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Home Baking

Strawberry Cake – really easy cake recipe

By:Nagi
Published:31 Jul '20Updated:17 Feb '21
363 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

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!

Overhead photo of Strawberry Cake dusted with icing sugar, ready to be served

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.

Slice of Easy Strawberry Cake with cream and fresh strawberries

Close up showing soft moist crumb of Easy Strawberry Cake

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:

Ingredients in Strawberry Cake

  • 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.

How to make Strawberry Cake

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.

Close up of slice of Easy Strawberry Cake

Overhead photo of Strawberry Cake being served

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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Close up of strawberry cake recipe

Strawberry Cake (really easy cake recipe)

Author: Nagi
Prep: 15 minutes mins
Cook: 50 minutes mins
Cake
Western
4.91 from 90 votes
Servings10 - 12 slices
Tap or hover to scale
Print
  • 973
Recipe video above. With 500g / 1lb strawberries IN and ON the cake, this really is bursting with fresh strawberry flavour! This may well be the fastest and easiest cake recipe you'll make this year. Yogurt keeps the crumb beatifully tender and moist, and it keeps perfectly for days.
Resist the temptation to load it up with more than 1 cup chopped strawberries inside the cake - strawberries are really juicy which leeches into the batter, exponentially increasing bake time + can make the crumb too wet.
Lovely served at room temperature with cream, or warm with ice cream (I love it both ways!).

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:

1. Bake time - I know 200°C/390°F (180°C fan) sounds high for a cake, but for this one it needs a higher temp. If your oven runs weak so it takes longer to bake, it can really affect the bake time of this cake due to the juiciness of the strawberries! At 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) it took me 30 minutes longer, and a bit more moist inside (but still a terrific soft tender crumb).
2. Different measures in different countries - tablespoon and cup sizes differ slightly from country to country. In most recipes, the difference is not enough to affect the outcome of the recipe, but for baking recipes, you do need to be careful.
This cake recipe is forgiving enough such that the difference in cups won't matter - I've made it mixing up US and Australian cups (the greatest size variance) and the outcome was exactly the same.
3. Cake batter recipe is from my Lemon Yogurt Cake and Blueberry Cake. Strawberry Cake version inspired by various recipes I've seen around in including ones from Smitten Kitchen, Martha Stewart and Natasha's Kitchen.
4. Storage - keeps well for 5 days, the crumb stays nice and moist thanks to the yogurt and oil. If it's hot and humid where you are, keep it in the fridge and bring to room temp before serving. If it's cold where you are, it doesn't need to be kept in the fridge. Also freezes 100% perfectly.
5. Nutrition per slice, assuming 12 slices.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 271cal (14%)Carbohydrates: 40g (13%)Protein: 4g (8%)Fat: 11g (17%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Cholesterol: 30mg (10%)Sodium: 22mg (1%)Potassium: 304mg (9%)Fiber: 2g (8%)Sugar: 20g (22%)Vitamin A: 65IU (1%)Vitamin C: 27mg (33%)Calcium: 111mg (11%)Iron: 2mg (11%)
Keywords: easy cake recipe, strawberry cake, strawberry recipe
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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!

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Life of Dozer

When the video camera kept focussing on his big golden head instead of the darn cake!!!

Dozer strawberry cake

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363 Comments

  1. Belinda says

    December 1, 2023 at 9:27 am

    5 stars
    Made this for a family gathering – was a great success

    Reply
  2. Lou says

    November 23, 2023 at 7:28 am

    Can I make this with frozen strawberries?

    Reply
  3. Sarah Gibbons says

    November 19, 2023 at 9:27 pm

    I made this for a dinner party tonight, it was a huge hit. My friend doesn’t normally love dessert, but he asked that I leave all the left overs as he loved it so much. He declared it “the best dessert ever”.
    So delicious and so easy 😀
    Thanks

    Reply
  4. Lola says

    November 17, 2023 at 12:22 am

    Made this yesterday. I thought mine was a bit dense but it tasted lovely. My 5 yo son ate all the “crunchy” bits around the cake. Then I had some today after leaving it in the fridge overnight – so good, especially on a warm sunny day! Thank you for another great recipe Nagi.

