Strawberry Breakfast Cake

This strawberry breakfast cake and is light and fresh-tasting with a tender crumb and plenty of fresh strawberries. Life is short; have cake for breakfast!

What's a strawberry breakfast cake?

A breakfast cake is a sweet treat that takes very little time to make (one bowl, one pan, right in the oven) and is still satisfying and beautiful on your table. Most “regular” cakes have more sugar added, and don't contain fruit in the batter, whereas a breakfast cake usually does.

I think of breakfast cake as an alternative to gluten free pancakes or gluten free French toast—not as an alternative to gluten free strawberry cake. All that fresh fruit baked right into it releases tons of moisture in the oven, so the rest of the batter is very thick—but the result is super moist and tender, even without that much sugar.

This strawberry breakfast cake is relatively low in sugar, with just 1/2 cup in the whole cake. It also has only 4 tablespoons butter total. A “regular” cake would have twice as much of each ingredient.

It's loaded with fresh strawberries. They sweeten and moisten the cake batter as the cake bakes, so the texture is just right for a breakfast. It's even a relatively healthy breakfast cake, since strawberries contain lots of antioxidants and vitamin C, and are low carb but sweet.

This cake is so moist, tender, and lightly sweet, and the batter is so easy to throw together that the 15-minute prep time in the instructions is really only true if you get distracted by something while you’re baking. Mom and kid approved!

The cake freezes so well in single-serving portions, which makes it perfect for busy mornings. But without any additional effort, it's the star of your Mother's Day table with all the fresh strawberries as we enter that season of the year.

Gluten free strawberry breakfast cake ingredients

• Flour blend – As usual, you must be careful when choosing your gluten free flour blend. I really like my Better Than Cup4Cup blend here, but Better Batter also works well, as does Cup4Cup itself.
• Baking powder and baking soda – Make sure these ingredients are fresh, since they're the chemical leaveners that cause your breakfast cake to rise in the oven.
• Salt – Balancing the sweetness and bringing out the beautiful strawberry flavors of this cake is salt's job.
• Sugar – Granulated sugar adds sweetness and is also a tenderizer in this cake. There's already a reduced amount of sugar compared to other cakes, so don't cut it down further if you want a tender cake!
• Butter – Butter provides most of the fat and some of the moisture that makes this cake moist, and is a flavor delivery system.
• Milk – Milk provides the only liquid moisture in this cake, and you want something with richness, so don't use nonfat milk. Plain yogurt also works in the same amount, and I've even made this cake with buttermilk or plain milk kefir, and it turns out beautiful every time.
• Eggs – Adding rise, richness, and helping to bind this cake together are the 2 eggs, at room temperature.
• Strawberries – The star of the show are ripe, fresh strawberries, chopped into rough pieces. We want the strawberries to be nice and juicy, so they have tons of flavor, but not overripe or chopped fine or they'll disappear into the batter.

Tips for baking strawberry breakfast cake

Working with fresh strawberries

Strawberries can be difficult to bake into a cake, as they're so packed with moisture, and they release it during baking. This cake handles the extra moisture with ease since it's properly balanced with less moisture in the batter.

You can replace baking pieces like chocolate chips and chopped nuts with one another without altering the recipe at all. But if you're baking with fresh berries, they have more moisture than nuts and chips, so you need a recipe formulated for them.

I've also made this strawberry dessert with an equal number of fresh blueberries and fresh raspberries, without changing anything else. Just wash the berries quickly, pat them dry, and use them in the same manner as the strawberries.

Don't overmix your cake batter

As we've discussed, this is a relatively thick cake batter so that it has the structure to support all the moisture from the berries. You add the chopped berries at the end, but mix carefully to fold in the berries or you'll crush them.

Preparing your baking dish

Even if you're using a nonstick baking dish, I recommend that you line it with parchment paper so that it's easy to remove the cake after it's baked. To get the paper to stay in place as you spread out the thick batter, though, try clipping it to the sides of the pan with plain metal clips.

GF strawberry breakfast cake serving suggestions

Just because this cake is beautiful and delicious on its own doesn't mean you can't dress it up a bit when you serve it. Here are some suggestions:

• For a special occasion, try drizzling on some of our homemade strawberry syrup, like you see in the first photo above.
• Try sprinkling the cake with sifted powdered sugar after it cools. A little goes a long way.
• Treat it like a pancake, and drizzle a slice with pure maple syrup
• A light cream cheese frosting like we use on our banana cake would be a welcome surprise
• Fresh, lightly sweetened whipped cream is a perfect simple topping, with some more fresh strawberries like we do in our gf strawberry shortcake.
• Make it more decadent with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve it as a light warm weather dessert

How to store a strawberry breakfast cake

The cake freezes really well. Just wrap the pieces tightly in freezer-safe wrap and freeze. Defrost at room temperature and then refresh in a 250°F toaster oven for a minute or two before serving.

It's moist enough, though, to stay fresh for a day or even 2 on the countertop at room temperature. Just be sure to wrap the whole cake tightly if it's uncut, or each slice separately if you've already made it into squares.

Strawberry breakfast cake: substitutions

Dairy free breakfast cake

In place of the butter in this recipe, you can try using Melt or Miyoko's Kitchen brand vegan butter. Earth Balance buttery sticks might work, too.

If you'd like to use milk, unsweetened nondairy milk like almond milk would work great. In place of plain yogurt, you can use plain nondairy yogurt. My favorite brand for this ingredient is So Delicious.

Egg free breakfast cake

There are two eggs in this recipe, which is generally my upper limit for optimism about an egg replacer's working. Try one “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel) for each egg in the recipe.

Substituting fresh berries

When fresh strawberries aren't in season, you can still make this cake if you can find frozen strawberries that are chopped already. Don't defrost the strawberries; instead, keep them frozen until it's time to mix them into the otherwise prepared batter.

If you try to chop frozen strawberries or even strawberry halves, they'll melt and wilt as they defrost, and your strawberry gluten free dessert will have dry spots and some soggy parts.

Trying a different fruit

Instead of chopped strawberries, you can try this recipe with lots of other fruits, as long as they're similar in size and juiciness to our strawberries. Here are some ideas:

• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Halved, pitted cherries
• Pineapple chunks

FAQs

How is breakfast cake different from regular cake?

Breakfast cake usually has fresh fruit baked right into the cake, and much less sugar and butter than a “regular” cake. Think of it like you might gf blueberry muffins as distinct from cake.

Are breakfast cakes and coffee cakes the same thing?

I don't think of them the same way, but many people do! I might serve our coffee cake for brunch, but I wouldn't make it for my daughter to eat in the morning before school, as it's really just, well, cake.

Can I make this strawberry breakfast cake with almond flour?

No, this cake must be made with an all purpose gluten free flour blend, which is a combination of individual flours, starting with superfine rice flour. Almond flour is not a proper substitute, and to use it would require a separate recipe that's been developed to be made with almond flour, like our almond flour sponge cake.

Can I make this breakfast cake without fruit?

No, this recipe is developed to be made with the additional moisture that fruit provides when it is mixed into the batter. If you replace the fruit with something dry, like chocolate chips or nuts, the cake is likely to turn out dense.

Can I double the batter and make the cake in a 9-inch x 13-inch pan?

No, I don't recommend doubling this recipe to make a larger cake, as it may burn on the bottom toward the center before it's baked cleanly all the way through. You can make 2 cakes by doubling the ingredients and dividing the batter between 2 8-inch square (or round!) pans.

Can I make this recipe as muffins?

No, I recommend using our recipe for strawberry muffins instead. This cake wouldn't bake properly if made as muffins, and you might end up with gummy centers.