Strawberry Poke Cake (From Scratch)
on Mar 31, 2018, Updated Nov 16, 2021
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This strawberry poke cake is made from scratch at home! It is a soft, moist jello poke cake that is topped with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. This cake delivers the taste of strawberries in every bite and makes for an easy and elegant dessert!
If you, like me, are scared of making cakes because of the idea of decorating them scares you, then I have got just the perfect thing for you! Enter – this gorgeous strawberry poke cake. It’s basically baked in 13″X9″ baking pan and slathered with whipped cream on top. Pretty straightforward, right? After it’s baked, you all you really need to do is cut it into slices, and the thickness of each slice is enough for you to get a good forkful in every bite. The jello seeps through the cake and makes adds a pretty gradient throughout the cake.
Quick Walk Through: Strawberry Poke Cake
What is a poke cake?
A poke cake, like the name suggests, is a cake that you poke holes into after its baked and cooled. The holes are then filled with jello or other liquid fillings such as condensed milk, chocolate, pudding or even pureed fruit. This infuses every bite of the cake with the filling and keeps it moist.
I love making jello poke cakes, because after filling the holes with jello, the cake is refrigerated and the jelly sets so you get slightly wobbly jelly in every bite of the cake. Because its so simple to make, you can easily turn this strawberry poke cake into a chocolate poke cake, a banana poke cake, coconut poke cake or even a lemon poke cake. Just switch up the filling and you have a different poke cake every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! If you don’t have access to fresh strawberries, you can easily swap them with frozen instead. The texture of frozen strawberries might be a bit mushy as compared to the fresh ones, but other than that it should work just fine.
Generally, the back of a wooden spoon is used to poke holes into the cake. However, you can also use a thick skewer or a fruit fork to do this. Make sure the holes are about an inch apart and do not poke holes around the edges as that will make the jello spill out. Here’s a video on how to poke a poke cake that might come in handy.
Top tips to make a Strawberry Poke Cake
- Baking Pan: Use a 9″X13″ baking pan for this recipe. It’s the optimal size because the cake rises quite a bit and the cake will overflow in a smaller cake pan. If you don’t have that size, you can divide the batter into two square 8″ pans.
- Jello: Jello comes in different pack sizes in different countries. If you are in the U.S. you can use 1 pack (3 ounces) Strawberry Jello, which translates to a 90g pack in India
- Line with parchment: Lining the cake tin with parchment paper is really important for this recipe because the jello seeps through the cake to the bottom of the pan and can become sticky which makes it difficult to lift the slices when you want to serve. The parchment paper avoids any mess, and helps lift up each slice smoothly. If you leave the sides of the parchment paper hanging while lining the cake tin, you can just use to lift them out when you are ready to serve.
Are you also going gaga over that super moist slice of cake with the jello seeping in? We took two days to finish the cake because it does make twelve squares but I have to say – everyone who ate it was such a fan!
Strawberry Poke Cake (From Scratch)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Fine Granulated Sugar
- 1 cup Butter , at room temperature
- 4 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 3 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour, Maida
- 1 cup Milk
- 90 grams Strawberry Flavoured Jello
- 3 cups Whipped Cream
- 1 cup Fresh Strawberries, sliced
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F/ 175C. Grease and line a 13X9" baking pan with parchment paper. Leave extra paper hanging on the side so that it's easy to lift up the cake later.
- In a bowl, patiently beat the butter and sugar together for 3-4 minutes till light and fluffy. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment or else just use a hand mixer.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after every egg to make sure its combined well into the mixture. Also stir in the vanilla extract and baking powder.
- Alternate between adding the flour and milk and mix until just combined. Alternating the dry and wet ingredients means that you add 1/3 of the flour first, mix and add half the milk; mix and then add 1/3 of the flour again, mix add the remaining milk and then the flour. This helps incorporate everything well and avoids over mixing.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for approximate 45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Once the cake is baked, let it cool for 15 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, prepare the jello according to package instructions.
- Once the cake is cooled, poke the cake with the back of wooden spoon or thick skewer and make holes in the cake at every inch. Pour the jello into the holes and refrigerate the cake for 3-4 hours.
- An hour before serving, spread whipped cream over the cake and decorate with strawberries slices. Refrigerate again for an hour or till ready to serve. This cake keeps well in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Notes
- Baking Pan: Use a 9″X13″ baking pan for this recipe. It’s the optimal size because the cake rises quite a bit and the cake will overflow in a smaller cake pan. If you don’t have that size, you can divide the batter into two square 8″ pans.
- Jello: Jello comes in different pack sizes in different countries. If you are in the U.S. you can use 1 pack (3 ounces) Strawberry Jello, which translates to a 90g pack in India
- Line with parchment: Lining the cake tin with parchment paper is really important for this recipe because the jello seeps through the cake to the bottom of the pan and can become sticky which makes it difficult to lift the slices when you want to serve. The parchment paper avoids any mess, and helps lift up each slice smoothly. If you leave the sides of the parchment paper hanging while lining the cake tin, you can just use to left them out when you are ready to serve.
Idk what happened but the cake came out way to dense and dry! I followed everything and even ended up baking it less time cause the pick came out clean at 37 minutes. No moisture at all!
Hey Christis, I’m sorry this didn’t work out well for you, i have baked this many times and it has turned out perfect.
Oooooh, this looks so light and tasty! Love anything with avocado!
This is so nice and unique recipe. Gonna definitely try this cake right away.
And it’s such fun to make, Kevin! Hope the poke cake turned out well!
Can we use white choco chips for a little twist ? is that a bad idea
Not at all, Peter! Get creative with this strawberry cake! 🙂
Can we substitute the jelly with something else? like i dont want jelly but a strawberry syrup would work. can you give any suggestions
You can use strawberry syrup but it’ll make the cake super moist because the syrup won’t set like the jelly does
I had high hopes for this cake. Didn’t want to use a box mix. The texture is extremely dense almost like a vanilla brownie. Maybe there is too much flour in the recipe.
Hey Rebecca, I’m sorry this didn’t work out well for you, i have baked this many times and it has turned out perfect.
Do one cup butter is that 2 sticks? Do i melt the butter or not ? I havnt make the recipe yet..
How much butter do i use? Do i bake cake at 350 or 375?
Hey Veronica, please read the recipe – the amounts and temperatures are clearly mentioned.
Strawberry Poke Cake recipe is nice and looks very yammy.
will try at our unit, kids love it
The taste and the presentation both are the factors which are making any cake a perfect one and this is one of them.
Thanks Simran!
This strawberry cake is magnificent and I have enjoyed every bit of this cake on the recent events I have celebrated.