Julie Clark
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Strawberry Poke Cake
Homemade Strawberry Topping soaks into this easy Strawberry Poke Cake. This easy summer dessert is topped with light whipped cream.
Strawberry Poke Cake Recipe
Summer picnics and potlucks call for delicious desserts. This semi-homemade poke cake boasts a strawberry topping that is 100% homemade. This poke cake can be made a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator overnight.
Easy White Cake
Because this strawberry poke cake has a homemade sauce and unique frosting, I decided to keep the cake simple and use a box cake mix. If you’d like to make a box cake mix taste like homemade, simply switch out the water and add milk instead. Then switch out the oil for butter. These two easy tricks give a traditional cake mix a from-scratch flavor.
Homemade Strawberry Sauce
If you have fresh strawberries, you must try this homemade strawberry sauce! We use it on everything from ice cream to pancakes to cheesecake…and for poke cakes! Make the sauce up in advance so it has time to cool before you pour it over the baked cake. Don’t forget that little teaspoon of vanilla and tablespoon of butter in the sauce…it really deepens the flavor of the sauce.
Whipped Cream Frosting
The frosting for this cake is a unique mixture of store-bought vanilla frosting and whipped cream. It’s a sweet, creamy frosting that is really easy to make. If you’d rather not add the tub of frosting, simply whip about ½ cup of powdered sugar into the whipped cream when you are beating it. This style of frosting will be less sweet.
Be sure to store this cake in the refrigerator!
Other Strawberry Cake Recipes
Tools to Make This Cake
- KitchenAid Stand Mixer: The best mixer for cakes, cookies and frostings!
- Beater Blade with Scraper: The best invention ever!
- 9”x13” Baking Pan: One of my most used kitchen pans.
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!
Strawberry Poke Cake
Homemade Strawberry Topping soaks into this easy Strawberry Poke Cake. This easy summer dessert is topped with light whipped cream.
Servings 15
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Ingredients
For the Strawberry Topping:
- 1 1/2 cups quartered strawberries
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup quartered strawberries
For the Cake:
- 1 box white cake mix (We used Duncan Hines)
- 3 large egg whites
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup milk
For the Whipped Cream:
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 16 ounces vanilla frosting (1 tub, softened)
Instructions
Prepare the Strawberry Topping:
- In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the strawberries, sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved. Heat the mixture to boiling, stirring often. Reduce heat and add the vanilla and lemon juice.
- In a small cup, combine the cornstarch and two tablespoons of water. Mix well.
- Pour this into the boiling strawberry mixture. Stir and boil over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until the mixture has thickened a bit.
- Remove the pan from the heat.
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter and mix until the butter has completely melted.
- If you'd like your strawberry syrup to have a nice red color, add a few drops of red food coloring. This is completely optional.
- Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes, then add the last cup of quartered, fresh strawberries.
- Set aside until the cake is done.
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 13x9 pan.
- In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, eggs, oil and milk. Beat on low speed for 2-3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap on counter to eliminate air bubbles.
- Bake for 23-28 minutes, or until the center of the cake bounces back when you touch it.
- Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes.
- Using the end of a wooden spoon, poke 20-25 holes into your cake.
- Pour cooled strawberry mixture over the cake and spread it evenly.
For the Whipped Cream:
- In a large, clean mixing bowl, whip the cold heavy cream until stiff peaks form. This works best when the cream is very cold. You can refrigerate a metal bowl to beat it in also.
- Fold the whipped cream into softened (but not melted) frosting.
- Spread the whipped frosting evenly on the cake.
- Cover the cake and store the cake in the refrigerator.
Notes
The calories shown are based on the cake being cut into 15 pieces, 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: 494kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 331mg | Potassium: 124mg | Sugar: 45g | Vitamin A: 515IU | Vitamin C: 14.7mg | Calcium: 119mg | Iron: 0.8mg
