I remember in MS a friend having a boxed strawberry cake with store-bought strawberry frosting. I thought it was the best cake I'd ever had. Hahaha. The PP above who suggested the boxed strawberry cake with vanilla buttercream mixed with real strawberries sounds perfect.

Stella Parks has a great strawberry cake recipe on Serious Eats:
https://www.seriouseats.com/strawberry-cake-recipe

I made it with the strawberry whipped cream and thinly sliced strawberries in between the layers for a May baby shower. It was lovely.

I think for that age you should just go with strawberry box cake and sliced strawberries on top of the cake. My 6 yo requested a "real" strawberry cake for her birthday and I used the Sallys Baking Addiction recipe mentioned by one of the PPs. It's a great recipe, I added some food coloring to brighten the pink, and the cake was delicious--tasted like real strawberries!--but daughter was disappointed. I think she really just wanted to see a very bright pink cake and see
strawberry chunks. Good luck!

Thanks so much from OP! These are all really great ideas and have given me a lot to go on. Thanks so much.

I am a boxed strawberry cake expert — def go with Duncan Hines. Make your own buttercream frosting and tint it pink. Add a few strawberries on top. My mom makes this for me every year, and I’m 48

Sallys Baking Addiction never steers me wrong: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/strawberry-cake/

Get an angel food cake, add some strawberries into some light frosting for the top, arrange some strawberry slices along the edge.

Strawberry flavored box cake with vanilla icing and fresh strawberries on top would be delicious. You can also get some cute kitty cake toppers from Amazon or Etsy

I once made an amazing strawberry cake but don't think I saved the recipe. I had to scour the internet for strawberry cakes that didn't include Jello. I did use the ground up freeze dried trader Joe's strawberries in the frosting, which was beautiful. And it used white Lily cake flour. I wish I could find it again.

Post back here of you find a good one, please!

When DD was younger and asked for a strawberry cake, I used to make this mix-based poke cake for her and always thought it was pretty good.

https://www.duncanhines.ca/recipes/cakes/dh/strawberry-refrigerator-cake/

I would probably do a strawberry chiffon cake (either strawberry flavoured or vanilla) with whipped cream and lots of fresh strawberries. Probably pink food colouring in the cake just for aesthetics.

Boxed strawberry cake with homemade buttercream with strawberries mixed in

My 3 year old requested a strawberry cake with sprinkles. What she got was a dyed-pink vanilla cake with fresh strawberries mixed into the frosting in between the layers and some fresh cut strawberries decorating the sides.

And lots of sprinkles.

I'd do a strawberry-flavored cake.

My four-year-old has requested a strawberry flavored birthday cake this year. This can be interpreted many ways, and she says as long as it is strawberry and yummy (and I decorate it with cats to fit her kitten party theme) she will be happy It’s my tradition to make her cake and I haven’t landed on the best plan.

SO. Would you make a vanilla layer cake with fresh strawberries in the middle covered with vanilla frosting? Or cream cheese frosting? Or fresh whipped cream as frosting? Or make strawberry flavored cake (I could succumb to the box or have seen a scratch made vanilla cake with powdered freeze dried strawberries for color/flavor). Or do a vanilla cake and make the frosting strawberry flavored (maybe vanilla with finely chopped strawberries fold it in?). Suggestions appreciated!