Mother’s Day Cake

If you’re looking for an easy Mother’s Day Cake, try this jazzed up box cake mix with fresh strawberry buttercream. Make strawberry roses to decorate the top!

Mother's Day Cake

Mother’s Day Cake Recipe

Spring is in full swing which means strawberry season is coming..along with Mother’s Day! This pretty strawberry cake starts with a box cake mix and homemade fresh strawberry buttercream, then is topped with strawberry roses. It would be a great project for making with the kids this spring!

How to Make A Box Cake Better

This cake is made from a jazzed up box cake mix. If you’d like a homemade white cake, try this one. But so often you can take a shortcut and use a box cake mix with a few different ingredients to make it taste better. Here are our hints for making a box cake mix taste homemade:

  • Replace any oil with butter. Use equal amounts, but add in softened butter instead of oil. This will give the cake a better taste.
  • Replace any water with milk. I like using whole milk, but you can use any type of milk you keep on hand.
  • This recipe calls for egg whites to keep the color bright white, but in general, you can add an extra egg to box cake mixes to make it richer and softer.

Fresh Strawberry Frosting

Fresh strawberry buttercream…there’s not much better than that! You’ll want to plan ahead when you make the buttercream. You’ll make a strawberry puree reduction which needs to be completely cooled before you add it to the powdered sugar and butter.

  • Take 1 cup of chopped strawberries and place them in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook the strawberries down until they are down to about half what they were, so about half a cup or a little less. This will take about 20 minutes or so depending on how high you have the heat. Once the strawberry puree is reduced, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely. If it is warm at all, it will melt the butter when you try mixing it into the powdered sugar and butter mixture, making the frosting too runny.
  • For that reason, I like to make this puree the day before I made the frosting. Then I store it in the fridge and it is nice and cool for adding it to the frosting!

How to Make a Strawberry Rose

Serve this cake as it is, or make cute little roses from strawberries! To do this, wash and dry the strawberries. Cut off the stem. Starting at the base of the strawberry, make small slices  around the base of the strawberry. Using the knife, push the slice outwards carefully to create a petal. Proceed to create slices, going up towards the tip of the strawberry and push them outwards as well. The most important thing is to be careful and precise with your cuts so that the strawberry stays in one piece.16

easy white cake with strawberry buttercream on a plate with a fork

Other Strawberry Cakes

Tools to Make This Cake

Must Have Cake Mix Recipes! Sometimes you need a shortcut. Just because time is in limited supply, it doesn’t mean that flavor and fun have to be! Our cookbook has 20 cakes and cupcakes that all start with a cake mix but end up as a beautiful dessert no one will be able to resist. Click here to read about it! 

Mother's Day Cake
Mother's Day Cake

Mother's Day Cake

4.84 from 12 votes
If you're looking for an easy Mother's Day Cake, try this jazzed up box cake mix with fresh strawberry buttercream. Make strawberry roses to decorate the top!
Servings 15
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients
 

For the Strawberry Puree

  • 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

For the Cake

For the Frosting

For Decorations:

  • 6-8 Fresh strawberries for garnish

Instructions
 

Prepare the Strawberry Puree

  • Add the cup of strawberries into a blender or processor and puree until smooth. Add the puree to a small saucepan on the stovetop and cook until the amount of puree simmers down to half ½ cup, about 20-25 minutes. Set the reduced puree aside to cool completely.

Make the Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans with shortening and then dust with flour.
  • In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, butter, eggs and milk. Mix for 2-3 minutes at medium speed. Bake for 22-30 minutes or until the center of the cake bounces back when you touch it.
  • Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn them out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Prepare the Strawberry Decorations

  • Prepare the garnish strawberries by making a small slice, several times, around the base of the strawberry. Using the knife, push the slice outwards to create a petal. Proceed to create slices, going up towards the tip of the strawberry and push them outwards as well. Remove the greens and set aside.

Preparing the Frosting

  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and powdered sugar. Mix well until nice and creamy. Add in the cooled puree and mix well.

Assemble the Cake

  • Once the cake is done cooling, place one cake layer on a cake plate. Frost the top. Place the second cake layer on the first layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting.
  • Garnish the top with your strawberry roses.
  • Store at room temperature for 24 hours, then refrigerate any leftovers in an airtight container.

Notes

The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 15 pieces (using all of the frosting), with 1 serving being 1 slice of cake. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.

Nutrition

Calories: 415kcal | Carbohydrates: 61g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 401mg | Potassium: 79mg | Sugar: 47g | Vitamin A: 530IU | Vitamin C: 8.5mg | Calcium: 101mg | Iron: 0.8mg
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Calories 415

About Julie Clark

We are Julie, Maddie, and Kinslee – a mother and daughter team sharing with you the best cakes to satisfy any need or sweet craving that you may have. Welcome to our family’s kitchen!

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Im making this for mothers day and im not sure what type of whole milk to use.

What is i used the whole egg what would happen i got side tracked and didn’t separate the egg from the egg whites will it still be ok

5 stars
I wonder if you could use a good Strawberry Jam instead of all the work of the puree? I’m thinking of making this one for Mothers Day. Thank you for the recipe. Strawberry Cake…yum.

5 stars
This looks delicious. I M going to make it for Mothers Day. I would like to do the strawberry Rose’s. How do you stop them from bleeding over the cake?