📌 Strawberry & Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Posted 4 May 2026 by: Admin #Recipes

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

80 minutes

Total Time

100 minutes

Servings

10 servings

The aroma arrives long before the cake. Warm butter, vanilla, something sweet and slightly tangy rising from the kitchen — everyone turns their head. This strawberry and cream cheese bundt is that kind of recipe: straightforward to prepare, impossible to ignore.

Final result — The bundt cake in all its glory — pearly pink glaze, dense and generous texture.

The cake comes out of the pan in a dense block, almost heavy in your hands. The crust is a light caramel golden brown, slightly crispy to the touch, before giving way to a compact, moist crumb you can sense just by looking at it. Inside, small pieces of strawberry melted into the batter form pink pockets here and there. The glaze drips slowly — a pearly pink that clings to the ridges of the bundt before falling in thick tears over the edge.

Why you’ll love this recipe

✓Zero special technique required : There are no layers to assemble, no cream to stabilize, no thermometer to pull out. You put the ingredients in the bowl in the right order, pour into the pan, and the oven does the rest.

✓It’s better the next day : Made the day before, the crumb has had time to moisten evenly and the flavors to settle. This is quite rare for a travel cake — it’s worth highlighting.

✓The bundt pan does all the visual work : Even without decoration, even without any baking skills, the result is impressive. No one would guess it’s so direct to make.

✓Cream cheese radically changes the texture : Without it, it’s a good pound cake. With it, the texture becomes something else — denser yet melt-in-your-mouth, with a slight acidity that keeps the cake from being cloying.

Ingredient Notes

Ingredients

All the ingredients together: beautiful and simple, nothing superfluous.

Cream cheese : This is what gives it the signature texture. Philadelphia works very well, as does any classic brand. The essential part: it must be at room temperature. Taken cold from the fridge, it will never incorporate properly and you’ll have lumps in the batter.
Butter : Unsalted butter, not margarine. It must be soft — not melted, not cold. A good guide: when you press it with a finger, it sinks in without resistance and leaves a clear indentation. The butter fat is what gives this rich, tight crumb.
Fresh strawberries : Fresh, not frozen — frozen strawberries release too much water during baking and create soggy spots in the crumb. Choose ripe but firm strawberries, chop them finely, and pat them dry thoroughly before folding them in. This simple step changes the behavior of the entire batter.
Eggs : Six eggs is a lot. They provide both structure and richness. Like the butter and cream cheese, they must be at room temperature — taken out at the same time as the rest, not five minutes before.

Take the butter and cream cheese out 30 minutes before starting

Baking rarely forgives the impatient. Cold butter and cream cheese won’t incorporate — they form islands in the batter that won’t disappear with whisking, even if you insist. Place them on the counter while you prepare your pan and other ingredients. Thirty minutes at room temperature is the minimum. In summer, twenty might suffice. In winter with a cold kitchen, plan for forty. It’s also the right time to take out the eggs.

Whisk until the mixture becomes almost white

Butter, cream cheese, sugar — this is the heart of the recipe. In the bowl, the mixture starts off beige and grainy. You whisk. After two minutes, it starts to pale. After three to four minutes at medium-high speed, it’s creamy, almost white, and its texture holds on the whisk’s tines — light, a bit like thick cream. This step is what makes the difference between a cake that is dense in a good way versus a bad way. Then add the eggs one by one, not all at once: each must be absorbed before the next. The flour, in two or three additions, at low speed, just enough so you no longer see dry powder.

Dry the strawberries well before folding them into the batter

Fresh strawberries are generous with water. If cut finely and incorporated directly, they risk weighing down the batter or creating spots that are too moist. Spread them on paper towels, pat the top, leave for two minutes. It’s not much. But it changes the behavior of the entire batter. Once ready, fold them gently with a spatula — not a whisk, not roughly. The pieces must remain whole so you find them in the baked cake, pink and melting.

Touch nothing for 1h15

The oven at 160°C, no more. Dense cakes need to bake slowly and evenly — too hot, and the crust closes before the inside is cooked. Pour the batter into the well-buttered and floured bundt pan, smooth the surface with a spatula, and slide it in. Then leave it. The aroma that will fill your kitchen is that of browned butter mixed with warm vanilla, slightly sweet and fruity. Resist the urge to open the oven early. Doneness test: a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, and the top should resist slightly when you press gently on it.

Pour the glaze while the cake is still warm

Let the cake rest in the pan for exactly ten minutes after coming out of the oven. Unmold it while still warm onto a wire rack. A completely cold cake absorbs less well — warm, it drinks up part of it, and the result is more indulgent, less glassy on the surface. Prepare the glaze by mixing powdered sugar with milk and strained strawberry puree until it reaches a consistency that drips slowly from a spoon. Pour in a circle from the center of the bundt and let it flow freely.

Tips & Tricks

Butter and flour the pan generously, using a brush to reach every nook and cranny. A poorly prepared bundt means a catastrophic unmolding after nearly 80 minutes of baking — and it happens more often than one might think.
If you don’t have a bundt pan, a classic 23 cm loaf pan works. The baking time remains similar, start checking at 70 minutes.
The cake keeps for two days under a cake dome at room temperature, or three days in the fridge. Take it out 20 minutes before serving — cold, it loses much of its soft texture.

Close-up — That tight, melting crumb with its candy-pink strawberry pieces is exactly why we make this cake.

FAQs

Can I use frozen strawberries instead of fresh ones?

It’s best to avoid them. Frozen strawberries release a lot of water during baking and risk creating soggy areas in the batter or preventing the cake from rising properly. If they are your only option, thaw them completely, drain them for a long time, and pat them dry thoroughly before incorporating.

Can I make this cake without a bundt pan?

Yes, a classic 23 cm loaf pan works very well. You can also use two 20 cm cake pans — in that case, reduce the baking time to about 60-70 minutes and start checking at 55 minutes with a toothpick.

Why did my cake stick to the pan?

This is the number one cause of failure with a bundt pan. You must butter and flour every corner generously with a brush, not just spray it. The 10-minute resting time in the pan after removing it from the oven is also essential before unmolding.

Can I prepare this cake in advance?

Yes, and it’s even recommended. Prepare the cake the day before without the glaze, store it under a dome at room temperature, and add the glaze the next morning. The crumb will have had time to consolidate and the flavors to intensify.

The center of my cake stayed moist after baking — what happened?

Either the oven was too hot and the crust closed before the inside was cooked, or the strawberries hadn’t been dried enough. Check your oven’s actual temperature with a thermometer and take the time to dry the strawberries well before folding them in.

How long does this cake last?

Two days under a dome at room temperature, three days in the refrigerator well-wrapped. Take it out 20 minutes before serving because the cold hardens the crumb. It also freezes very well without the glaze for up to two months.