A New Mini Sheet Cake Flavor Just Landed at Trader Joe’s—and I’m Officially Obsessed

Part of the joy of shopping at Trader Joe’s is the sense of discovery. Sure, you may be in America’s kitschiest chain grocery emporium to stock up on your weekly meal prep or fill up your freezer with pre-made meals, but you never know what worldly delights you’ll discover between your staples.

This summer, a Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake has captivated Trader Joe’s shoppers and the internet thanks to its petite size, low price ($5.99) and general cuteness. Because who can’t use a tiny pink cake in their supermarket haul? 

The Trader Joe’s Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake is a seasonal item, so it’s around for the summer, but like anything at the grocery chain, it can disappear before fall and maybe never reappear again. Grab it while you can from the bakery aisle. 

What Makes Trader Joe’s Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake So Delicious?

This cake is small in stature, but big on sweetness and flavor. The cream cheese frosting is thick and decadent, and the cake layer is super moist, very sweet, and certainly exudes a strong strawberry scent and flavor. It’s nostalgic, and while it may not quite pass for homemade, it certainly doesn’t taste artificial or like it came off a grocery shelf. And honestly, if you want to transfer it to a plate or quarter sheet pan and claim it as your own creation, no one would question it. 

As soon as you open the package, you’ll get a strong whiff of strawberry, which certainly helps bring out the flavor when you bite in. The frosting and cake meld together nicely, and the small sheet cake easily yields six slices, which may be a bit small for some. At 35 grams of sugar per serving, the cake is certainly sweet enough, but not so sweet that you’ll start to feel sick. The frosting is also really smooth and melty, not hard or crumbly like some supermarket cake frostings. It could have more strawberry flavor (strawberry puree is listed in the ingredients) but it’s still quite nice and balances the sweetness of the cake wonderfully.  

Unlike strawberry cake from a boxed mix (or some other bakeries), the cake itself is more a natural brown hue than the bright pink color that I associate with strawberry flavored cakes and ice creams. There are no red dyes or any dyes in the cake, which is a TJ’s rule, and the strawberry flavor comes from strawberry preserves.

Ways to Enjoy Trader Joe’s Strawberry Mini Sheet Cake

The best part of this cake is its versatility. The cake looks nice as it is, with thin stripes of icing flecked with strawberry on top, but can easily be decorated at home with sprinkles, gel icing, celebratory decorations (like a happy birthday sign) or whatever you envision. It’s an ideal, portable, shelf-stable cake to bring to a potluck, picnic, or office gathering, or to just enjoy at home.

I also loved that the white frosting was neutral enough that it could have more sliced fresh strawberries or crumbled freeze-dried strawberries added on top. It’s the perfect canvas for the viral strawberry lobster cake, or any strawberry design of your choosing.

These small cakes can also be stacked (with or without strawberries in between) to make a larger layer cake to feed a crowd and create a more dramatic dessert. At $5.99 for six servings, that’s $1 per person—a pretty good deal for any cake!