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This Strawberry Snack Cake is the quickest and easiest cake you will ever make. It’s buttery, tender, and loaded with the juiciest strawberries, plus you’ll love that it’s not overly sweet either.
Serve your cake with an ice cold glass of this Pink Lemonade (naturally colored with a couple strawberries).
When strawberries are in season, this snack cake is the first thing I’m making. It’s an old-fashioned, fuss free recipe that is both rustic and comforting. The buttery vanilla flavored cake plus bright notes of fresh strawberry is unmatched!
You’ll also love the size of this cake. It bakes in a square 8×8 pan and can be cut in 9 or 12 slices (depending on how big you want them). It’s the perfect option for small dinner parties, having with morning coffee, or to make when you’re craving cake.
For more fresh strawberry desserts, try my Lemon Strawberry Muffins, Strawberry Cheesecake Dip, Strawberry Blueberry Pie, and these Strawberry Banana Shortcakes.
Strawberry Snack Cake Ingredients
This snack cake is made with simple, pantry staples. But keep reading because I do have a couple important notes on a few of the ingredients.
- Fresh Strawberries: Be sure to wash and dry them well before cutting into bite sized pieces. Also, you will want them to be close to room temperature because cold berrie slow down the baking time.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Unsalted Butter: Make sure it’s super soft room temperature butter so it creams well with the sugar. You can also use salted butter, just omit the added salt.
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg: Brought to room temperature.
- Vanilla Extract
- Buttermilk: This contributes to the moist crumb and balanced flavor and I do not recommend swapping it out for anything else. You can make homemade buttermilk by whisking together a 1/2 cup whole milk and 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar. Let is sour for 15 minutes prior to serving.
How to Make Strawberry Snack Cake
1. MIX UP SNACK CAKE BATTER. Cream together the butter and sugar, add the vanilla and eggs. Fold in half of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt), add the buttermilk, fold in the remaining dry ingredients.
2. TOSS STRAWBERRIES with a tablespoon of flour and fold them into the snack cake batter. Spread it into your prepared baking pan.
3. BAKE THE STRAWBERRY CAKE until golden brown and a toothpick test comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool before removing from the baking pan, cutting into 9 to 12 pieces, and serving.
Storing Leftovers
You’ll want to store any leftover cake in an airtight container or the crumb will dry out. You can keep it at room temperature for 3 days and in the refrigerator up to 7 days. This cake also freezes beautifully for up to 3 months. Just make sure it’s wrapped well in plastic and then placed in an airtight plastic bag.
Another thing, you can warm up leftover cake in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds and it’ll taste like it just came out of the oven.
3 Must Read Baking Tips!
There are 3 baking tips I have learned over the many years of making snack cakes that I want to share with you. I think you’ll find them interesting and it will help you make an even more successful Strawberry Snack Cake.
1. MEASURE YOUR FLOUR WITH THE SPOON AND LEVEL METHOD. To do this you will whisk your flour to aerate it, then scoop with a spoon into your measuring cup, and once it’s full level it off with a knife. Don’t pack or shake, that’s how you get the perfect amount of flour.
2. SUPER SOFT BUTTER IS KEY. For this recipe I like to set my butter in the window to soften up. When butter is very soft it breaks down the granulated sugar making the lightest, buttery texture. If it’s left too cold you will have a hard time getting the sugar and butter to cream together.
3. DON’T OVER BAKE THE CAKE. Always toothpick test the center of your cake, it should come out with few crumbs. If there’s no crumbs on the toothpick it means your cake is overbaked and an overbaked cake will always be dense and dry.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
More Single Layer Cake Recipes You Might Like:
I am all about simple, one layer cakes! They are beautiful, rustic, and perfect for dinner parties or snacking. Here are some of my favorite recipes:
Strawberry Snack Cake
EQUIPMENT
- electric mixer - stand or hand mixer, with paddle attachment
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups strawberries - chopped in half, then 3s or 4s
- 2 cups all-purpose flour - 1 tablespoon removed for tossing with strawberries
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter - room temperature (very soft)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg - room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk - room temperature
- ½ tablespoon granulated sugar - for dusting on cake before baking
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 °F and prepare an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper and a light coating of non stick cooking spray.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour (set aside 1 tablespoon to toss with the strawberries), baking powder, salt, and set aside.
- Chop the fresh strawberries in half and then in threes or fours. Toss together with the 1 tablespoon of flour and set side.
- In another bowl cream together the very soft unsalted butter and granulated sugar until well incorporated, fluffy, and pale in color (2 to 3 minutes). NOTE: Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment ensures the sugar and butters are well combined. If it is well creamed, the cake's texture will be super light and moist throughout.
- Add the vanilla extract and egg, combine until incorporated.
- Add half of the flour mixture and combine until it is completely absorbed into the batter.
- Add the entire amount of buttermilk, combine until incorporated.
- Add the remaining flour mixture and combine until almost all the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flour coated strawberries just until the flour is absorbed and the strawberries are scattered in the batter.
- Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Sprinkle ½ tablespoon of additional granulated sugar on top of the cake.
- Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.NOTE: If the strawberries are cold or chopped large, the cake may take 5 to 10 minutes longer to bake.
- Once done, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for a 20 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cut the Strawberry Snack Cake into 9 or 12 equal pieces and serve. Enjoy Entirely!
RECIPE NOTES
Storing Information:
- At room temperature, in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- In the refrigerator, in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
- In the freezer, wrapped in plastic wrap and in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Metric conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
