Easy Strawberry Crunch Cake (With Cake Mix)
Easy strawberry crunch cake recipe, homemade with cake mix box and simple ingredients. This soft and moist layer cake is filled with buttercream frosting and covered in crunchy topping composed of freeze dried strawberries and vanilla cookies.
Servings: 9 Slices
Calories: 1132kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 box Yellow cake mix Plus ingredients listed on box
- 1 box Strawberry cake mix Plus ingredients listed on box
- 1 cup Strawberries Washed, Patted dry, Thinly sliced, Optional
- 5 cups American buttercream frosting
Strawberry crunch topping
- 1 bag Freeze dried strawberries 1 oz. bag, About 1 cup
- 2.5 cups Nilla wafers Roughly broken up
- ¼ cup Butter Melted, Unsalted
Decoration
- 8 Fresh strawberries Washed and patted dry
Instructions
- Bake the yellow and strawberry cakes in 8x2 inch pans as per the instructions on the boxes. The boxes will yield 2 strawberry cakes and 2 yellow cakes but I only used 1 vanilla cake for my layers and froze the extra one to enjoy later.
- Allow the cakes fully cool to room temperature.
- While the cakes are baking and cooling, prepare the frosting.
- Also prepare the crunchy topping: Add freeze dried strawberries and Nilla wafers in a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs.
- Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add melted butter and whisk together until you have a crumbly mixture.
- To assemble, place one strawberry cake on a serving dish.
- Spread buttercream on top evenly with a spatula.
- Place the vanilla cake on top.
- Spread buttercream on top evenly with a spatula.
- Place the final strawberry cake on top.
- Optional: Place thinly sliced strawberries on top of the icing between each layer. Make sure the strawberries have been patted dry with paper towels.
- Chill cake in fridge for 20-30 minutes to make it firm. This keeps the layers from sliding when you ice the entire cake next.
- Use a spatula to frost the entire cake smoothly in buttercream frosting.
- Cover entire cake in crunchy topping.
- To decorate, fill a piping bag with icing and attach a big star tip (Tip 1M).
- Pipe swirls on top of the cake.
- Place a single strawberry on top of each swirl. Enjoy.
Notes
- If you want to make the cakes completely from scratch instead of using a cake mix, this is my Best Vanilla Cake Recipe and this is my Pink Champagne Strawberry Cake.
- If your crunchy topping feels soggy and wet, spread mixture in a lined baking tray and bake for a few minutes at 350 degrees F to dry it out. Another option is that you can mix in additional Nilla wafers to absorb the extra moisture.
- To amplify the strawberry flavor even further, pair with strawberry frosting.
- Instead of adding fresh strawberries between each layer, you can also add a thin of layer of strawberry jam or strawberry pie filling.
- Don't over-bake cakes because that makes them dry and crumbly.
- Do not assemble warm cakes because that will cause the icing to melt and make a sticky mess.
- For the crunch topping, you can replace Nilla wafers with shortbread cookies or crispy sugar cookies or even Golden Oreos. If you are using Oreos, remove the creamy center with a butter knife or spatula.
- There are a lot of components to this cake. It would be wise to spread out your work over a few days to make it more efficient and less stressful. For instance, you can make the frosting one day, the crunchy topping another day, bake cakes on the third day, and assemble on the fourth day.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 1132kcal | Carbohydrates: 196g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 36g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 1137mg | Potassium: 139mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 139g | Vitamin A: 161IU | Vitamin C: 17mg | Calcium: 220mg | Iron: 2mg