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!!!
I made this without first looking at the comments and I’m glad I did, otherwise maybe I would’ve been a little put off… ! I followed the recipe exactly, down to weighing one third of my strawberries for the inside of the cake and it’s come out perfectly. Cooked exactly to time stated and I love the slight tang of yoghurt. Yum yum
It took one and a half hour to get the middle cooked, but the bottom and side turned very dark brown
Made this yesterday for a potluck lunch today for 14.
It was delicious and so easy. I forgot to sift some icing sugar on top but it still looked beautiful. Served it with whipped cream. Everyone was impressed! Thank you!
Do good.
Can you use Self Raising flour instead if the plain and baking powder? If do would it just be a direct swap, ie same weight
I’ve just baked the strawberry cake as its strawberry season in the UK. Followed the recipe but with dairy free Greek style yoghurt and it came out beautifully. It took just over an hour to bake using a gas oven. Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes.
I loved the flavor of this cake, but I did struggle a bit with the bake time. I followed the recipe exactly as instructed, but I had to cook it much longer than instructed in order for the middle to fully cook. Because of this the edges got dark and dried out a bit.
Thanks for sharing this!! I call it a high ROI recipe – high return on investment. Easy to make but sooo yummy and looks beautiful~
I saw some recipes for a lemon basil cake with similar ingredients, and was wondering what you thought of adding basil to this strawberry cake. If so, what kind of modifications would u make?
Brilliant! Made it for a July 4 cook-out. The recommendation came from a family member in Australia; she sent the link to her sister-in-law (my aunt) in Salisbury, UK; who sent it to me in Atlanta, Georgia. We all have your cookbook of course! Cake was devoured and several guests went home with a big piece, which meant not much left for me! Will make again soon. Hugs to Dozer.
The temp on this recipe is too high and my cake was done in 30-35 min and it was dry. I think at 350 for 45 min. Would probably be better
This is fantastic- easy and so good.
Hi Nagi, this cake looks beautiful! Can I use frozen strawberries for this recipe? Thanks!
I really really wanted this to work. I followed all the instructions blindly, baked for longer. I had a bit smaller cake tin though. Sadly, what a waste of lovely, juicy strawberries. 🙁 My cake ended in the bin, as the centre was severely underbaked. Gutted 🙁
I made this yesterday, it didn’t look as elegant as Nagi’s as some of the strawberries on top were a tad ‘caramelised’ 😉 but it tasted great and was served with icecream and clotted cream. I’ll definitely make it again but put foil on after 45 minutes, I had to cook for an extra 15 minutes than in the recipe.
have made this cake many times now during strawberry season and it is easy to make, taste amazing and visually appealing.
thank you for sharing your recipe.
It doesn’t bake through, should either use the Bundt cake or reduce the quantity of strawberries drastically. Taste-wise it is “meh” as well.
Complete disaster! First time ever a Nagi recipe has failed me. Batter was very thick and 1 hour and 20 mins later, still uncooked in middle. I put the baking powder in before the flour and mixed it. Was that my mistake???????????
Disaster for me as well! Size of cake pan definitely makes a difference. I used a normal round tin, it rose so high my strawberries fell off in the bottom of the oven. What a mess! I will try again using a larger cake pan
You’re supposed to mix all the wet ingredients together in 1 bowl and all the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Then add the dry to the wet. This ensures all ingredients are evenly distributed throughout.
Can I use frzen strawberries if I remove quite a bit of liquid after they thaw?
Have just cooked it for the first time, the tastiest cake I ever eaten. Couldn’t resist eating 2nd piece. I used my husband home made yogurt 3/4 cup, and with olive oil is so moist. Also reducing 3/4 cup of sugar is the best of my taste.
Thank you for sharing this to us.
Is it ok to use butter instead of oil?
All the recipe says is that oil keeps the cake moister/doesn’t dry out become stale instantly. That’s because oil is 100% fat and butter is 80% fat and 20% water, and it’s the added water that’s the issue. If you don’t mind the cake going stale next day, by all means use butter! But I would go the extra step to making ghee (recipe on this website I think) to get the buttery flavour with the soft texture. You can buy ghee but it has additives which probably ruins the flavour. Or use browned butter (again you cook off the water) – quicker method than ghee but it has a distinctive toffee flavour, but again that’s a sensational flavour in it’s own right
Hi, I’m new here and I just want to say, this is A-MAZ-ING!!!! Today is my wedding anniversary and instead of going out to buy cake I wanted to make something at home, and I am so glad that I did! My only problem was that I didn’t have a pan like you used in the video, I used something a little bigger so I had to double the ingredients and even then it turned out incredible. This will be a staple in my kitchen from now on! Thank you!