Strawberry Crunch Cake
A Throwback To The Best Ice Cream Bar
Strawberry Crunch Cake is the cake equivalent to the Strawberry Crunch Ice Cream Bar. It’s a simple cake you can make with boxed cake mix that has been doctored up with melted butter, vanilla extract, and strawberry jello. The icing is a strawberry flavored buttercream and the whole thing is topped with a strawberry flavored crunchy topping made from golden Oreos.
I made this Strawberry Crunch Cake a few years back with some members of the senior citizen community in my neighborhood. We made the cupcake cone version and topped them with the strawberry crunch and they were a huge hit.
We made these for an event I co-hosted with Chicago White Sox Legend, Ron Kittle. He enjoyed the cupcakes very much as well!
Although in this picture below he was eating the cupcakes before I could even decorate them! One of the things that stands out from his speech that day was that he left his job as an iron worker to play for the White Sox and he was making LESS playing for the MLB than he was as an iron worker.
Counter Cakes
I believe this is the third cake in my Counter Cake Series (Editor Andrew Note: It is actually the fourth). Let me take a moment to explain counter cakes.
This is a concept I came up with when we moved into our new home. We now have visitors and people who drop by so it is important to me to be a home that always offers cake and coffee.
I am not a person who knows how to bake. I have been coming up with cheater recipes that produce a delicious cake without the stress of making it from scratch.
You can scroll the Counter Cake recipes we have so far on my website.
The Crunch
My favorite part of this cake is the strawberry crunch topping. Make the topping with golden Oreos!
A lot of other recipes I see call for you to scrape the filling from the Oreos. I leave it in the recipe as I like the texture it adds to the crunch factor.
Sprinkle this topping on ice cream as well for a great treat!
Strawberry Crunch Cake Recipe
Strawberry Crunch Cake is a berry flavored delight. This vanilla based cake is reminiscent of the strawberry crunch ice cream bars. Very simple to make using box cake mix and a simple icing made with butter and a strawberry jello packet.
Ingredients
- 1 box of Super Moist Strawberry Cake Mix (13.25 ounce) I use the Betty Crocker brand
- 2 boxes of the Strawberry Jello (0.3 ounce each) *divided
- 1 cup of water for the Cake Mix
- 1/3 cup of Melted Butter, I measure this as 6 tablespoons of butter
- 2 tablespoons of Vanilla Extract *divided
- 3 Eggs
- 2 sticks of Butter *for the icing (16 tablespoons) softened
- 1/2 teaspoon of Salt
- 1/4 cup of Whole Milk
- 4 to 5 cups of Powdered Sugar
- 20 to 24 Golden Oreos
- 2 additional tablespoons of Melted Butter
Instructions
- Do not make the cake mix according to the package directions!!! Instead, mix the cake mix with half of 1 box of the strawberry jello, 1/3 cup of melted butter, 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, the water, and 3 eggs. Mix well and then beat on high for 2 minutes.
- Prepare a 9 x 13 baking dish with non stick spray or butter, add the cake batter, smooth and bake for about 35 minutes. Every oven is different so keep an eye on this to make sure it does not over bake.
- For the icing make sure the 2 sticks (16 tablespoons of butter) is softened, then beat on high until light and fluffy. Add the remaining tablespoon of vanilla extract, the salt, and 1 whole packet of the strawberry jello. Beat again on high, then slowly beat in the powdered sugar until it is the texture you want for your icing.
- Add the golden Oreos to a Ziploc bag, crush into small bits, add the remaining 1/2 packet of jello and the melted butter, and shake really well to coat all the Oreo bits.
- When the cake cools, add the icing in a thick layer to the top. Then top with the crushed Oreo mixture. Refrigerate until serving, but I do not like to serve it ice cold.