Strawberry Crunch Cake Recipe

Strawberry crunch cake sliced open on white plate

5 from 2 votes

Strawberry Crunch Cake Recipe

This strawberry crunch cake is a soft homemade vanilla pound cake swirled with strawberry, topped with icing and strawberry crunch—just like the ice cream bar!

Prep Time25

Cook Time1 10

Total Time1 35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 530kcal

Author: Jocelyn Delk Adams

Ingredients

For the Cake

1 ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs room temperature
3 cups cake flour sifted
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour cream room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pink liquid food coloring optional*
½ cup crushed freeze-dried strawberries
¼ cup ground freeze-dried strawberries

For the Glaze

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3-5 tablespoons milk Start at 3
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Crunch Topping

8 Golden Oreos
¼ 1.2 ounces cup freeze-dried strawberries
2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325°F and place the rack in the middle position. Generously spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick baking spray or coat with my Homemade Cake Release.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, add butter and sugar and mix for 3-4 minutes on high speed until pale yellow and fluffy.
Next, add eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides of your bowl as needed.
Reduce the speed to low, and slowly add flour in two increments, then salt and baking soda. Be careful not to overmix.
Lastly, add in sour cream and vanilla, scrape down sides and mix until just combined and turn off the mixer.
Remove half of the batter from the stand mixer and place in a large bowl. Stir in the pink dye and ground strawberries until evenly mixed, followed by the crushed strawberries to give little bits of strawberry all throughout the cake. Do not over mix.
Alternate adding each batter to the prepared pan to get a swirl effect. Gently mix the two batters in a small figure 8 (no need to go overboard as little pops of color and ombré are beautiful!)
Bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert the cake on a serving platter for at least an hour, or until the cake is cool to the touch.
For the glaze, whisk ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Add more powdered sugar for a stiffer icing or more liquid for a runnier icing.
To make the crunch topping, combine freeze-dried strawberries and Oreos in a ziptop bag and crush gently. Pour in melted butter and work into a crumble. Once crunch topping is done, drizzle icing on cake then immediately sprinkle crunch topping on the glaze before it sets. Slice and serve.

Video

Notes

Pink food dye can be challenging to find sometimes, so feel free to leave it out for a more muted and natural pink from the strawberries.

Freeze-dried strawberries can be found in the dried fruit section of your grocery store or through an online retailer. To grind, pulse them in a spice grinder or small blender until they become a fine powder.

Ingredient Swaps and Information

Butter, Sugar and Eggs: Make sure the butter and eggs are room temp. I also go with unsalted butter but if you only have salted, just leave the salt out in the batter.

Cake flour, salt and baking soda: You can make homemade cake flour by removing 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour and replacing with cornstarch and sifting three times. If you prefer a more dense tight crumb, leave out the baking soda.

Sour Cream and Vanilla: You can also use greek yogurt as a sub for the sour cream. I prefer not using artificial vanilla extract in my cakes.

Strawberries: I use freeze-dried which you can grab at most grocery stores. Just blend them until fine before adding to the recipe.

Powdered Sugar: Give it a sift to make sure it won't end up clumpy before making your icing.

Milk: Use any milk you have on hand here.

Golden Oreos & freeze-dried strawberries – I like to use a rolling pin to crush all of these. For the freeze-dried strawberries, you can find them in the dried fruit section of your grocery store or through an online retailer.

Nutrition