Strawberry season in Ontario is gloriously, almost unfairly short — and I fully lose my mind every single year. One week I’m rationing them like a precious resource, and the next I’ve bought three flats from the farm stand and have strawberries ripening faster than I can eat them. This strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting was born from exactly that moment: berries just on the cusp of too ripe, a bag of flour on the counter, and the very reasonable question of why should bananas have all the fun? Turns out strawberries make an incredibly fragrant, moist, and delicious snacking cake — and the strawberry cream cheese frosting takes it somewhere truly special.

Why You’ll Love This Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This is the kind of cake you make because you have strawberries and you want something wonderful. It’s not fussy, it’s not precious, and it doesn’t require any special equipment beyond a hand mixer and a couple of bowls. The batter comes together in minutes, and what comes out of the oven smells like a June afternoon.

The cream cheese frosting is the unexpected star. It’s tangy, lightly sweet, and the mashed fresh strawberries beaten in give it this gorgeous blush-pink colour and a flavour that tastes genuinely of strawberry, not like a candle pretending to be one. No food colouring, no artificial flavouring — just the real thing.

This is also a great recipe for those almost-too-ripe berries you didn’t quite finish in time. The riper they are, the more flavour they bring to both the cake and the frosting. No food going to waste, maximum payoff. That’s a winning situation any way you look at it.

Ingredients

For the Cake

• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup mashed strawberries
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ⅓ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• ½ cup cream cheese, room temperature
• ¼ cup butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups icing sugar
• 2 ripe strawberries, mashed
• Fresh sliced strawberries for garnish

Tips for the Best Results

Use Ripe Strawberries — Seriously, the Riper the Better

This is one of those recipes where overripe fruit is actually the goal. Berries that are deeply red and soft will mash easily and pack the most flavour into both the cake batter and the frosting. If your strawberries are picture-perfect and firm, they’ll still work — but the deeper into the season you are, the more the cake sings.

Mash the Strawberries Well

You’re looking for a chunky, wet mash — not a smooth purée, but not big pieces either. A fork works perfectly. For the frosting, mash the berries even more thoroughly so the colour distributes evenly and you’re not left with large pieces making the frosting wet and hard to spread.

Don’t Skip the Parchment

An 8×8 cake with a wet, fruit-forward batter has a real tendency to stick. Line your pan with parchment paper and you’ll lift it out cleanly every time. No casualties.

Room Temperature Dairy Makes a Better Frosting

Pull the cream cheese and butter out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you start. Cold cream cheese doesn’t beat smoothly — you’ll end up with lumps. Room temperature means fluffy, creamy frosting every time.

Let the Cake Cool Completely Before Frosting

I know. I know. But if you frost a warm cake, it will melt and slide and you’ll be sad. Good things come to those who wait. Cooling on a rack speeds up the process considerably.

How to Make Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Step 1: Prep your pan and oven. Preheat your oven to 350°F and line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang on the sides — this makes lifting the cake out much easier once it’s cooled.

Step 2: Mix the wet ingredients. Add the vegetable oil and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer on medium for about 30 seconds until well combined. Add the eggs, mashed strawberries, and vanilla and beat on medium for another 30 seconds until everything is incorporated. The batter will be a beautiful pale pink.

Step 3: Add the dry ingredients. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low for about 30 seconds until no streaks of flour remain. Don’t overmix — just get it combined.

Step 4: Bake. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool completely before frosting.

Step 5: Make the cream cheese frosting. Add the cream cheese and butter to a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until well combined and fluffy. Add the icing sugar in three increments, beating after each addition until smooth and creamy. Add the mashed strawberries and beat on low until just combined. The frosting should be spreadable, pink, and lightly tangy.

Step 6: Frost and garnish. Once the cake is completely cool, spread a generous amount of frosting over the top. Garnish with fresh sliced strawberries and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers — the frosting is cream cheese-based and needs to be kept cold.

More Strawberry Recipes You’ll Love

Ontario strawberry season is short — you might as well make the most of it. Here are a few more ways to put those beautiful berries to work:

• Roasted Strawberries on Ricotta Toast — barely a recipe, completely addictive
• Strawberry Cream Frozen Treats — perfect for when it’s too hot to bake
• Strawberry Milkshake — the classic, done right

And if you’re in a snacking cake kind of mood beyond strawberry season, these are worth bookmarking:

• Peach-Blueberry Almond Snack Cake — summer in a pan
• Cinnamon-Sugar Apple Cake — the fall version of this whole vibe

Other Baking You’ll Want to Try

• Chocolate Raspberry Ripple Cookies — berry season doesn’t have to mean cake
• Jumbo Jam Pop Tart — great way to use jam made from those extra strawberries

External Resources

• Ontario Strawberry Season Guide — Ontario Berry Growers Association — when to look for local berries, what to look for, how to store them
• How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting — Sally’s Baking Addiction — solid technique breakdown if you want to go deeper on the frosting

Frequently Asked Questions

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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• Author: Andrea Buckett

Ingredients

⅓ cup vegetable oil

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup mashed strawberries

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ⅓ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

For the frosting

½ cup cream cheese, room temperature

¼ cup butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups icing sugar

2 ripe strawberries, mashed

Fresh sliced strawberries for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper.
2. Add the vegetable oil and sugar to a mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer to beat on medium for 30 seconds until well combined.  Add the eggs, mashed strawberries and vanilla and beat on medium for another 30 seconds, until well combined.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a separate bowl and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and  beat on low for another 30 seconds or so until no streaks of flour remain.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and or a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
5. In the meantime, add the cream cheese and butter into a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until well combined and fluffy.  Add the icing sugar in one third increments, beating after each addition until smooth and creamy.  Add the mashed strawberries and beat on low until just combined.
6. Once the cake is cool, spread a generous amount of icing on the cake, garnish with strawberries and serve.