I can admit that I’m a little confusing. I mean, for the past month I’ve been sharing all of these Fall recipes to prepare for the cooler months, and then now on the first day of Fall I share this very summery recipe. Hear me out though!
I just realized I had this post sitting in my drafts since July, which was back when I had made it. I have this notebook that I scribble recipes in when I’m testing them out because in actuality I’m like all those other cooks who will just throw a little bit of this and a little bit of that in a recipe with no measurements. I learned the hard way how difficult it is to replicate those recipes with no notes, so keeping a pen and pad in the kitchen forces me to do just that in case the recipe is magic and needs to be shared. However, my little ones love to draw and scribble too and sometimes they steal those notepads. I couldn’t find it for a few months, and the other night I finally did! I came on here to put in the recipe and discovered I had already saved all the ingredients and measurements months ago! I was ahead of myself and I didn’t even know, too funny right? Has that ever happened to you?
Summer is prime time for strawberries, and back in July I had a lot. Since I’m also in California, they’re everywhere and super cheap that time of year. For years I’d been wanting to make a cake with strawberry soda, much like my super popular 7-Up Cake (you should go check out that recipe for the comments alone, seriously they always make me cry. Best comments ever!) I love making cakes in my bundt pan, and I found this adorable pan for mini-bundts. So I created my own strawberry soda cake recipe specifically for the mini-bundt pan. If you don’t have a mini pan, you could just double the recipe and prepare it in a regular sized bundt pan.
I based this recipe on my 7-Up cake and also borrowed the idea for strawberry gelatin powder as an addition from a strawberry cupcake recipe I made a few years ago from Land O’ Lakes. I love the pretty pink color it adds while still keeping the texture light. Of course this recipe also includes tiny chunks of strawberries in addition to pureed strawberry, both in the cake and in the glaze. It’s delicious and super cute in the mini form.
Strawberry Soda Mini-Cakes Ingredients:
- 1.5 sticks butter, room temp
- 1.5 cups white granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sliced strawberries, pureed
- 1/4 cup chopped strawberries
- 1/2 tablespoon strawberry gelatin powder
- 1/4 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons strawberry soda
Strawberry Soda Cake Glaze Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon strawberry puree
- 1 tablespoon chopped strawberries
Directions:
Begin by preheating your oven to 325 degrees.
Rinse your strawberries and remove the stems, then place them in a food processor.I basically added a bunch of strawberries and blended on pulse to get the chopped strawberries. Measured out how much I needed for the chopped strawberries for both the cake and the glaze, then pureed the rest and measured that out for the pureed strawberries for the cake and glaze. You might find a better method, but this worked perfectly for me.
Once you have your chopped strawberries measured and your pureed strawberries measured, set them aside for now.
In a mixing bowl add the butter and sugar. Cream on low for about 8 minutes then begin to add the eggs one at a time while still mixing on low.
Once thick and smooth, begin to add the flour a little bit at a time.
Add the vanilla, the chopped and pureed strawberries all one at a time. Finish it off with the strawberry gelatin powder.
Continue to mix on medium-low until everything is just combined and it’s a lovely pink color.
Finally, add the strawberry soda.
Spray your pan well with a good non-stick spray that includes flour. This will help make sure there is no sticking, it’s a common problem in bundt cakes and I address it in my 7-Up cake recipe post.
Gently spoon in your mixture, making sure it’s evenly distributed. This mixture will make exactly 6 mini-bundts.
Pop it in the oven and set the timer for 35 minutes. Check every ten minutes after that, until done. For me it was about 45-50 minutes, but it varies depending on your oven.
While the cakes are baking, or while they’re cooling combine all the glaze ingredients and stir it up until it’s fairly smooth.
Remove the bundts from the pan and place on a sheet lined in parchment or wax paper.
Gently drizzle the glaze over each mini-cake.
These would also look adorable with the centers filled with strawberries like my Berry Overload Bundt Cake.
Once they cool the glaze will harden just a bit and not be as sticky. These are so cute and would be adorable served for brunch or with tea or coffee.
Enjoy!
These strawberry soda mini-cakes are based on my popular 7-up cake, with real strawberries in the cake and glaze. Double recipe for a traditional size cake.
Ingredients
- 1.5 sticks butter, room temp
- 1.5 cups white granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sliced strawberries, pureed
- 1/4 cup chopped strawberries
- 1/2 tablespoon strawberry gelatin powder
- 1/4 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons strawberry soda
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon strawberry puree
- 1 tablespoon chopped strawberries
Instructions
- Begin by preheating your oven to 325 degrees.
- Rinse your strawberries and remove the stems, then place them in a food processor.I basically added a bunch of strawberries and blended on pulse to get the chopped strawberries. Measured out how much I needed for the chopped strawberries for both the cake and the glaze, then pureed the rest and measured that out for the pureed strawberries for the cake and glaze. You might find a better method, but this worked perfectly for me.
- Once you have your chopped strawberries measured and your pureed strawberries measured, set them aside for now.
- In a mixing bowl add the butter and sugar. Cream on low for about 8 minutes then begin to add the eggs one at a time while still mixing on low.
- Once thick and smooth, begin to add the flour a little bit at a time.
- Add the vanilla, the chopped and pureed strawberries all one at a time. Finish it off with the strawberry gelatin powder.
- Continue to mix on medium-low until everything is just combined and it's a lovely pink color.
- Finally, add the strawberry soda.
- Spray your pan well with a good non-stick spray that includes flour. This will help make sure there is no sticking, it's a common problem in bundt cakes and I address it in my 7-Up cake recipe post.
- Gently spoon in your mixture, making sure it's evenly distributed. This mixture will make exactly 6 mini-bundts.
- Pop it in the oven and set the timer for 35 minutes. Check every ten minutes after that, until done. For me it was about 45-50 minutes, but it varies depending on your oven.
- While the cakes are baking, or while they're cooling combine all the glaze ingredients and stir it up until it's fairly smooth.
- Remove the bundts from the pan and place on a sheet lined in parchment or wax paper.
- Gently drizzle the glaze over each mini-cake.
- These would also look adorable with the centers filled with strawberries like my Berry Overload Bundt Cake.
- Once they cool the glaze will harden just a bit and not be as sticky. These are so cute and would be adorable served for brunch or with tea or coffee.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Adapted from my 7-Up cake recipe and Land O' Lakes Strawberry Cupcakes recipe.
These look so, so good! I love strawberries, too. My family and I spent spring break this year in SoCal and there were just fields and fields of strawberries!
And by the way, I’m so jealous of your ability to just throw in a little of this and a little of that and create a recipe from scratch. I wish I had that talent!