This homemade Strawberry Bundt Cake recipe from scratch is made with fresh strawberry puree and topped with a fresh strawberry glaze. Whether you’re looking for a fun spring recipe or a stunning Easter dessert, this easy strawberry bundt cake is the perfect choice.
Lighter than a strawberry pound cake but thicker than a traditional strawberry cake, this strawberry bundt cake recipe is a dream!
Plus, the homemade strawberry glaze is to die for. Just putting that out there.
Have you ever played the radio game?
It’s the game where you ask the radio (or any music device) important life questions and whatever song comes on next is your answer.
Sometimes the radio answers are spot on, sometimes they’re difficult to interpret, and sometimes they’re so off, it’s pretty hilarious.
It’s kind of the quintessential road trip game, and it’s especially fantastic if you’ve got an eclectic variety of music.
There’s nothing like asking the radio something like, “What’s the future of my love life look like?” only to get an answer like “Love Hurts” or “Owner of a Lonely Heart” or something like that. (I know, I make this sound like a super fun game…but trust me, the answers are often gold and makes for a good time.)
But I can say with extreme confidence, if you asked the radio if you should make this homemade Strawberry Bundt Cake, it would come up with an answer like, “Stairway to Heaven” or “Think I’m in Love” or something equally easy to interpret as a positive answer.
It’s no surprise I love a good bundt cake.
They’re just so easy to make yet look pretty incredible without even having to try.
Sure, I love a good layer cake (this Berry Vanilla Naked Cake and this Lemon Coconut Cake being two of my absolute favs), but they can definitely be a bit time consuming. If you’re a perfectionist like me, attempting to achieve that perfect imperfect frosting technique can make you want to throw said cake at the wall (don’t ask me how I know, but it’s very therapeutic).
So…any cake that I can dump into a fun shaped pan and drizzle with just a glaze or something equally simple to make and it looks pretty beautiful is a huge win in my book.
Let’s talk specifics when it comes to this easy Strawberry Bundt Cake.
First of all, this strawberry cake is completely from scratch. I certainly have no problem with using a cake mix or strawberry gelatin to make a strawberry cake (hence these Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes things of glory). But I really wanted to try my hand at a strawberry cake without cake mix and I found a winner.
This strawberry bundt cake recipe gets its strawberry flavor from a homemade strawberry sauce and from crushed freeze-dried strawberries. Between the two, you get this incredible strawberry flavor and subtle pinkish-red color. If you want the cake to have a more intense red/pink color, you can use food dye (I did use a pink food gel to enhance the color), but you can omit the food gel if you prefer.
How to Make a Strawberry Sauce?
I did not want to make a strawberry puree for this cake because I wanted the cake to have a combination of smooth strawberry sauce and bigger strawberry bits. However, you can use a strawberry puree if you want to. I’ll give notes on both below.
For a chunky strawberry sauce (I’m sorry for the use of the word “chunk”): You mix chopped strawberries, sugar and lemon juice together and cook over medium heat on the stove until it has reduced and thickened up. Allow it to cool completely before adding to the cake batter.
For a strawberry puree, puree the strawberries with sugar and lemon juice. Then pour the puree into a saucepan and cook until it has reduced/thickened up. You can use the same measurements of strawberries, sugar and lemon juice the recipe calls for.
Do I really need freeze dried strawberries for a strawberry cake?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is that the freeze dried berries give the cake a richer strawberry flavor without adding any extra liquid to the cake. Using too much puree will make the cake too wet, thus it will not cook properly.
Additionally, if you only use puree in the recipe, omitting the freeze dried strawberries, the cake will not have enough strawberry flavor, in my opinion. The combination of the two, strawberry puree and freeze dried strawberries, provides a strong strawberry flavor without any artificial ingredients.
Tips & Tricks for this Homemade Strawberry Bundt Cake recipe:
- Make the strawberry sauce first. The sauce will need to cool down before you add it to the cake batter.
- You will need to reserve a couple of tablespoons of the sauce to use in the strawberry glaze. (You will use 1/3 cup for the cake specifically, but the recipe down below makes a bit more so you have extra to use for the glaze).
- By nature the outside of the bundt cake will be a bit darker, as the exterior cooks faster than the interior.
- Allow the cake to cool before adding the glaze, otherwise it will just slide right off.
Strawberry heaven, am I right?! Or, am I right?! After making this, check out my Raspberry Bundt Cake!
- 1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1-2 tsp lemon zest
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 Tbsp sour cream
- 1/3 cup strawberry sauce (from the above recipe)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Tbsp freeze-dried strawberries, crushed into crumbs
- 2-3 drops pink or red gel food coloring
- 2-3 Tbsp strawberry sauce
- 1-2 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tsp lemon juice
- Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
- Cook for about 5-6 minutes, or until the mixture starts to boil. Reduce the heat slightly to medium-low heat and continue cooking for about 15-16 minutes, or until the strawberries have cooked down and the sauce has thickened up.
- Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature (as it cools, it will continue to thicken).
- *You will use only 1/3 cup of the sauce for the cake and about 1-2 Tbsp for the glaze (you may still have a couple Tbsp of sauce leftover).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add in sugar and lemon zest; cream the mixture until well combined.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift together salt, baking powder, flour and cornstarch.
- Alternately add the dry ingredients (the flour mixture) and the milk to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined.
- Add in 1/3 cup of strawberry sauce, sour cream, vanilla extract and crushed freeze dried strawberries. Mix until just combined.
- If using red or pink gel food coloring, add in 2-3 drops and gently stir the coloring in until combined.
- Grease a bundt pan very well and pour the batter into the pan evenly.
- Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean (mine took exactly 48 minutes).
- Allow the bundt cake to cool about 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and allow it to finish cooling on a wire rack.
Whisk 2 Tbsp of strawberry sauce with 1 cup powdered sugar and 3 tsp of lemon juice. If the glaze is too thin, add in more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add in more strawberry sauce.
- Drizzle the glaze over the cake and allow it to set before serving. If desired, top with fresh strawberries.
- Enjoy!
Here are some other recipes you might love:
Cindy Miller says
you say in the instructions to add in cream but don’t have cream in the list of ingredients so how much cream? what kind of cream?
Michelle says
Hi Cindy, to cream something is a baking term, so in the instructions, I mean that you need to ‘cream’ the mixture with your mixer until it becomes a thick, soft mixture. Sorry for the confusion! 🙂
Y says
This looks great. Does it need to be stored in the fridge? I always wonder about this when it comes to cake with fruit
Michelle says
Thanks! Yes, I do store it in the fridge. ☺️ You can keep it at room temperature for a couple of days (without the fresh strawberries on top), though.
Judi says
Where do I find freeze dried strawberries? I am anxious to try this recipe.
Michelle says
They’re in the dried fruit section at my grocery stores ☺️
Mary says
Do you happen to have a recipe for a choc bundt cake with salted caramel glaze. I just made these strawberry ones they rock by the way . I have to make 21 total so in doing half strawberry and they want choc for the other half.