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This Easy Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake is a true celebration of strawberries. It is a soft, moist and fluffy cake made with fresh (or frozen) strawberries slathered in a delicious strawberry cream cheese frosting. To top it off, it requires no extra steps and comes together in one bowl in just 10 minutes! This pretty pink cake is perfect for occasions like Valentine’s, baby showers or garden parties.
Read the full blog post below for detailed notes, tips, tricks, photos and videos.
Why you should try this recipe
Here is why you should try this Easy Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake recipe:
- It really is easy. Most strawberry cakes require a bit of work, such as making a strawberry reduction or roasting strawberries, but not this one! All you do is blitz strawberries in a food processor. The cake is made in one bowl with a hand whisk and takes only 10 minutes of work. In addition, the unbelievably simple frosting and the fact that a sheet cake requires no cutting or layering make this cake very beginner friendly!
- It has a beautiful fresh strawberry flavor. It is strong enough that you know you’re eating a strawberry cake, but not so strong that it tastes artificial or overpowering. The cake is also not overly sweet and is beautifully complemented by the slightly tangy cream cheese frosting.
- The texture is sublime. Soft, fluffy and moist, with a luscious, silky frosting and fresh strawberries. Just perfect!
- It looks amazing. Seriously, look how pretty it is! I love desserts which look this good without any real effort. You just slather on the frosting in a rough and ready way and stick on sliced strawberries. The perfect pink color contrasted with the vibrant red of the strawberries will stand out on any dessert table, and is perfect for occasions like Valentine’s, baby showers and bridal showers.
Achieving the perfect strawberry flavor
A big challenge in developing strawberry cake recipes is achieving a strong strawberry flavor. Fresh strawberries don’t have a concentrated flavor and carry a lot of moisture in them, which is why a lot of recipes require additional work to remove that moisture (e.g., making a reduction or roasting strawberries). Other recipes use different ingredients such as freeze dried strawberries (which are great but sometimes hard to find) and strawberry extracts (which taste artificial).
In order to achieve a beautiful strawberry flavor while still keeping this cake easy and approachable, we use strawberries in 3 ways:
- LOTS of fresh or frozen strawberries in the cake (12 oz to be precise). These are simply pureed in a food processor and mixed into the cake batter.
- Fresh vs frozen strawberries: If you have access to sweet fresh strawberries, you can use those, but I love using frozen strawberries because they’re available year round, are frozen at peak freshness, and are much cheaper. Find an option which doesn’t have any additives and they’re just as good, if not better, than fresh!
- Fresh vs frozen strawberries: If you have access to sweet fresh strawberries, you can use those, but I love using frozen strawberries because they’re available year round, are frozen at peak freshness, and are much cheaper. Find an option which doesn’t have any additives and they’re just as good, if not better, than fresh!
- Strawberry jam in the cream cheese frosting. Frostings are more sensitive to moisture, so fresh strawberries don’t work well in them. Since jam is made with fresh strawberries reduced in sugar, it is a great, easy to find alternate! Use any kind of strawberry jam you like.
- Fresh sliced strawberries on top. These tie everything together and make the strawberry flavor shine. Add as many as you like, the more the merrier!
Overall, I would say the cake has a more subtle strawberry flavor, but when paired with the frosting and fresh strawberries, you will know exactly what you’re eating!
Top Tip
If you want to see specks of strawberry and some texture in the cake crumb, leave some small strawberry chunks in the puree. You can achieve this by pulsing the food processor until the strawberries are 90% pureed!
Process with photos
The detailed recipe is provided in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but let’s go over the steps with photos to help you visualize everything.
First, whisk together the oil, melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth:
Puree the strawberries by blitzing them in the food processor:
Whisk the strawberry puree and milk into the wet ingredients:
Sift in the dry ingredients and fold until just combined:
Pour the batter into a 9×13″ pan and bake:
To make the frosting, whisk together the cream cheese, sugar, cream, strawberry jam and salt until a smooth frosting forms:
Once the cake is cooled down, cover with the frosting and sliced strawberries. Then slice, serve and enjoy!
Tips to perfect this recipe
Here are some of my best tips to perfect this recipe:
- Weigh the ingredients with a kitchen scale, especially the flour. It’s easy to add too much flour if using measuring cups, which can make the cake feel very dry
- Sift in the dry ingredients to aerate them and remove any lumps
- Don’t overmix the batter! Only mix the dry ingredients until combined and no lumps remain. Overmixing can make the cake dense
- Use a light colored 9×13″ pan – darker pans can cook and color the cake too quickly
- Don’t overbake the cake. Check with a toothpick inserted in the middle – it should have a few moist crumbs on it instead of being completely clean. The cake continues to cook as it cools down
- This may be controversial, but if you want a more pronounced pink color, don’t be afraid to add some! The cake has a very subtle pink shade naturally. I added just a couple drops of bubblegum pink gel food color into the batter to make the color a bit more pronounced
Frequently asked questions
Yes, fresh or frozen strawberries work perfectly in the cake. If using frozen, let them thaw outside for 30 minutes before processing.
Although I haven’t tried this personally, it should work just fine!
Yes. You can use 2 9″ cake pans and double the frosting to turn this sheet cake into a round layered cake.
