easy strawberry summer cake

it's my birthday, let them eat cake!

Anne is back again this week (she shared her chicken chili recipe with us while I was on maternity leave) sharing an idea for how to doctor up a simple butter cake box mix to make a really special, impressive summer cake. Today’s my birthday, and growing up, my “birthday cake” request was always strawberry shortcake. My mom would pile shortcake with sliced strawberries and so much whipped cream it looked like a cloud. This cake felt like a perfect thing to share today!

Anne Byrn is a New York Times bestselling food writer and author based in Nashville, Tennessee. She writes about how cooking and baking intersect with life in Between the Layers on Substack. She is the author of The Cake Mix Doctor, one of Southern Living magazine’s top 100 cookbooks, as well as A New Take on Cake, American Cake, and Skillet Love.

---

From Anne:

When my three children were young, and family life was someplace between manic and frantic, I turned to cake mix.

We had loads of birthdays over the years and baking took place late at night when everyone was in bed. I was so often tired, and it was so easy—dirty little secret number one—to make a cake by opening a mix, adding a few ingredients from the fridge, and slathering on an icing that was homemade.

I wrote down these recipes for “doctoring up” cake mixes, shared them in a Nashville newspaper story, which was so popular it was picked up by newspapers across the country and evolved into my book, The Cake Mix Doctor.

An inexpensive paperback with postage stamp-sized photos of every cake at the front of the book, The Cake Mix Doctor resonated with people. Maybe because they’d been baking with mixes all along and didn’t have to hide it anymore? Maybe scratch cakes seemed too complicated and they wanted an easier route? 

To write a cookbook in the middle of raising children isn’t easy, so I can completely relate to what Caroline is going through now. I baked during the day while my kids were at school or napping and wrote at night. And there was a nice rhythm to it. Bake, eat, type, sleep, repeat. 

Twenty years later, my kids are grown and I still think cake mixes save us time and trouble. They make a lot less mess if you have a small kitchen, too. And they are affordable. A lot of people rely on the economy of a cake mix.

Best of all, one recipe fits perfectly into the pans you like. For birthday cakes, instead of traditional 9-inch layers, I bake with two 6-inch round pans that are about three inches deep and stack into a chunky, adorable cake.

To create contrasting layers, I tint one of the layers with strawberry gelatin and slice the baked layers in half horizontally, alternating yellow and pink layers, which is so gorgeous when we cut that first slice! I spread strawberry cream cheese frosting all over and around.

But do as you please and omit the gelatin in one layer, or you can add the whole package of gelatin to the entire batter to make a completely strawberry cake. A couple tablespoons of freeze-dried strawberries, crushed into a powder, will work in place of Jell-O.

This is a blueprint recipe for a birthday cake that may come to life with  strawberries, but could very well slide into fall with a creamy chocolate and peanut butter frosting instead. 

strawberry summer cake

This recipe is from my book A New Take on Cake, which I wrote during Covid, updating and rebaking favorite recipes for today’s lighter and more adventuresome palate. This recipe works really well with a Betty Crocker mix, but you can absolutely use your favorite cake mix if it’s about the same size.

Makes 8 to 12 servings

Prep: 35 to 40 minutes

Bake: 40 to 45 minutes

Cake:

• Vegetable oil spray, for misting the pans

• Parchment or wax paper, for lining the pans

• 1 package (15.25 ounces) Betty Crocker butter recipe cake mix

• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

• 3 large eggs

• 1/2 cup warm water

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3 tablespoons strawberry gelatin (AKA strawberry Jello), for tinting half of the batter 

• Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe below

• Garnish: 8 to 12 strawberries, capped, and sliced vertically 

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Mist the bottom and sides of two 6-inch layer pans that are 3 inches deep with vegetable oil. Cut a round of parchment and place in the bottom of each pan and mist the parchment. Set the pans aside. 

For the cake, place the cake mix, cream cheese, eggs, water, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended, 30 seconds. Stop the machine, and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 minute longer until the batter is smooth. Pour half of the batter into one of the prepared pans, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Stir the strawberry gelatin into the bowl with the remaining batter until combined. Pour this strawberry batter into the second prepared pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Place both pans in the oven.

Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with a finger, 35 to 40 minutes. (The layer with strawberry gelatin takes a minute or two longer to bake than the plain layer.) Remove the pans from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pans, invert them once onto the rack, then invert again so they are right side up. Let them cool at least 20 minutes more. Meanwhile, make the Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.

To assemble the cake, slice the 1/2-inch rounded dome off the top of each cake with a long serrated knife. Discard the cake domes. Slice each layer in half horizontally. Set aside. 

Place the bottom half of the yellow layer cut side up on a cake plate. Frost with 1/2 cup of the frosting, spreading it to the edges. Top with the bottom half of the strawberry layer, then spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Add the top of the yellow layer and spread with 1/2 cup frosting. Finally, top with the top of the strawberry layer. Spread the remaining frosting on the top and sides of the cake. 

Place one small rounded slice of strawberry in the center of the cake to form the center of the flower. Using the rest of the slices, stick them closely together at an angle in the frosting creating concentric circles that begin at the center and move out as far as you want to go, creating a flower’s petals. You can completely cover the top of the cake with the strawberry flower, if you like. Place uncovered in the refrigerator to chill at least 30 minutes. Slice and serve.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 medium strawberries

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

• 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

• 3 1/2 to 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Chop and mash 2 strawberries. Place in a fine mesh colander over the sink to drain.

Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium-size bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low until combined, 30 seconds. Add the strawberries and sugar, a little at a time, beating on low speed, until the sugar is incorporated. Increase the mixer to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 1 minute more.