Strawberry Cake Recipe with Jello
Strawberry can be a hard flavor to bring out in a cake, but there are several yummy ways to pull it off. Common flavor options for strawberry cake include freeze dried strawberries, homemade strawberry puree, or even using jello. Today we’re using jello in this strawberry cake and strawberry frosting!
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An Explosion of Strawberry Cake
Every year, Ben and I look forward to designing his cake together. For two years in a row now, he has picked a strawberry cake. Last year I used my strawberry cupcakes recipe because I love using freeze dried fruit in recipes.
But I love trying new things, so this year I opted for a strawberry jello cake. Not a poke cake, but a cake with jello powder mixed in. It adds flavor and color. This is more of an “artificial” or candy flavored cake, but delicious all the same.
Top Tips for Cakes
- Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature. This will help everything blend nicely and give your cupcakes a nice texture.
- Do NOT over mix. Once you add the wet and dry ingredients, only mix to combine.
- Wilton baking strips will give you a flat top and prevent the edges from caramelizing.
- Use an electronic scale to divide your cake batter into the pans.
You Oughta Know
Unlike my strawberry cupcakes recipe, this cake is oil based instead of butter based. But what does that mean?
Oil based cakes generally produce a thinner batter since the butter adds to the stiffness of a traditional cake batter. It also creates a more moist cake. Butter based cakes can be dense and dry after a stint in the fridge, but oil based recipes do not have this issue.
Now, because this cake is soft and moist, it’s a tiny bit unstable as a three layer cake. Not in a problematic way, I just wouldn’t use this for a tiered cake. If you’re willing to experiment with bake times and temperatures, I’d suggest doing an 8 or 9 inch two layer cake baked at 325℉.
Blunders?
Not really, but I would change one thing in the future. Since moving to our latest house, I haven’t made as many cakes as I used to, so I’m not as intimately familiar with my oven’s hot spots.
All three of my layers baked up differently. One was perfect, another looked like it had a giant butthole in the center, and the third was somewhere in between. Trimming the tops made them totally fine though.
In the future, I’d like to start baking my cake layers at 325℉ instead of 350℉. This generally gives you flat cakes without baking strips, plus it allows the interior of the cake to bake evenly before the exterior becomes too dark or dried out.
Strawberry Jello Frosting
I’ve seen other bakers use jello mix in their cakes before, but I wasn’t too sure if it was common to use it in frosting. Naturally, I just had to give it a try. Just like with the cake batter, the jello powder adds flavor and color to the frosting, which I love!
You want to dissolve the powder with HOT water, but give it time to cool so that it doesn’t completely melt your frosting. I found that mixing the two, then whipping the butter for 8- 10 minutes was plenty of cool down time.
One little heads up… As the water and jello mixture cools, bits of it may begin to set into actual jello. Those bits may show up in your frosting. For me, this was not a problem at all. There were very few of them, plus it just added to the strawberry vibe.
Related Reading: How to Frost a Cake Using Acrylic Cake Discs
Top Tips for American Buttercream
- Beat the butter alone on a medium speed for 8- 10 minutes to get it super pale and fluffy.
- Warm up your liquid (cream, milk, water, etc.) slightly to get a smooth buttercream. Cold liquid can curdle the frosting.
- Once you begin adding the powdered sugar, never go above a medium speed to avoid too many air bubbles.
- Add a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness.
Wafer Paper Strawberry Blossoms
Ben wanted a Strawberry Explosion Cake, so we went with strawberry cake and frosting. But to decorate, I wanted to stick to the theme while also incorporating some of his favorite cake decorations. Wafer paper and sprinkles.
I whipped up a bunch of these dainty wafer paper strawberry blossoms and they were a hit with the birthday boy! You can check out my step by step tutorial to learn how to make your own. There are photos and a quick video to help you out.
Enjoy!
I hope you enjoy this strawberry jello cake as much as my birthday boy did. It’s soft, moist and tastes like strawberry candy. And on top of that, it’s super duper easy to make from scratch!
If you love baking and decorating video tutorials, don’t forget to subscribe to the Bakes & Blunders YouTube channel. Sometimes watching a technique can make all the difference.
Strawberry Cake and Frosting with Jello
Ingredients
Strawberry Jello Buttercream
- 1 Tbsp strawberry jello mix
- 2 fl oz hot water
- 12 oz unsalted butter softened
- 4 oz salted butter* softened
- 32 oz powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tsp strawberry emulsion
- 8 drops neon pink gel color
Strawberry Jello Cake
- 8 oz all purpose flour
- 4 oz cake flour
- 2 oz strawberry jello mix
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 7 oz sugar
- 13 drops neon pink gel color
- 8 fl oz milk room temperature
- 8 fl oz water
- 4 fl oz canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsps strawberry emulsion
Instructions
Strawberry Jello Buttercream
- Combine the jello mix and hot water. Stir until completely dissolved, then set aside to cool slightly while you beat the butter.
- Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on a medium- high speed for 8- 10 minutes, scraping the bowl down as needed.
- Add the powdered sugar in 3- 4 additions. After each addition, mix on low to combine, then medium- low for 1- 2 minutes. Scrape the bowl down as needed.
- Add the jello mix, strawberry emulsion, and gel color. Beat for 2- 3 minutes, scraping the bowl down as needed. Cover and store for later.
Strawberry Jello Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare three 6 inch cake pans with parchment paper and baking spray. If using baking strips, soak those in cold water.
- In a bowl, combine the flours, jello mix, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk well to combine, then set the bowl aside.
- In a larger bowl, combine the sugar, gel color, milk, water, oil, eggs, and strawberry emulsion. Use an immersion blender or a whisk to combine the wet ingredients thoroughly.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk gently until combined. Some small lumps are fine, but you do not want any dry streaks in the batter. It will be very liquidy.
- Fill the pans about halfway, 14- 15 oz in each pan. You will likely have leftover batter. I use that to make a few cupcakes. If using baking strips, wring them out and wrap around the pans.
- Bake for 33- 38 minutes or until the cakes are beginning to pull away from the pans, the tops spring back when poked, and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans for 10- 15 minutes, the invert onto a rack to finish cooling, about an hour. Double wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour, or over night.
Assemble
- Place the first cake layer on a cake board and top with strawberry buttercream, repeat with remaining layers. Cover the stacked cake in a thin crumb coat and chill for 15- 30 minutes.
- Add a final layer of frosting to the entire cake. For the textured look, gently and slowly run a small offset spatula up the cake as you spin your turntable. As the frosting builds on the spatula, pause to wipe off the excess, then continue with the swirl. If desired, add sprinkles to the bottom edge of the cake.
Notes
- You can use a full 16 oz of unsalted butter and add a pinch of salt instead.
- Cupcakes - 350F 18- 20 minutes
- Mini Cupcakes - 350F 12- 14 minutes
- The buttercream makes more than enough to frost the cake or 24 cupcakes.
My Favorite Products For This Recipe
Colleen
Hi there! I’m Colleen, a novice baker with a passion for learning and improving my bakes… and blunders. On Bakes and Blunders, you can find all sorts of tasty recipes that range in difficulty, but most importantly, I’ll try to explain the reason behind important steps. If you know why a recipe works, you can tweak and adapt it to suit your unique tastes, and you’ll be able to reliably produce some very delicious treats. If you love baking and want to expand and grow your skills, or if you are a casual baker and just need some pointers, my blog is right up your alley! Join me on my baking journey and we’ll learn how to make more impressive recipes together.
11 Comments
Mike S
Outstanding recipe. Pretty and vibrant enough for a 9 year old girl’s birthday party, and plenty of strawberry flavor, but not so cloying as to be unenjoyable to the adults at the party also eating the cake. This worked perfectly with two 9″ layers, baking at 350 for about 25-28 minutes. Super moist crumb and great structure. Used McCormick strawberry extract instead of strawberry emulsion – surprisingly natural-tasting. Thank you!
Colleen
I’m absolutely tickled that you enjoyed the recipe <3 Thank you for including your bake time and temp for the 9" pans.
Brandi Weaver
I thought I had strawberry extract but it’s empty! If I add more jello pack would my cake be ok, and if so how much ?
Colleen
I think the cake will taste just fine without the extract, it will just have a more subtle flavor. I’ve never added more jello powder, so I can’t say for sure if you should add more or not.
Katie
Nvm mine got cut off and I see it now haha sorry
Colleen
No worries 😀 I hope you enjoyed the cake!
Katie
In the 3rd step in the cake making part you mention adding the strawberry emulsion but it’s not in the ingredients for the cake only the frosting. How much do you add to the cake?
Taylor Adney
If I’m making this cake for a friend who can’t have dairy, can I substitute plant-based dairy products for the butter and milk without compromising the taste and structure of the cake?
Many thanks!
Colleen
I have never tried making this cake dairy free, so I can’t guess how well it would work out. Since the cake is oil based, you won’t have to replace butter, and a milk alternative should be fine. As for the buttercream, an alternative stick butter should work fine as well. A tub butter/ margarine will not be suitable.
Bernie
Hi Colleen, I just stumbled on your website can you please email me how to make strawberry emulsion…I want to make this for my daughter in laws baby shower/ gender reveal party happening on the 23rd sept Thank you so much
Colleen
Emulsions are very similar to extracts, just a little more robust in flavor. I used the strawberry emulsion from LorAnn Oils. You can buy it on Amazon (there’s even a link to it underneath the recipe), but you can also usually find it at a Michaels craft store. If you happen to have a strawberry extract, that should work just fine too!