This is an easy and simple homemade version of the famous Sam’s Club strawberry cake recipe, which includes a moist cake topped with whipped icing, juicy fresh strawberries, and a scrumptious strawberry glaze.

If any of you shop at Sam’s Club on a regular basis, this strawberry cake will look very familiar because it’s my homemade version of their famous single-layer strawberry cake. I first took notice of their beautiful fresh strawberry cakes a few years back, so I bought one and fell in love. The cake is a simple one, nothing fancy, but the magic happens in the icing and topping.

I like to think the results are even better than the store-bought version and pretty fast and simple too. We start with a simple boxed cake mix, then we add the deliciously fluffy and creamy whipped icing. Now, this isn’t a super sweet buttercream frosting. The whipped frosting is similar to a stabilized whipped cream with just a touch of creamy sweetness. It’s so good, y’all.

After you perfect the whipped icing, we finish our homemade Sam’s Club strawberry cake with lots of juicy and ripe fresh strawberries on top and a delectable strawberry glaze. With the combination of moist cake, refreshing whipped topping, and that sweet strawberry glaze, this cake embodies all that is right and good in the world. It’s the kind of cake that’ll disappear in the blink of an eye when you take it to potlucks or parties and you’ll love the lighter than usual flavors and textures, with a burst of strawberry at the end.

If you’re looking for some more strawberry cake recipes to try soon, check out my strawberry poke cake, strawberry punchbowl cake, and strawberry cake with cream cheese icing.

Recipe Ingredients

Cake mix
Fresh strawberries
Heavy whipping cream
Strawberry glaze
Confectioner’s sugar
Vanilla extract

How to Make a Homemade Sam’s Club Strawberry Cake

Start by preparing the cake according to the package directions.

Make sure you have a plate or platter big enough to turn your cake out onto or bake it in a pan you want to decorate it in and just serve from that.

Your cream needs to be very cold. I’m not saying you have to freeze it or anything but leave it in the fridge until you need it.

Place cream in a mixing bowl and prepare to beat it.

It’s a Tuesday and already this feels like a long week, this cream doesn’t stand a chance.

You want to beat it until soft peaks form (about a minute or two).

What is a soft peak?

A soft peak is when you can see lines in it from your beaters but when you pull the beaters out, it forms a little peak and then the peak falls back down. Kinda like the loop on the end of a dairy queen ice cream cone.

Does anyone remember those? Butterscotch dipped were my favorite.

Once you are at this point, add in your confectioner’s sugar and vanilla (if using) and beat again until stiff peaks form.

That means you pull your beater out and there is a point where the beaters were that stands up straight and doesn’t fall back… or it just looks like this.

This is almost too much, I stopped just in time.

If you go much further than this you’ll end up with butter, which is not a bad thing, but it doesn’t make very good icing for this particular cake.

Ice your cooled cake.

Now, the frilly border is optional.

I made a little frilly border but you don’t have to do that. You can just ice the cake liberally and then kind of smooth the icing down a bit in the middle to create a bumper around the sides. You could also put your border icing in a gallon ziplock bag and cut the tip off and pipe a line around the sides.

I mean, it doesn’t have to be fancy here. It also doesn’t have to look store-bought. Homemade cakes are always more beautiful than store-bought cakes no matter how they are decorated.

Wash your strawberries and cut the tops off.

I also blot each one with a paper towel and press it lightly against the cut side just a bit.

Line these up in the center of your cake like happy little strawberry gnomes.

Now I just spoon my glaze over the strawberries.

You won’t need an entire container so if you decide to make this in a 9×13 baking dish there should still be plenty.

Once I have it spooned over I use a butter knife to spread it to cover each strawberry.

And that’s it! Your homemade Sam’s Club strawberry cake is finished. Told ya it was easy. Enjoy!

Storage

This cake must be stored in the refrigerator. You can have it out on the counter for a bit but I definitely wouldn’t leave it outside on a hot day. Eat leftovers within 3 days.

Recipe Notes

I use the 8×8-sized cake mix. If you prefer to use a full-size cake mix to make a 9×13, simply double the whipping cream and confectioner’s sugar and make sure you have enough strawberries. The same size glaze container will still be enough.
You can use any kind of boxed cake mix for this recipe, but I’m using a golden yellow cake mix. If you’d prefer a homemade cake recipe instead, check out my easy pound cake or simple vanilla cake.
I tried to cut calories by getting sugar-free glaze once and let’s just say I won’t make that mistake again. The flavor of that was best described as “freshly washed hair”.
Just so you know, heavy whipping cream is sometimes called heavy cream and sometimes called whipping cream, depending on where you live.