This Strawberry Cake is just about the quickest and easiest cake you will ever make. Loaded with 500g / 1 lb of strawberries IN and ON the cake, it’s a great way to use strawberries when they’re in season! Yogurt makes the crumb moist, it’s not too sweet and you’ll love the hint of lemon.
No stand mixer, no creaming butter. Just one bowl and a wooden spoon!
Strawberry cake
A pink sponge cake with pink frosting made entirely with fresh strawberries without cheating* is a recipe that’s officially been in development for 3 years.
I’m confident 2020 will be The Year when I finally crack it. I’m getting close – and I’m SUPER excited to share it with you. And while infinitely doable by any home cook, it is quite an involved recipe.
So for now, here’s the cake you make with all those strawberries – the best easy cake recipe you will ever make bursting with fresh strawberries!
* No cheating = no food colouring, no strawberry flavouring, no fancy pants ingredients like freeze dried strawberries.
The cake is made with a yogurt and oil based batter which keeps the crumb beautifully moist for days and gives it more structure than delicate sponge cakes made with creamed butter so it can stand up to the weight and considerable juices that sweat out of the strawberries.
It’s still a beautifully soft crumb, it’s just not as delicate as traditional butter and sponge cakes. I’ve used it for Blueberry Cake and this Lemon Yogurt Cake if you’d like to read feedback from people who have tried it (spoiler: it’s good!)
What goes in Strawberry Cake
So here’s what you need:
Strawberries – 500g/1 lb to be exact! Some goes in the cake, most goes on top;
Flour, sugar, egg, baking powder, vanilla, salt – all the usual suspects in cakes;
Lemon – the freshness of lemon works so well in cakes made with berries! Proof -> Strawberry Cheesecake, Blueberry Cake, Blueberry Cheesecake Bars, Blueberry Lemon Loaf; and
Oil and yogurt or sour cream – as noted above, this is what keeps the crumb really moist as well as adding a touch of tang, reinforcing the brightness we get from the lemon.
How to make this easy Strawberry Cake
Being that this doesn’t have creamed butter in it, it’s a one-bowl, hand mixed batter. Whisk Wet ingredients first, then mix the dry in.
Some of the strawberries go inside the cake – not too much, I was a little overenthusiastic about this at first but the strawberries made the batter so wet and weighed it down so much it took 1 hour 40 minutes to cook! Most go on top – they hold their form pretty well but burst with juice when you bite into them.
I’m so unoriginal that whenever I see strawberries and baked goods, I immediately think cream. So for me, a (big!) dollop of freshly whipped cream is mandatory for serving.
Though recently, I really showed my wild side when I served it warm with ice cream – and it was to die for. As with most cakes, the inside is a little “pudding like” when it’s still warm from the oven (hence why most cake recipes sternly instruct you to be patient and let the cake cool fully before serving).
But for this Strawberry Cake, that “pudding like” texture with the warm strawberries just seemed to enhance the eating experience. Especially with that (adventurous! risky!) scoop of ice cream I plonked on the side.
It’s terrific both ways – at room temp OR warm. You choose! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Strawberry Cake (really easy cake recipe)
Ingredients
Strawberries
- 500g / 1 lb strawberries , hulled (ie tops removed)
WET:
- 1 cup sugar , caster/superfine best but granulated ok too
- 1/2 cup oil , canola or vegetable oil
- 2 eggs , large (~50g/1.75 oz each)
- 1 tbsp grated lemon rind
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 large lemon)
- 1 cup plain yoghurt , unsweetened (Greek or just plain)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (or essence)
DRY:
- 2 1/4 cups flour , plain/all purpose
- 4 tsp baking powder (or 1 1/4 tsp baking soda)
- Pinch of salt
SERVING:
- Whipped cream
- Extra strawberries
- Icing sugar/ powdered sugar , for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
- Grease and line a 23 cm / 9" cake pan with baking paper/parchment paper. (Any type of cake pan is fine)
Strawberries:
- For inside of cake: Dice some strawberries into ~1.5cm / 1" pieces to make 1 cup (about 1/3 of the strawberries)
- Topping: Cut the remaining strawberries in half.
Cake:
- Place Wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk well for 1 minute.
- Add Dry ingredients then whisk well until lump free.
- Pour half into cake pan, smooth surface. Scatter over diced strawberries.
- Top with remaining batter. Smooth surface, then top with halved strawberries, cut face down.
- Bake 50 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. (Note 1) If you need to cook longer, cover with foil if it starts getting too golden.