    Reply
  5. LP says

    November 16, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    3 stars
    Not sure where I went wrong with this one, but it didn’t turn out for me. I used the specified size of tin but I suspect I would have had more luck with a bigger tin (or one with higher sides?) as it was liquid in the middle and very crusty at the edges at 50 mins. I topped it with foil and carried on baking until done but only the middle was edible. Still, what we did eat tasted nice!

    Reply
  6. Kelly says

    November 11, 2023 at 1:52 pm

    5 stars
    Yes made this – very successful- yum!
    Thankyou Nagi :))

    Reply
  7. Carol says

    October 8, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    I made it today and my hubby and 3 grown up girls absolutely loved it, there’s hardly any left. Well done Nagi.

    Reply
  8. Carole says

    September 11, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    Hi Nagi
    looking forward to making this for tonight as it looks amazing (as usual),someone posted a mention for strawberry upside down cake but i can’t find it on the website? would really like to try that.

    Reply
  9. Ewyman says

    July 9, 2023 at 12:14 pm

    4 stars
    I love this cake, however I don’t like the appearance of strawberries, as if cooked…

    Reply
  10. Maria says

    June 24, 2023 at 5:36 pm

    5 stars
    Made this cake for my husband’s birthday it was easy to make and so delicious used sour cream instead of yoghurt so yummy thank
    You 😊

    Reply
  11. Mary Frances says

    June 14, 2023 at 10:19 pm

    For some reason the store I go to doesn’t have unsweetened plain yogurt . Was wondering is it okay to use anyway in recipe?

    Reply
    • Carol says

      September 11, 2023 at 7:10 pm

      Hello Mary. Someone in an earlier comment used vanilla yoghurt and reduced the sugar by half. Or you could use sour cream instead.
      Good luck!

      Reply
  12. Mary Frances says

    May 22, 2023 at 2:58 am

    5 stars
    Delicious and easy to make👍

    Reply
  13. Nancy says

    April 30, 2023 at 9:08 am

    Don’t see where, can we substitute sour cream for yogurt?

    Reply
    • Carol says

      September 11, 2023 at 7:07 pm

      Hi Nancy. Further up the page where there’s an image of the ingredients under the heading “What goes in Strawberry Cake” , it lists sour cream OR yoghurt. HTH!

      Reply
  14. Joanie says

    April 23, 2023 at 7:15 pm

    Oh my Nagi. I truly stuffed this cake up..big time! In all my wisdom, I really thought there was just wayyyy to many strawberries in his cake….so I only used half of what you said to use. Of course…it was quite dry and not very moist. I feel terrible that I doubted you. 😳😳. I ended up having to make a strawberry coulis to pour over the cake to save it. It worked…sort of. I seriously will never doubt you again. 😆

    Reply
  15. Karin says

    April 8, 2023 at 8:31 pm

    5 stars
    Recipes always succeed with me when I use this blog, and I am not a great cook. This cake was exceptional. Thank you so much Nagi!

    Reply
  16. Deborah March says

    February 11, 2023 at 8:00 am

    5 stars
    Another five star dessert recipe! THANK YOU Nagi! I agree with another reader that using cake bands will help immeasurably with even baking. But if you don’t have these in your kitchen, it’s easy to improvise:

    Reply
  17. Christine Harris says

    February 1, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    5 stars
    A fabulous cake! For those who have trouble with this cake cooking evenly, can I suggest trying cake bands? They’re my new best friend! They seem to work particularly well for this cake. It’s perfectly cooked every time. Yum!

    Reply
  18. Will Vo says

    January 29, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    5 stars
    I made this today – delicious! I made some slight modifications (1/4 cup sugar rather than 1/2, a classic vanilla yoghurt instead of plain/greek, and chopped up the strawberries into 1cm chunks and stirred it through the mix before putting it into the baking tin). Thanks Nagi!

    Reply
  19. Ivanka Di Felice says

    January 29, 2023 at 12:14 am

    5 stars
    Hi, just made this but wanted to confirm it is 4 tsp of baking powder? Love the ease of the recipe!

    Reply
  20. Nancy says

    January 24, 2023 at 12:49 pm

    5 stars
    I just made this for my daughter’s winter birthday! We’re had it for breakfast with champagne! Such an easy recipe and it was so delicious! I couldn’t believe I made this! Thank you!

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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