This is the easiest Strawberry Cake with a soft and moist crumb, bursting with fresh strawberry flavor and you will love the strawberry sauce. Watch the video tutorial and see why this is one of our all-time favorite strawberry recipes.
Fresh strawberries add incredible flavor to desserts like our popular No-Bake Cheesecake, Strawberry Pretzel Salad, or Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes. I hope this Easy Strawberry Cake becomes a new favorite for you.
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Strawberry Cake Recipe
This strawberry cake is winning in every way: simple ingredients, easy to make, perfect for entertaining, and completely yummy. Everything about this cake is good. This is a crowd-pleasing dessert, but (so you can’t say I didn’t warn you) it disappears fast!
This recipe is based on our wildly popular Blueberry Cake which was an instant hit and continues to be one of the top cakes on our site. Just like with blueberries, fresh strawberries are wonderful on their own but when you bake them into a cake, their flavor is amplified and every bite is loaded with satisfying strawberry flavor.
Fresh Strawberry Cake Video
Part of what makes this such an easy cake is that there’s no frosting or layering required, but the flavor is definitely there, especially when you drizzle every slice with the super simple 2-ingredient strawberry sauce. It will make you want to lick your plate – it’s just THAT good and super versatile. Try it over Dutch Baby Pancakes, Waffles, and Crepes. It’s also delicious over French Toast.
Ingredients
The ingredients here are pantry staples. This cake is loaded with fresh strawberries inside and out. Between the cake and sauce, you will need almost 2 pounds of strawberries.
The easy strawberry sauce has only 2 ingredients (strawberries and sugar) and comes together quickly in a food processor or blender. Here’s what you will need to make this simple strawberry cake:
- Eggs – make sure they are at room temperature
- Granulated sugar – sugar is used for both the cake and the strawberry sauce and you can add sugar to taste if you have very sweet or very tart strawberries
- Sour cream – adds flavor and richness to the cake
- Oil – creates a soft and moist crumb. You can use either extra light olive oil or vegetable oil
- Vanilla extract – we love using Homemade Vanilla Extract for the best quality and flavor
- All-purpose flour – forms a soft crumb without being too dense or heavy
- Baking powder – leavening that gives rise to the cake
- Salt – balances the flavor. We almost always use fine sea salt in our cooking
- Fresh strawberries – you will need 12 oz for the cake and 16 oz for the strawberry sauce. You can use frozen strawberries for the sauce but fresh strawberries are preferred for the cake.
How to Buy Strawberries
Here are some tips when shopping for strawberries. The last one is my favorite. I always smell the strawberries!
- Color – look for strawberries that are a bright and vibrant red. If they are dull or have a lot of white or green patches, they are either underripe or no longer fresh.
- Stems – check the stems which should look fresh and green (not brown or dry)
- Firmness – fresh strawberries should be firm to the touch. If the package is clear, inspect the bottom of the container. Strawberries should not look soft, mushy, or squished/ leaking.
- Aroma – I always sniff the package of strawberries – it’s the best way to tell if the strawberries will actually be tasty. Good strawberries will smell sweet and fragrant.
Tools for Baking
This recipe comes together fast with simple ingredients and basic cooking tools. For best results, be sure to use an electric mixer to whip the eggs and sugar.
Pro Tip: Rinse your strawberries just before using them. Wash under running water and avoid soap or commercial produce wash (these can be absorbed by strawberries and are not recommended according to the FDA). Once rinsed, set on cloth or paper towels and pat dry.
Tips for the Best Strawberry Cake
- To bring eggs to room temperature – place cold eggs into a bowl of warm water (not hot) for 5-7 minutes, then dry them with paper towels and use them in the recipe.
- Do not over-mix – This is KEY! Once the flour is incorporated, stop mixing or the cake can become dense.
- Measure flour correctly – spoon flour into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top with a straight edge. Why? Pushing your measuring cup into the flour bin can result in up to 25% more compacted flour. Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure ingredients correctly.
Common Questions
Yes! You can substitute sour cream with plain Greek yogurt. Whole milk Greek yogurt will yield the best results.
This works best as a single layer because it is a heavier cake. For a layered cake, we recommend our Strawberry Sponge Cake.
A reader shared this: “I used Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour. It is expensive but the best I’ve tried so far. Anyway, the cake came out great. We loved it and I’m planning to make it again for Easter. Just wanted to let any possible gluten-intolerant folks know.”
A reader shared the following: “I completely replaced the sour cream, with whole-fat coconut milk from a can. I mixed it completely before measuring, and to compensate for the added wetness I reduced the oil to about 1/3 cup. It was still a little runny, but the bake was perfect.”
We have only tested this in a 9″ springform pan. If baking in a smaller pan, bake a little longer or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you experiment with various sizes, please let me know in the comments.
Love Strawberry Recipes?