Keep the cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, this cake is best eaten at room temperature as the butter in it makes it firm when it is refrigerated. Leave at room temperature for 15-30 minutes before eating!
Here are some of my favorite fruity desserts you will also enjoy:
The BEST Strawberry Cheesecake
Blueberry Coffee Cake
Berry Chantilly Cake
Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
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Ingredients
Strawberry Sheet Cake:
- ¾ cup vegetable oil (170g)
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted (56g)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (300g)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup milk (80g)
- 340g fresh or frozen strawberries (makes about 1 1/2 cup of puree) – if using frozen, thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes beforehand
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (360g)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch (20g)
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Optional: few drops of pink gel food color
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 12oz cream cheese, room temperature (340g)
- 1/3 cup strawberry jam of choice (80g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (60g)
- 1/3 cup heavy cream (80g)
- Pinch of salt
Assembly & decoration:
- Fresh strawberries to taste
Instructions
Strawberry Sheet Cake:
- Pre-heat your oven to 350F (conventional / no fan) and line a 9×13″ baking pan with parchment paper
- Add the oil, melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth (~2 minutes)
- Blitz the strawberries in the food processor until they form a puree. Leave some texture if desired!
- Add the strawberry puree and milk to the wet ingredients and whisk until combined
- Lastly, sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Use a hand whisk to gently whisk until the ingredients are just combined and no lumps remain. Do not overmix
- If desired, add a couple drops of pink food color and gently fold in
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for ~25-30 minutes. Test with a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake – it should have a few moist crumbs on it (no wet batter). Do not overbake!
- Let the cake cool down at room temperature
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Add the room temperature cream cheese, strawberry jam, sugar, heavy cream and salt to a bowl. Whisk on medium-low speed until the ingredients are combined and no lumps remain. You should have a silky smooth frosting. Do not overmix as that can cause the frosting to become runnier
- Feel free to add food color if you would like to!
Assembly & decoration:
- Once the cake has cooled, carefully remove it from the pan (or keep it in if you want to serve in it). Slather on the cream cheese frosting, and decorate with lots of fresh, sliced strawberries
- Slice, serve and enjoy!
- This cake is best eaten at room temperature, but should be stored in the fridge
Video Tutorial
Notes
- This recipe makes a light layer of cream cheese frosting. If you want more frosting to cake ratio, feel free to increase the quantities of the frosting!
Comments
Rachel
How can I make these strawberry muffins/cupcakes? Can I just bake for less time? Thanks!
Zoha Malik
Hi there! it really depends on the size of the cupcakes. most cupcakes bake around 15-20 minutes 🙂
YX
Hey Zoha, I’d like to try this for my son’s third birthday. Can I use extra virgin olive oil for the vegetable oil?
Zoha Malik
Hi there! olive oil has a strong flavor that will overpower the flavor of strawberries, so I’d only suggest doing that if you guys love olive oil cakes!
D
I made this cake for a small family gathering and it was a hit! Everyone had a second piece!
Lucia
I love this recipe. Is there a trick for the icing to not get lumpy? Mine did😩 thank you so much.
Zoha
So happy to hear that!
Sunanda
Hi can we use brown sugar instead if white sugar?
Zoha
I haven’t tried it myself but i think light brown sugar should work 🙂
Sunanda
Can we use brown sugar instead of white?
RW
@bakewithzoha This was super easy to make, and tastes fabulous! Not too sweet of frosting, and I will definitely be making this again!
Zoha
Thanks SO much for trying out the recipe!
marinara
Good but not great. Cake doesn’t have a ton of flavor- maybe needs some orange zest? Or strawberry jam (in lieu of some sugar). And frosting needs more sugar (would add confectioners sugar next time).
Zoha
Thanks for your feedback, Marinara!
Lisa
What are the small sprinkles on the cake besides the fresh strawberries?
Zoha
They are crushed freeze dried strawberries 🙂
Anisha Sheril Baxla
Can it be freezed to eat later?
Zoha
Yes, you can always freeze cake! Just make sure to wrap it well in cling film.
Sidra
I made this cake. It turned out amazing!Thank you so much for all the superb recipes. May Allah bless you and your family.
Zoha
AWW thank you Sidra! God bless you & yours
Prerana
Hi Zoha, any substitute for the strawberry jam. Thank you
Lina
It looks too good will try soon on my daughter’s birthday. Just one question which type of shredded red crumbles on top of cake for decoration?
Reet
This cake is so easy to make and tastes absolutely divine! Thank you for the amazing recipe.
Nanajee Travels
This strawberry sheet cake sounds absolutely divine! 🍓🍰 Love that it’s packed with fresh strawberries and topped with a luscious strawberry cream cheese frosting—pure bliss! 😍✨
Ildiko
I made this cake recenlty to try it before Valentine’s day and it came out just perfect! So easy and deliciou!!!
I actually did a simple icing for it with no cream cheese, just powdered sugar, bit of strawberry jam, lemon juice and it was amazing.
Thank you for this simply, delicious cake that truly will impress any cake lover.
SK
Hi Zoha,
My daughter’s birthday is coming up and she asked for a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting 🙂
Planning to make the frosting from this recipe and your easy chocolate cake. Will this frosting be enough for an 8inch layer cake?
Farzana
Hi zoha..The strawberry Cake can u make it a day ahead n ice it the next day .