- Stand 15 minutes in the cake pan before turning out onto cooling rack.
- Cool 15 minutes+ before serving warm or at room temp. Dust with icing sugar, and serve with cream or if serving warm, ice cream!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published as this Upside Down Strawberry Cake in August 2017 which, due to lack of reader interest (ie virtually ZERO readers!) and some technicality issues, has been replaced with this sparkling new easy Strawberry Cake recipe!
More strawberry recipes
Life of Dozer
When the video camera kept focussing on his big golden head instead of the darn cake!!!
How light and fluffy is this cake and bursting with the strawberries . Great recipe , thanks so much
You’re so welcome Alida! N x
I just made your strawberry cake, Nagi and it is really delicious. That mixture of sweet and sour is wonderful. Thank you for another great recipe
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Cal! N x
I have just taken this out of the oven and it looks sensational. Taking it to a family get-together later today. Can’t wait to taste it!!
Enjoy Raelene! N x
Made your strawberry cake for supper tonight and six
people finished the entire cake – it was that good.
We all giggled at the calorie per slice “assuming 12 slices” because nobody wanted to share with six more people..
I love this Donna!!! 😂
Do you need to use a spring form pan, if not how do you remove the cake from a layer pan?
Hi Barbara, springform is the easiest option to be able to get the cake out. You could always use a regular pan, grease and paper the base and sides then flip it out once cool.
Looks terrific! I will try pouring the batter into my heart-shaped muffin pan instead of the cake pan. I think this would be perfect in the mornings with breakfast.
Sounds fabulous Mary! N x
It’s amazing, will be on my go to list. Love your dog Dozer.
I hope you try it and love it Bernadette! N x
I’m hosting a high tea in Sept and this Strawberry Cake has Hi Tea written all over it! Love all your recipes, I haven’t commented before but I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
I hope you love it! N x
Hi. Re “Strawberry Cake – really easy recipe”. Can I substitute strawberries with fresh rhubarb? Will rhubarb cook in the same time stated in your recipe? Thanks Sally
I haven’t tried with rhubarb Sally – would love to know if you give it a go! N x
It’s in the oven now, bought some organic strawberries today and lemon. Salivating, can’t wait to try.
Enjoy Bernadette! N x
Well done Dozer on passing another health check up. And, being Mum’s official taste tester can’t be doing any harm. Sending big hugs to both of you. xx
Thanks so much Jayne 🙂 N x
Well one Dozer on passing another annual health check up. And, being mum’s official taste tester hasn’t done any harm either. Sending big hugs to both of you, xx
Can I use almond flour. I have a sensitivity to wheat.
I haven’t tried sorry Mariko – N x
Can I use frozen berries in this? Have 8lbs frozen from berry picking a couple of weeks ago.
Hi Donna, you’d need to thaw them first and then use 🙂 N x
Yum! I’m making this today. And high five to Dozer on his great checkup,
Thanks smooch Patsy! N x
This looks sooooo good – can’t wait to make it! Wanted to advise – the picture associated w/this ‘pin’ is for strawberry upside down cake w/a strawberry glaze on top – not this one! Love ~ Love ~ Love your blog and Dozer!!!
Thank you Leslie! Fixed! N x
This looks so yummy! Too bad all my “groups” are meeting online and not in-person, so they can’t enjoying this beautiful treat. Wanted to let you know that when I pinned the recipe it pinned your strawberry upside down cake instead (not as pretty in my opinion)
Thanks Robin! Fixed! (PS Agree 🙂 Hence why I changed it to this one!! N x)
I just made this deliciousness this morning in USA…..I am serving to my boys for breakfast with old fashion vanilla ice cream… I just tried a piece out of oven…soooo yummy!!…my boys will be so surprised about breakfast this morning! what a treat to start the day…Got to go wake them up!…you bring sunshine into our home!….Thank YOU!!
Nagi that cake is beautiful. I wanted to ask you if I can use some frozen strawberries I froze recently. We pick 3 buckets full this year . Would love to use them but wasn’t sure if they would be watery. Would live to get your opinion. Thanks.
Hi Patty, you’d need to thaw them first and then pat dry. N x
Nagi, I would love to make this tomorrow for a birthday. Can you give me the conversions for the UK (ml/grams)? I usually guess for savoury stuff, but think this will need to be a bit more precise. Can’t wait to try this, it looks absolutely heavenly!
Hi Sarah – you can click the metric button to convert all the ingredients. N x