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;
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Flour, sugar, egg, baking powder, vanilla, salt – all the usual suspects in cakes;
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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
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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!!!
Steph says
Hi Nagi, will it ruin the cake if I use self-raising flour instead of plain four? 🙁
Nagi says
Hi Steph, you can use self raising, just omit the baking powder that the recipe calls for. Enjoy! N x
Emma says
Everyone raved about this cake! I served it for dessert after a BBQ using new season strawberries. It was super quick to make & was lovely with chantilly cream.
Anne says
Made this for an afternoon tea today and although the batter was quite thick(I had to use my fingers to spread in pan) it was so moist and amazing. Went down a treat. Will definitely make again
Joanne says
LOVED this cake recipe. I used coconut oil , which kept solidifying so I had to manage the temperature , and my cake batter was quite stiff so I was initially a little worried, but it came out well! Sooo good. I’m going to try again with a different veg oil next time but otherwise wouldn’t change a thing!
Hilary says
OMG ! What a lovely cake!
I have to say it went down a storm with all my family & I will definitely be making again.
Thanks once again Nagi for another fantastic recipe.
Carina says
Hi Nagi! I have so many of your recipes on rotation in this house. I swear they think I’m THAT good. Lol I do have a question for you for this cake recipe. I followed it to a T but my batter came out more like a cookie type batter. It was very thick and didn’t run like yours at all. I had to form the batter in the pan with my fingers so that it could cover the bottom since it was too thick to cover by itself. The cake still ended up decent. It was a bit dry though. What do you think I did wrong? Maybe next time I’ll do just 2 cups of flour or even 1 3/4 instead.
Mae says
I also had this problem and even weighed out the flour to make sure I had the right amount
Jayne says
I’ve baked this twice and both turned out perfect, I used 1/4 cup of sugar in both.
Also your carrot cake again 1/4 cup sugar perfect and what can I say about your Christmas Cake. Made 9, even divided the recipe between two 6inc cake tins. Not as high but still as yummy.
Thank you love your recipes.
Denise L Travis says
Funny story. We homeschool in the US. Each of my children had to pick a recipe that highlighted a “new world” food. My son chose this recipe. Well, we learned that a standard round US cake pan is too small for this cake. It spilled out all over the oven. We caught it soon enough, transferred it to a square pan and it was absolutely delicious. My kids ate it up, leaving not a single crumb. Thanks for this recipe!!
Fiona says
What can i use instead of yoghurt as want to do it today but do not have it…skimmed milk is good?
Nagi says
Hi Fiona, sour cream works well as a substitute here – N x
Ann says
Wow! Lovely crumb and taste. I followed the recipe exactly except I used coconut flavoured yogurt and so dropped sugar to 150g. The top was browned but not bad, the inside is heaven.. will definitely bake again, and again.
Georgia says
One of the best cakes I have ever made (and I’ve madea few in my time!). Got a double punnet of overripe strawberries for $1 at the market and new it was meant to be. Divine!
Nagi says
Perfect Georgia!! N x
Nina says
Could I use buttermilk instead of yoghurt? Forgot to ask in earlier comment. 🙄 Thanks…
Nagi says
It’s too think unfortunately Nina, but sour cream will work as a sub for the yogurt. N x
Nina says
Hi Nagi do you bake this at 200 180 fan or as your baking (1) note 180 160 fan? I thought 200 – 180 fan seemed high. Thanks…
Boom Baby Cakes says
I absolutely love your recipes. RecipeTin is LITERALLY my favorite site. I am a beginner (very very new) baker and I have gravitated towards the sweets. I’ve already made the blueberry cheesecake, and I just did the strawberry cake on 2/6/21. It only took about 55 mins for my cake. And I did not cover with the foil. Did not see the point in the extra 5 minutes. Delicious! I will continue to stay tuned.
Maggie A says
I made this cake and it was delicious! It wasn’t quite done after 50 minutes, so I put foil loosely on top as recommended to prevent over browning, and cooked for another 10 minutes – perfect! This recipe is going in my folder to make again.
Tina says
Delicious and so easy.
I used light EVOO and cut sugar to 3/4 cup as I’m not a sweet tooth!
Arlene says
Made this yesterday and turned out really nice and looked good too
Family said it could hv been more sweet. Used frozen strawberries. So may be next time will add a little more sugar. But for me, it was just perfect
Holly says
Hi, I made this last week and it was amazing so many compliments! I only have half a pack of strawberries and can’t get to the shop today, do you think I could replace some of the inside strawberry filling with banana?! Many thanks
Margaret says
Can I use other fruit
Margaret says
Loved this recipe found it a bit too sweet though can you use other fruit.