Many people don’t realize that their crockpot is good for much more than main dishes; it’s good for just about anything, in fact, and that includes dessert.

We “bake” cakes in my crockpot quite a lot. It’s so easy, and they bake all night while you sleep!

One of our favorite crockpot cakes is our Spicy Strawberry Cake. We use fresh strawberries.

We love using really fresh ones from the Poteet Strawberry festival each year. The Poteet festival is heaven for strawberry fanatics! If you are a strawberry lover, you need to go. It is all things strawberry!

All other times of year we just purchase at the local grocery store. We’ve used frozen strawberries, and as long as they’re well-drained there’s really not much difference.

Spicy Crockpot Strawberry Cake is best made a day or two ahead of time. It’s one of those cakes that need to be wrapped in heavy paper and allowed to “sweat” in order to be at its best.

We’ve made this cake from scratch, but more often, we just use a boxed mix. There are so many brands to choose from, just grab your favorite yellow cake mix.

Here’s what to do.

Ingredients for the crockpot cake:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 stick of real butter
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Strawberry Habanero Pepper Jelly
• 1/2 cup diced strawberries
• 1 cup thinly sliced fresh strawberries
• powdered sugar

How to make a box cake in a crockpot

Thickly butter the crockpot insert. You can use a crockpot bag liner. Using a bag helps take the cake out and display it, or you can serve it directly out of the crockpot.

Dump the cake mix into a mixing bowl, (DON’T FOLLOW THEIR RECIPE ON THE BOX!) and add four eggs, 1 stick of real butter, and 3/4 cup milk. Add the pepper jelly and diced strawberries.

Pour mixture into buttered crockpot insert and spread the sliced strawberries on the top.

How to bake the strawberry cake in a crockpot

Cover crockpot and set on low for 6 hours. The toothpick test will tell you if it’s done or not.

If it isn’t fully cooked at the 6-hour mark, let it stay on low until finished. Be sure to continue testing it every 15 minutes or so until the cake is done.

How to finish preparing the strawberry cake

This cake doesn’t really need icing, but if your family loves icing, why not spread more strawberry habanero pepper jelly over the hot cake? You can also make a simple powdered sugar and water drizzle, which is really pretty and adds some sweetness.

While it’s still hot, iced or not, wrap the insert in foil, tightly. Put the wrapped insert into the refrigerator.

In the morning, remove from fridge. Remove the cake from the crockpot insert and set it on a plate.

Sprinkle some powdered sugar over the entire thing using a sifter. Then…dig in.

If you’re not a powdered sugar fan whipped cream on this crockpot cake is amazing, too! The whipped cream makes it kind of like a strawberry shortcake.

If your family (or you) can’t wait for this delicious strawberry cake to sweat overnight in the refrigerator, go ahead and serve warm. Eat it fresh and hot from the crockpot. It’s really just a matter of texture preference and flavor-blending. But either way, this is a super good spicy cake.