Aldi Strawberry Cream Cake (Deutsche Küche) Review
Frothy, lightly sweet, and convenient.
I previously reviewed Costco’s Strawberries & Cream Bar Cake, which I adored. Buuuuut, that seasonal cake is not currently available from my local Costco! Alas. If you’ve been curious how Aldi’s Strawberry Cream Cake compares, I’m here to help. Or just ramble. Either way, I’m here.
Aldi’s Strawberry Cream Cake is a super light, airy cake. Almost too airy. Sort of “frothy.” It’s only slightly sweet. If you have a wicked sweet tooth, you probably won’t dig this cake. It was perfect for me, however. If you’ve read my other reviews, then you know that I dislike “overly sweet” desserts. This cake is about as far on the “unsweet” end of the dessert spectrum as anything I’ve tried so far. So I liked it.
My favorite aspect of this cake is how prominently real cream is featured. The thick icing is actually foamy whipped cream with pureed strawberries. It’s almost like a mousse in texture. The fresh cream taste is delightful, and the butterfat creates a satisfying mouthfeel. The blended strawberries have a wholesome, natural taste — faintly acidic and herbal — that keeps the berry flavor from tasting too processed. From reading the ingredients, I can see that “bovine gelatin” was included, probably as a stabilizer for the whipped cream layers.
Aldi fans online were complaining about how dry the baked cake layers are. I was somewhat anticipating this, after my experiences with dryness in Aldi’s frozen Donauwelle Cake. What I discovered is that a slower/longer defrost period results in moister cake. For that reason, I ignored the instructions on the package, and opted to defrost this in my refrigerator for 24 hours, instead of at room temperature for 3-4 hours, as the label recommended. More about that later.
I’ve honestly never eaten a cake with a pie crust before, but this one definitely has some kind of crust on the bottom. Fortunately, I ended up liking it. The not-quite-graham-like crust is flakey and soft, and it has a fruit jam layer separating it from the cake. The jam-layer appears to be a type of apple jam, so it’s a flavor departure from the strawberry layers throughout the rest of the cake. But I welcomed that palate shift. The jam helps to keep the bottom of the cake tender, and it’s a fun surprise ending to the layered dessert.
The sweetest part of the cake is the red strawberry gel on top. It’s tangy, viscous, and much more sugary than everything else. Small, whole strawberries are submerged in the gel layer. Because the whole strawberries were frozen, they are soft and mushy when thawed, but not offensively so. If you want to elevate this cake, you could add your own raw, sliced strawberries on top for more wholesome (and sophisticated) freshness.
Aesthetically, Aldi has done a commendable job decorating this cake. There are pert “vanilla cream” piped rosettes sprinkled with white chocolate shavings surrounding the glossy pool of red strawberry gel. I’m impressed by how smoothly the whipped strawberry cream icing has been applied to the sides and edges. The pink, red, white and ivory colors look classy and elegant. This cake doesn’t look tacky or sloppy.
Even so, this dessert isn’t what I’d consider gourmet. It’s nice. I’d buy it again. I recommend it. It’s tasty and fun. But not rave-worthy.
What DOES make this cake stand out is how convenient it is. You can buy this and keep it in your freezer until you need it. In that sense, it is available year-round. And, as long as you have 24 hours advance notice to defrost it, it is ready anytime, without an extra trip to the store.
Thawing Instructions for Aldi’s Strawberry Cream Cake
The instructions said to thaw the whole cake at room temperature for 3-4 hours. Based on my previous experience with thawing cakes from Deutsche Küche, I decided to thaw this in my refrigerator for 9 hours instead. Unfortunately, it hadn’t thawed all the way, even after 9 hours. I ended up allowing it to thaw for a total of 24 hours in my refrigerator, and it was perfect. The cake was soft and moist, and the strawberry cream was fluffy and hadn’t melted or deformed. So, I recommend a refrigerated thaw for a full 24 hours.
I am impressed that Aldi manages to ship this whole, decorated cake around the world without it getting crushed or damaged. It has an odd styrofoam circle that protects the cake sides and top. The styrofoam slides out of the cake box, and all you have to do is remove the plastic wrapping and pull the styrofoam off, and the cake is ready to go on a plate. Other than planning ahead for thawing time, this is a fairly convenient dessert.
If you are wondering if you can just let the cake thaw in the box with the packaging intact, the answer is NO. The styrofoam collar is touching the sides of the whipped cream, so if you let it thaw before removing it, the whipped cream frosting will be damaged when you pull off the styrofoam circle.
In its frozen state, the cake is very sturdy, including the garnishes. The only minor issue I had was that the white chocolate curls had migrated/were unevenly distributed, and the tips of the whipped cream piping was flattened. A few decorative strawberries had a dull/dry appearance, but this disappeared after thawing and sinking into the strawberry glaze.
Ingredients in Deutsche Küche Strawberry Cream Cake
It’s exciting to find a cake whose first two ingredients are cream and strawberries. On the other hand, various sugars are listed separately, including invert sugar and “glucose-fructose” syrup. I love that there are no artificial colors or flavors in this cake. In fact, carrot juice is listed as a coloring agent instead of dye. In the grand scheme of things, these are decent ingredients for a mass-produced cake.
Here are the full ingredients:
- Cream
- Strawberries
- Wheat flour
- Sugar
- Invert Sugar
- Water
- Egg
- Vegetable oils (palm, canola)
- Glucose-fructose syrup
- Apple jam (glucose syrup, apples, pectins, ciric acid)
- Wheat starch
- White chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, dry whole milk, lecithins [sunflower, soy])
- Corn starch, Bovine gelatin, Food starch-modified, Citric acid, Mono- and diglycerides, Whey, Calcium sulphate, Sodium citrate, Calcium phosphate, Natural flavor, Dry whole milk, Sodium carbonate, Sodium citrate, Salt, Pectins, Carrot extract (color), Carrotene (color)
If you’re wondering why “Sodium citrate” is listed twice, so am I. And, because it was twice-listed, I Googled it. Apparently, sodium citrate is both a salty-sour food flavor enhancer, and also a preservative.
More fun facts: this cake is made in Germany. The chocolate (white chocolate) is Rainforest Alliance Certified. Cool.
Nutrition Facts in Aldi’s Frozen Strawberry Cream Cake
There are 8 servings per cake of 100 grams each (3.53 ounces). Each slice has 220 calories, 10 grams of fat, 23 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein. Impressively, only 18 grams of the sugar are “added sugar.” The cake itself is approximately 8 inches in diameter.
I cut smaller slices, and ended up easily getting 10 servings from this cake.
Price and Shelf-life of Deutsche Küche Strawberry Cream Cake
The 28.2 ounce cake cost $7.99. Since there are eight servings, each serving costs a dollar. This makes it significantly cheaper than Costco’s Strawberries & Cream Cake. My cake box had an expiration date roughly 1 year after my purchase date, which is an OK shelf-life. Unfortunately, after thawing, this cake only lasts a couple days in the refrigerator before it loses quality, so it needs to be eaten quickly.
More Reviews of Aldi Desserts You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Aldi desserts I’ve recently written:
- Aldi Cherry Frangipane Tart (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Bienenstich Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Fruits of the Forest Strudel (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Donauwelle Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
Author’s note: I have no affiliation with Aldi, and I was not compensated in any way for this review.