Strawberries always taste best in summer when they are in season so we like to take full advantage of their flavor and abundance. I also love that they go on sale often in the summer so we can use them for everything from Strawberry Lemonade to Chocolate Covered Strawberries. If you enjoy sweet fresh strawberries as much as we do then you will love these top-rated strawberry recipes:
- Strawberries Romanoff
- Strawberry Sauce
- Panna Cotta
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Strawberry Scones
- Eaton Mess
If you love strawberries, this strawberry cake is a must-try. I’d pass you a generous slice if I could, pummeled with the strawberry sauce of course.
More Easy Cake Recipes
If you love easy cakes like this strawberry cake don’t miss these easy, one-pan cakes that are always crowd-pleasers:
Easy Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Sauce
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake Ingredients:
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup light olive oil, or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour , (*measured correctly)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 12 oz strawberries, hulled
- 1 tsp powdered sugar , for dusting, optional
Strawberry Sauce Ingredients:
- 16 oz strawberries, hulled and halved
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar, or to taste
Instructions
Cake Prep:
- Butter a 9" springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375˚F. Prepare 12 oz of strawberries for the cake: dice 6 oz of strawberries and slice the second 6 oz into halves.
How to Make Strawberry Cake:
- In a large mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer), beat together 2 eggs with 1 cup sugar on high speed for 5 minutes or until light in color and thick.
- Add 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup oil, 1 tsp vanilla and beat on low speed until well combined.
- In a small bowl, whisk together: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt until well incorporated. With the mixer on med/low speed, add flour mixture to the batter 1/3 at a time, letting the flour incorporate with each addition and continue mixing just until well combined. Do not over-mix.
- Pour half of the batter into prepared pan. Top with 6 oz of diced strawberries then spread remaining batter over the top. Cover the surface with 6 oz of halved strawberries (cut-side-down), pressing them down just slightly into the batter. Bake at 375˚F for 45-55 minutes (mine was perfect at 50 min), or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cake rest in pan 15-20 min before removing the ring.
- Run a thin spatula around cake edges to loosen from pan. then transfer to a cake platter. Cool until just warm or at room temperature. To serve, dust with powdered sugar if desired. Drizzle individual slices generously with strawberry syrup.
How to Make Strawberry Sauce:
- While the cake is baking, make the strawberry sauce: In a blender or food processor, combine 16 oz strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar (or add sugar to taste) and blend until pureed.
Thanks for this deliciously simple and simply delicious recipe 🙂 I came across it by looking for how to use up some extra strawberries and sour cream. I adapted it by adding a splash of almond extract and making cupcakes instead of cake! Also, added a bit of lemon to the amazing sauce to enhance the flavour even more! Everyone loved it!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing.
This cake is delicious. My bottom crust was very dark, I would almost say burnt a bit. I floured the edge of springform pan and put parchment on bottom. Baked 48 minutes. Cooked in pan 16 minutes. The rest of the cake was golden on top and cooked through. Any idea what would cause that?
Hi Kathleen! I’m glad you loved the recipe. It could be the type of pan and the material it’s made of, certain materials distribute heat differently. Since it was just dark on the bottom, I wonder if the oven rack was too low, being too close to the heating element. We baked this in a conventional oven on regular bake mode.
Hi! I’ve made this recipe before and loved it! I’m with a bunch of frozen strawberries and was wondering if I could use them for this cake ☺️☺️
Hi Julia! See my note above, “You can use frozen strawberries for the sauce but fresh strawberries are preferred for the cake.”
Hi! Do you think this would work in a 9 inch pie pan? Or do you think it would over flow during baking?
Hi Joey, I haven’t tried this recipe in a pie pan to advise. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Should I just up the ingredients by a ninth if I use a 10 inch pan?
Hi Hannah! I don’t know the exact amount of batter needed for a 10”, but I think that would be fine.
Thank you so much for this recipe! My family absolutely LOVED IT!! This cake is now one of our family favorites!! 🙂
You’re so welcome, Vanessa. Great to hear that your family loves this cake a lot!
Dear Natasha,
I used to follow your blog years ago, but had to stop using most of your recipes since my older son was born with wheat and dairy among other allergies. I wanted to bake a gluten free dairy free cake for my second son’s first birthday so that my older one could enjoy it as well. Thank you for creating a community of well wishing people who gave amazing tips to make this gluten free and dairy free. The cake was amazing!! Crumb was fantastic. For other’s reference I used 1 cup Jules gluten free flour and 1 cup of almond flour, used 1 cup of coconut milk buttermilk ( 1 cup full fat coconut milk+ 1 tsp vinegar) instead of the sour cream. The batter was very thick for me. So I had to bake it in a 8 inch pan and really try to spread it out. Didn’t use the strawberry topping as the batter seemed less and very thick. Just used the diced strawberry in between the two layers. The powdered sugar really makes the cake. It’s perfectly sweet by itself. So glad that I could use your recipe for such an amazing celebration! May God continue to bless your husband, children,parents and you. You seek Him first so He has blessed you and made you the head and not the tail. Stay the same. Light on a hill. Love and blessings,
Dalia
Hi Dalia! Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback. I appreciate you sharing your experience with substitutes, I think many will find this helpful. I’m so glad you loved this recipe.
