This Strawberry Crunch Cake is a fun, easy dessert recipe that will remind you of those Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars from when you were a kid! Soft, most Strawberry Cake is topped with Vanilla Icing and sprinkled with a delicious Strawberry Crunch!
Why You Will Love Strawberry Crunch Cake
- EASY – Our version of this cake uses a store bought Cake Mix! Using Cake Mixes for desserts is the ultimate shortcut! This is a great beginner baking recipe. Or a fun dessert to let the kids help out with!
- GREAT FOR ANY OCCASION – With bright, fun and festive flavors and colors, this cake is great for any festive occasion. Birthday parties, baby showers, graduation, cookouts, BBQs, Potlucks or just to treat yourself!
What Is A Strawberry Crunch Cake?
Remember those Strawberry Ice Cream Bars you would buy from the ice cream truck or be able to purchase at school? This is like a cake version of those flavors. Strawberry Crunch Cakes usually have a layer of cake topped with vanilla frosting and a crunchy strawberry crumbs on top!
Some versions mix in a cheesecake layer, or different kinds of cake layers. But we keep ours simple and easy!
How To Make Strawberry Crunch Cake
This cake has 3 layers, and, basically 3 steps. First you make your cake. Then you make your frosting and then you make your crumble topping. For step-by-step instructions, check out the printable recipe card below. But here is what you’ll need to get started:
- WHITE CAKE MIX – You can also use French Vanilla Cake Mix or Yellow Cake Mix if needed. But you may not get the correct color when you mix it with the gelatin. It will still taste great!
- STRAWBERRY GELATIN – You will need one small box of gelatin to combine with the cake mix. And another small box to combine with your cookies for the topping.
- EGGS – Room temperature.
- VEGETABLE OIL – Baking with oil helps ensure you cake will be very moist. You can also use Canola Oil if needed.
- WATER –
- STRAWBERRY WAFER COOKIES – To be crushed up for our topping. Y0ou can also use Vanilla Wafer Cookies if that is all you have. They won’t have quite as strong of a strawberry flavor.
- BUTTER – Melted butter. We used unsalted butter, but you can use salted butter if you’d like.
- WHITE FROSTING – You can really use whatever kind of frosting you’d like. Buttercream frosting, cream cheese frosting or make your own if you have a recipe you like. We just used store bought frosting to make this recipe simple and easy.
Storage and Freezing
You can store Strawberry Crunch Cake at room temperature. Just put it in an airtight container and it should stay good for 4-5 days. Your crunch topping may start to loose a little of it’s crunch after a couple of days.
You can also freeze Strawberry Crunch Cake. Just wrap it in freezer wrap or put it in a freezer safe container and it will be good in your freezer for about 3 months. You can also slice the cake into individual servings and wrap them up that way. So you just defrost what you need. Thaw at room temperature.
Notes, Tips and FAQs
- CAN I USE STRAWBERRY CAKE MIX FOR STRAWBERRY CRUNCH CAKE? – Yes. You can. This way, you won’t have to mix the strawberry jello in the cake mix. You may not have as strong of a strawberry flavor. But a Strawberry Boxed Cake Mix will work just fine.
- WHAT CAN I USE BESIDES WAFERS? – I’ve seen the Strawberry Crunch Topping made with several ingredients. All will work with different results. You can use crushed Nilla Wafers, Golden Oreo Cookies or Graham Crackers.
- USE FREEZE-DRIED STRAWBERRIES – You can also use dried Strawberries for your topping instead of the Strawberry Gelatin. Just mix them in with your crushed wafers.
- GARNISH – Garnish with some sliced fresh Strawberries.
- CAN YOU MAKE A STRAWBERRY CRUNCH CAKE AHEAD OF TIME? – Yep! You can bake the cake and create the crunchy topping a couple days ahead of time. But I’d wait to assemble everything until you are ready to serve.
- WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO CRUSH THE WAFERS? – You can make your Strawberry Crunch Topping easily in a food processor or a blender. But that will be just one more thing to clean. We simply put everything in a ziplock baggie and crush it with a rolling pin.
We hope you enjoy this Strawberry Crunch Cake Recipe. We like to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Let us know how it turns out in the comment section! Happy eating!
LOOKING FOR MORE STRAWBERRY DESSERTS? CHECK OUT:
- BISQUICK STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
- MINI STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE BITES
- MINI STRAWBERRY LEMON TARTS
- STRAWBERRY CRUMBLE
- STRAWBERRY JELLO POKE CAKE
- STRAWBERRY ROLL CAKE
Strawberry Crunch Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box 15.25 oz, white cake mix
- 1 small box 3 oz, strawberry gelatin
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 package 10.6 oz, strawberry wafer cookies
- 1 small box 3 oz, strawberry gelatin
- 4 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 tub 16 oz, white frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Mix well.
- Add eggs, oil and water and use a hand mixer to beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through mixing.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until center is clean when a toothpick is inserted. Remove from oven and cool completely.
- Keep oven hot at 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Crush wafer cookies and mix together with gelatin.
- Add butter and mix well until evenly coated.
- Spread mixture onto baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Cool completely. Break apart any large pieces of cookies if necessary.
- Frost cake with icing.
- Sprinkle with Strawberry Crunch and serve.
Nutrition
Comments & Reviews
Helen says
Just what I’ve been looking for. Brings back childhood memories.
Thank you so much