A strawberry cake made so light and fluffy using real strawberries leaving you with a refreshing taste. Perfect for the upcoming warmer months.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see this cake?
For me, it’s summer followed by strawberry-picking. I’ve never done the latter but for some reason, it reminds me of it. Can’t explain.
You may have known by now my baking is strongly influenced by weather. Many people I know bake sweets based on trends or a certain style or simply because a holiday is coming. At times, I do this too but other times I like to break free from this habit and make something according to how Ifeel- not of what others may expect. Besides, sometimes I have fruit lying around that I haven’t eaten right away so instead of it going to waste, I like to make use of it in a dessert; the perfect way to do it.
Unless I’m eating strawberry jam on toast, strawberries are always eaten somewhat cool in temperature so I hope you don’t mind. I made it a week ago when New York finally had a glimpse of warm sunny weather. I once again, jumped straight to summer as I did with my mango lime cupcakes, ignoring all things cliché of pastels and Easter baking. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes I get ahead of myself with an exuberant amount of excitement when it’s warm. You should see my reaction the first time I hear an ice cream truck! I’m sure you understand. 🙂
So when you’re ready to make this Strawberry Cake keep in mind it’s actually very simple to make. Don’t let the two tiers fool you; all it took was one box of cake mix! Really it did! The top tier is an itty bitty two-layered 4-inch cake while the bottom is a two-layered 6-inch cakes. All this from just one box of white cake mix! Crazy, huh?!
Now you might wonder how the white cake mix turned pink. Simple, really and I didn’t even add food coloring or dyes*. With just one 3 oz. box of strawberry gelatin plus 1/2 cup of real strawberries, that’s all it took for this cake to turn into this beautiful pink color. As for the frosting, I originally wanted to use Cool Whip but with my forgetfulness at the time of assembling, I forgot to remove it from the freezer to thaw. Oh well, next time. And if you prefer to use regular whipped cream, you most certainly can because that’s exactly what I did here.
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Simple Strawberry Cake
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 2 tiered cake 1x
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix (I used vanilla bean cake mix)
- 1 (3 oz. box) strawberry gelatin
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup mashed strawberries
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 to 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 10 sliced and hulled fresh strawberries
- 1 whole strawberry
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 4-inch and two 6-inch round cake pans; set aside.
- In large bowl, combine cake mix, gelatin, water and oil; set aside.
- In medium bowl, beat egg whites using a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in egg whites and strawberries into cake mixture until just blended. Do not over mix. Pour half full into baking pans.
- Bake for 20 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of each cake comes out clean. Cool onto a wire rack for 15 minutes before inverting cake for additional cooling.
- Meanwhile, in a large chilled bowl, beat heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks form. Add an additional tablespoon of sugar if desired. Continue beating whipped cream until stiff peaks form.
- Frost tops and sides of cakes once cooled to the touch.
- Garnish sliced strawberries starting at the perimeter. At each subsequent row, layer each sliced berry in between and half way above the previous layer working inward towards the center. At the center, place a whole strawberry upside down. Serve and ENJOY!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
Simple Strawberry Cake recipe was adapted from Taste of Home.