Strawberry Crunch Cake

You will also love my Fresh Berry Cake

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I love fresh strawberries and adore their fragrance so I really wanted their essence to come through strongly in this Strawberry Crunch Cake recipe.

Turns out the secret to bringing intense strawberry flavor lies not with fresh berries but with freeze dried strawberry powder.

I kid you not, when you add this powder in frosting you feel like you are biting into fresh strawberries or rather strawberry ice cream. Which is quite apt since strawberry crunch ice cream bars are the inspiration behind this cake.

Strawberry Crunch Cake Ingredients

This recipe does not use box cake mix or strawberry jello – and you won’t miss them! The cake is incredibly easy to make from scratch and we will get the incredible strawberry flavor from real strawberries.

For the Cake

This simple vanilla cake with a hint of strawberry uses flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, butter, strawberry yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla bean paste.

Strawberry Frosting

Full fat cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, cream, powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste and freeze dried strawberry powder. You will want to eat this straight out of the bowl!

For the Strawberry Crunch

This incredibly addicting crunch is made with Golden Oreo cookies and freeze dried strawberries or strawberry powder. Other cookies can also be used just take a look at the recipe card below.

Final Touches

I have added a medley of sliced strawberries and pineberries over the cake to decorate. You could also cover the cake with the crunch topping and skip the berries. While they do look super pretty, they make the cake a bit more challenging to slice!

How to Make Strawberry Crunch Cake

↓ For the full ingredients and detailed method, jump to the recipe card.

Make the Cake Layers

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and prepare three 6 inch cake pans by misting with cake release and lining with parchment paper or reusable liners.

Add all the flour, sugar and baking powder to a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Now add all the remaining ingredients in the order listed and beat together with a hand or stand mixer until the batter is completely smooth. This should only take you a couple of minutes.

Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake for 22-25 minutes or until the cakes are cooked through when tested with a toothpick.

Run a knife around the edges of the cake pans and invert the cakes onto a wire rack so they can cool down.

Make the Frosting

Place all the frosting ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat together until the frosting is smooth and holds peaks. Use a spatula halfway through to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Make the Crunch Topping

Roughly chop the cookies and place in a mini chopper with the freeze dried strawberry powder. Pulse a few times until you have small crumbs. Alternatively crush the cookies in a ziplock bag using a rolling pin.

Assemble the Cake

Pipe or spread a generous amount of frosting over the first cake layer. Sprinkle with some of the crunch topping and top with the second layer. Add a layer of frosting / crunch over the second layer and top with the third.

Cover the entire cake with frosting, smoothing with a palette knife and scraper. Press the crunchy topping all around the bottom of the cake and then press strawberry slices on the rest to decorate.

Strawberry Crunch Cake Recipe – Tips and Notes

Freeze dried strawberries are often sold as snack packs but it’s more economical to buy a bag of freeze dried strawberry powder.

If you are using the fresh strawberries as decoration, add them at last minute before serving the cake. Slice the strawberries and blot them on a piece of kitchen paper before sticking on the frosting.

The crunch topping can be made with Golden Oreos or Custard Cream biscuits (for those in the UK). Any leftover topping can be stored in a sealed container and used to top ice cream or used in desserts.

The cake will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge (*without the fresh strawberry decoration) but is best served at room temperature.

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