Simple, light and refreshing Strawberry Shortcake Bars are a perfect summertime dessert. This is a seasonal favorite, and one tempting treat!
If you love the flavors in these Strawberry Shortcake Bars, you need to try these other shortcake inspired desserts!! Our favorites are No Bake Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs, and even this poke cake!
bar version of a favorite!
Is your family like us in that we never need an excuse to make dessert? 😉
It should be no surprise that we love dessert, and one of our favorite summer treats is this recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Bars.
The super soft cake like crust perfectly combines with a light layer of cream cheese and whipped cream, topped with fresh cold strawberries. It’s heavenly!
It tastes just like a classic strawberry shortcake, but with a little less hassle. Plus, it easily feeds a crowd since you just make one pan and cut it into bars!
Simple Strawberry Shortcake Bars
Although the steps are super simple, make sure you plan ahead with time, because it does need to refrigerate for at least 3 hours!
PREP. Preheat oven to 350°F and remove cool whip from freezer to thaw. Slice up strawberries and set aside.
BATTER. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter until creamy. Mix in eggs, baking powder and salt. Alternate between adding in the flour and milk, beating after each addition. Beat until all ingredients are combined. Stir in vanilla extract.
BAKE. Pour batter evenly into a greased and floured a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Note: Be sure not to over bake. Cake should be flat and light in color. Let cool completely. Set aside.
TOPPING. In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar and frozen whipped topping.
ASSEMBLE. Evenly spread cream cheese mixture over top of cooled cake. Top with sliced strawberries.
CHILL + SERVE. Refrigerate for 3 hours.
Tips + Variations
Make ahead: The ingredients of the Strawberry Shortcake Bars can be made 1-2 days ahead of time and stored separately until you’re ready to assemble the cake.
STORE covered leftovers in the fridge. The bars will last for a few days, but the strawberries will only last for a day or two. You can easily pick off the old strawberries and top with freshly cut berries.
For a tasty variation, include different fruits such as:
- raspberries
- blueberries
- sliced bananas
- sliced kiwi
- or your favorite fruit!
If you’re a fruit lover, I’m certain you will LOVE this simple but perfectly sweet strawberry bars. See for yourself!
for even more fruity treats, check out:
- Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Lemon Sheet Cake
- Cherry Sugar Cookie Bars
- Blackberry Cobbler
- White Chocolate Blueberry Lasagna
Strawberry Shortcake Bars Recipe
Ingredients
Butter Vanilla Cake
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 pint strawberries
Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 8 oz cool whip frozen
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and remove cool whip from freezer to thaw.
- In a large bowl, beat together sugar and butter until creamy. Mix in eggs, baking powder and salt. Alternate between adding in the flour and milk, beating after each addition. Beat until all ingredients are combined. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Pour batter evenly into a greased and floured a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure not to over bake. Cake should be flat and light in color. Let cool completely. Set aside.
- Slice up strawberries and set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar and frozen whipped topping. Evenly spread cream cheese mixture over top of cooled cake. Top with sliced strawberries.
- Refrigerate for 3 hours.
Video
Recipe adapted from Divas Can Cook.
Hi! If I wanted the cake part to be a little thicker, do you think 1.5x the recipe would work? Obviously it would need to cook longer! Thanks!
I haven’t ever tried that, but you could certainly give it a try. You’ll definitely want to increase the cooking time and check with a toothpick. Just making sure it doesn’t rise over the sides of the pan. You’ll have to let us know how it turns out if you 1.5x the recipe. 🙂
I have made this several times to bring to parties. Always a hit. I sub the Cool Whip out with sweetened real whipping cream. Very easy to make…just give yourself the time it takes to be ready for serving.
I’m so glad you enjoy the bars!! Thanks for sharing!
These bars are the perfect summer treat. We made them with strawberries from our garden, but I think we will be making this dessert even after our harvest is done!
Oh my heavens these were delightful! I needed a recipe to use strawberries that I had on hand and well… now I’m going to buy more so I can make this again. Haha!
Truly our favorite dessert around here!! We LOVE these strawberry shortcake bars!
Hi, Im making this a head of time and will assemble when ready to serve.
I made the frosting and refrigerated it. My question is I just made the cake does it need to be refirgerated?