This strawberry cake is actually very easy to make. It starts with white cake mix, strawberry gelatin and frozen strawberries. The frosting is made with more frozen strawberries, cream cheese and powdered sugar. I liked that since the strawberries are frozen, this pretty cake can be made at anytime of the year.
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
Southern
Prep Time15minutes
Cook Time20minutes
Total Time35minutes
Servings8people
Ingredients
18.25ozbox white cake mix
3ozbox strawberry flavored instant gelatin
15ozpackage frozen strawberries in syrupthawed and pureed
4large eggs
½cupvegetable oil
¼cupwater
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
¼cupbuttersoftened
8ozpackage cream cheesesoftened
10ozpackage frozen strawberries in syrupthawed and pureed
½tspstrawberry extract
7cupsconfectioner’s sugar
Freshly sliced strawberries for garnishoptional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 2 (9 inch) round cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil and water; beat at medium speed with electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.
Frosting
In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in ¼ cup of the strawberry puree and the strawberry extract. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar, beating until smooth.
Spread frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with strawberries if desired.
Recipe Notes
I couldn’t find an 18.25 oz box of cake mix so I used a 15 oz box (this is the size the two big brands sell at my grocery store). You can mash the strawberries instead of pureeing them. That way you don’t have to dig out your food processor. Finished product has some small chunks of strawberries from using the masher instead of completely pureeing them. I like seeing the little chunks, if I pureed it, it may have been too smooth and I would have lost the little chunks. There is no way this cake is ready in 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, the cake was still very wiggly. I kept cooking it in 5 minute increments, for a total of 45 minutes. My version used two 8-inch pans, instead of two 9-inch pans. If you use two 9-inch pans, it will still take longer than 20 minutes to cook, maybe 35 to 40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. You don’t have to use strawberry extract, I used vanilla extract. I was not going to buy a $7 bottle of strawberry extract for ½ tsp. Sorry. It still came out great. Red food coloring can be added to the frosting or cake batter to deepen the natural pink color or even make it a bright red. This cake would work well with other frozen fruits, like using mixed berries and mixed berry gelatin.