This easy to make Strawberry Cake is the perfect snack cake and a great vehicle to use up those strawberries!
Don’t you love when you can take something in your fridge that you were contemplating throwing out, and turn it into something perfectly wonderful?
I had these strawberries that were slowing shriveling up in the fridge. These were really good, expensive berries that somehow got pushed to the back …. left there to shrivel up and die a sad lonely berry death. Ugh!
I googled and Pinterested (I think that word is in the dictionary now), until I found the perfect use for them. I landed on Marthas Strawberry Cake. Where has this cake been all my life?
How easy and beautiful it is! You could substitute the strawberries for most any fruit. I’m looking forward to trying raspberries and peaches. It stayed fresh for days because it is so moist and it uses ingredients that you most likely have hanging around.
If you are looking for more uses for your sad little strawbs – try my Strawberry Shortcake Cookies!
Easy Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, plus more for pie plate
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 pound strawberries hulled and halved
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
- Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
- Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
- Bake 40-45 minutes or until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.
Nutrition
Just took this out of the oven. Looks beautiful and tastes amazing. Couldn’t wait for it to completely cool. Great recipe.
Strawberries really compliment cakes. I truly appreciate your efforts. Ingredients are easily available and I made it as your instructions. i made it quite good I can say and it was healthy as well. I loved your content. Keep going,
I made it it was so easy , turned out Great
Made it love it turned out great
Thanks for the note Beryl!
Would this be possible in a 9×13 pan
Hi Sally, yes but you will want to double it. Just hover over where it says ‘servings 6’ and a scale will pop up that you can slide to 12 servings.
Hi Ellie, Truly appreciate your note. The baking method worked for me. I didn’t follow Martha’s recipe exactly as I was trying to eliminate the step of having to reduce the oven temp. I think I need to remake this and make sure it’s working for everyone! Thank you again for the note!
i just made this cake using blueberries and peaches and it turned out really well. I stirred the blueberries through the batter and arranged the sliced peaches on the top. I would have posted a photo but couldn’t figure out how to do that! The only thing I would say is to check your cake after 40 mins once you have turned it down. My cake was done in about 55 mins total. This one is a keeper!
Did u use a pie plate or springform pan? the pics looks like a springform and I think it work better instead of plate. Please let me know, thanks. I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Adelaide, I just used a cake pan. No spring…although I agree a spring form pan would work great! I’m going to be blogging a nectarine version of this cake soon!
Thanks!
Kathi
Hi, Kathi. I have a question – how do you stop the strawberries from sinking to the bottom?
They just kinda hover on top of the cake and don’t sink. The batter should be thick enough to hold it. Did you make it and did they sink? Curious….
Kathi
hi this recipe looks delicious. I am planning to make but I don’t understand what the recipe means cut sides down? Ty for a lovely recipe!
Hi Cathy – I mean the cut sides of the strawberries go into the cake so the nice rounded side is on top. Cut sides of the strawberries faced down. Sorry its so confusing…I’ll reword it!
Kathi
Kathi-Ty for getting right back to me and explaining what you mean cut sides down. Lol! I get it now… silly me! One more question. I have fresh frozen strawberries. Do you think it would be ok to use since I don’t have fresh from the garden? I am so excited to make this cake today! I’ll let you know the outcome.)
Love your blog!
Hi Cathy- Not sure about the frozen strawberries…I think they would get really mushy.
If you do use them – let me know if it works!… but I probably wouldn’t recommend it.
Kathi
Thank you for clearing up the cut sides down. I am ready to try it now 😀
This strawberry cake is just so pretty!
Lovely! This reminds me of classic French cake I’ve made for years that calls for nectarines and blueberries. What a wonderful way to say goodbye to summer!
Martha probably lifted it from the Frenchies – old sticky finger Martha! HA!
I think nectarines sounds wonderful in it! I just made this again to bring to a friend at the last minute. It’s a keeper!
Thank you for your note!
Kathi