Easy Fresh Strawberry Sheet Cake

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.

Jump to:

• Why you should try this recipe
• Video tutorial
• Achieving the perfect strawberry flavor
• Process with photos
• Tips to perfect this recipe
• Frequently asked questions
• Related recipes
• Easy fresh strawberry sheet cake recipe

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.

Video tutorial

Here is a short video tutorial for this recipe that I recommend watching:

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:

1. 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!
     
2. 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.
   
3. 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!

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 9x13" 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 9x13" 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

Related recipes

Here are some of my favorite fruity desserts you will also enjoy:

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