Hi Natasha, Great recipe, thank you very much. I have made it a few times and always tastes great. I’m baking 4 strawberry cakes for a birthday party and will have to bake it the day before. Do I put it in the fridge overnight?
Hi Mandy! Yes, the cakes should be refrigerated until ready to serve.
I’m a seasoned baker, however, I “messed” up. I know not to over-mix the flour, so was very careful. Then I realized I forgot to add the sour cream. I gently folded it into the batter. WHEW! Cake still turned out awesome. Thanks for a great recipe.
I’m so glad it all worked out!
Soooo easy to make!! But my batter came out a bit thicker i wasnt able to ‘pour’ half the batter and add the strawberries (T0T) i could only add on top. I must have added a little too much flour(?)
Hi Layla, that’s very possible. Be sure to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup.
Ohmygosh i did that! I pushed in the flour >_< thank you so much Natasha!!!
You’re welcome!
This was absolutely delicious!
I do have a question though. The sides were done before the center. Any idea what I did wrong?
Hi Renee, I’m so glad you loved it! It could be a couple of things. Be sure to use the correct size pan. If the pan is too small, it can cause the cake to not bake through all the way in the center. Also, I highly encourage the use of an in-oven thermometer to ensure your oven is heating correctly. If the heat runs too high, it can cause the cake to cook to rise too fast, then shrink in the middle and it will bake on the outside faster and not cook through the middle. Lastly, be sure to let your oven fully preheat before you put the cake in to bake. I hope that helps.
One word: FABULOUS! This cake was so good. The strawberry sauce was easy to make & so yummy. I had some sauce left and added it to my homemade vanilla ice cream mixture & we had a delicious strawberry ice cream! We love your recipes & want to thank you for sharing them!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing that with us, Liz. We’re so glad that you loved our Strawberry Sauce Cake!
Hi Natasha! Love your recipes and preordered your book that I can’t wait to receive!
Have you or any of your readers tried to make this cake with almond flour? I made the cake as written twice and it was a big crowd pleaser. I have some gluten free guests this weekend and wanted to try to make it with almond flour. Was wondering if it may work as I read you can substitute regular flour with almond flour 1:1.
Thak you, I’m so glad that you’re enjoying them!I haven’t tested that substitution to know if it would work well. I checked the comments section but other’s have not tried that as well. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
I did try this cake with almond flour. It came out very different than the regular all-purpose flour. It’s not as dense (not dense at all) bc of the almond flour and much more moist because of the berries in the cake. While my friends, even those who eat gluten loved it, I would make it again with the all-purpose flour.
That’s great, Orly! Thank you for sharing.
Taking two of these to our Church Connect Group tonight! They will love it! Took one to a neighbor and she said, “This is so much better than strawberry shortcake”. We love it!
That’s awesome! I’m so glad to hear that.
Dear Natasha’s Kitchen,
This recipe is simply delicious and a great travel cake, to offer others at their gatherings. I will be making this cake again and again. Thank you .
You’re so welcome! We appreciate your good comments and review, Rosemarie.
I have made this cake many times and it always a hit! Sometimes when the cake is cooling the center of the cake seems to sink a bit and when I cut it appears to be more pudding like in certain areas, I am guessing I did something incorrectly
Hi Kathleen! It could be a couple of things. Be sure to use the correct size pan. If the pan is too small, it can cause the cake to not bake through all the way in the center. Also, I highly encourage the use of an in-oven thermometer (affiliate link) to ensure your oven is heating correctly. If the heat runs too high, it can cause the cake to cook to rise too fast, then shrink in the middle and it will bake on the outside faster and not cook through the middle. Lastly, be sure to let your oven fully preheat before you put the cake in to bake. I hope that helps.
My batter was too thick, not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe, used plain Greek yogurt and that was all that was different.
Hi Carole! This can happen if you use too much flour or if something else was not measured correctly. I’ve attached my tutorial on how to measure ingredients . If you scoop your flour out of the bin, you’ll end up with too much. I hope the tutorial helps.
Hi Natasha, My husband and I just made the strawberry cake for a 4th of July party. We cLan’t wait to taste it. Does the strawberry sauce need to be refrigerated?
Hi Linda! Yes, it should be refrigerated.
Natasha, this recipe is amazing! This cake turned out so beautiful! You are so thorough in your directions and it helped me tremendously! Thank you so much!!
Hi Mary! I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for the wonderful feedback.