fresh strawberry cake

Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing

Fresh Strawberry Cake is my mother’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.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: strawberry
Servings: 4
Calories: 393kcal

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

Important note: If you want to decorate your cake as I have done in these photos, you will need to double this recipe.
*Some people add 1/2 cup 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.
Another note: Your cream cheese and butter really need to be room temperature so set them out earlier in the day before starting this.
If you don't want to you can make this into a sheet cake as well.  This recipe would be good for a 9 x 13 sheet pan. 

Nutrition

Calories: 393kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

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

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323 Comments

  1. I just used this recipe but made cupcakes! Came our horrible! Very gooey inside and I followed the recipe to the T! Don’t know what happened? Helppppp?

  2. Last Friday I found myself with 5 pounds of strawberries that needed to be used immediately. I googled for recipes and decided on this one. I saw that someone had added additional strawberries to the batter. I added a half cup more strawberries. It took approximately one hour to bake before the toothpick came out clean. I frosted it the next day. As I suspected the cake itself was extremely moist almost wet, gooey. Unfortunately I discovered this while presenting it at a party. I had my niece try it to determine if I should remove it from the dessert table. Although it was……gouppy,for lack of a better word, she said it tasted good. Later I had to hide the last piece to be able to take it to my husband!
    I will make this again. I will use less gelatin as that made it pretty sweet. I had also only used 2 cups of powdered sugar in the frosting instead of three and that worked out well. I had baked the cake on the bottom shelf which I won’t do next time.

  3. I would love to make this as a sheet cake like you mentioned. What pan size and baking instructions would you use? Thanks

  4. My son’s favorite cake has always been strawberry and this year I used your recipe for a “fresh” method and it will be our go-to from now own. We all absolutely loved it. Anytime you can take something simple and make it spectacular this easily, I’m for it and it made number 27 fantastic for my baby boy! Love your page and check it daily. Keep it real and “fresh” – God bless you and your family ;0

  5. Seriously. Do you even KNOW what “fresh” means? For one thing, it does NOT mean from a cake mix. Fresh means you actually mix the flour, eggs, etc., from SCRATCH.

      1. Love, love your response to Marge (wink)! I made this wonderful strawberry cake for my quilting group lunch today. I put on the old fashioned “3 minute icing” and tinted it green for St. Pat’s Day! They LOVED IT!! They said it was better than Edgar’s strawberry cake…now THAT’s a compliment to you! I told them I got the recipe off your website. Please don’t stop posting great recipes!! xoxo, Cathy

    1. Wow! That seemed a bit unnecessarily caustic. The recipe can be made any way you wish. Why be so unkind?

    2. Clearly you don’t understand the difference between fresh and scratch. Fresh applies to meats, veggies, and fruits. Scratch means not from a box. So, when correcting someone’s word choice, you may want to check your own first.

        1. This looks delish! I wonder if it could be made blueberry- with smashed blueberries and blueberry jello. Or raspberry! Thanks, and it’s so easy using a boxed cake mix.

      1. Fresh as in FRESH STRAWBERRIES !!! Damn, some people have to find something to gripe about. Make your own damn recipe and quit reading other peoples since you’re such an expert.

  6. Christy, I make this same cake but I make a few changes. I make the batter the same way, just leave out the strawberries. Then I make that same cream cheese icing and add in the crushed strawberries- it is AMAZING. I could eat the icing with a fork. Next time you make this cake, try it and see!

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