Fresh Strawberry Bread with Crumble Topping (Easy Quick Bread Recipe)

Celebrate strawberry season with this super moist strawberry bread recipe. Dotted with fresh strawberries and paired with a sweet crunchy topping, this easy recipe can be mixed up quicker than a whistle! It’s a wonderful quick bread recipe perfect for breakfast, brunch, or snack time.

The other day I found myself with some extra beautiful fresh juicy strawberries and buttermilk in my fridge. I went on a search for a fresh strawberry cake recipe, but landed on an old fashioned quick bread recipe baked in a loaf pan. Since I love strawberry muffins with crumble topping, I decided to try adding it to this recipe, too. The result is a winner in our books!

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

This quick bread recipe uses simple ingredients and is such an easy quick bread recipe to mix up. It’s perfect if you have extra buttermilk to use up, but if you don’t, see below for an easy way to make buttermilk in a pinch.

I’m a fan of loaf cake since – unlike a muffin recipe – you only have to pour the batter into one loaf pan instead of dealing with muffin tins.

This recipe can also be mixed up in just one mixing bowl (without an electric mixer!) making it one of those easy recipes you might want to tuck in the back of your mind for days when you’re in a hurry to get something in the oven. You don’t even have to have a separate bowl for wet ingredients and dry ingredients for this recipe.

This moist quick bread can be customized to your liking. It’s delicious just plain, or you if you want it a bit sweeter, you can add the crumble topping and powdered sugar glaze like I did.

Ingredients needed for this moist strawberry bread recipe

(Please refer to the full recipe card located at the bottom of the post for all the details.)

• 2 cups fresh chopped strawberries – (See the directions below for how to prepare them.)
• 1 large egg – At room temperature
• 1 cup buttermilk – at room temperature. Low fat or full buttermilk can be used. Only lowfat buttermilk was available at our local grocery stores, so that is what I used.
• 1/2 cup canola oil – or any oil that you prefer.
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Step by step instructions for this strawberry quick bread

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a loaf pan by putting a sling of parchment paper. (I recommend one bigger than the 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 pan I used. The batter spilled over a bit while baking in mine.)

2. Prepare the strawberries by rinsing them well, cutting off the leafy top, and dicing them into small pieces.

Since fresh strawberries are filled with a lot of moisture that may make the strawberry bread mushy, you’ll want to try to get some of the moisture out.

To do so, lay a piece of paper towel in a large baking sheet and sprinkle the diced fresh fruit on it. Then, take another piece of paper towel and gently press down to soak up some of the extra moisture.

Let them remain on the paper towel in the pan while you prepare the quick bread batter.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and sugar – egg, buttermilk, canola oil, sugar, and vanilla – until smooth.
4. Then add the dry ingredients. First, sprinkle over the baking powder and salt and whisk until they are well incorporated and the batter is smooth with no lumps.

5. Add the flour and mix until combined, but don’t overmix. Overmixing the flour mixture can cause the batter to lose its moist texture.
6. Fold in the diced strawberries.
7. Pour the batter into the prepare loaf pan. I like to use parchment paper (not wax paper!) as a “sling” to help lift it out.

Ingredients for the crumble topping for this strawberry bread loaf

• 6 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 3 Tablespoons cold butter cut into cubes
• 2 Tablespoons white sugar
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

How to make crumble topping for strawberry bread

1. In a medium bowl whisk together the sugars, cinnamon and flour.
2. Add in the cold butter cubes and cut in with a pastry blender or 2 knives until it resembles very course oatmeal.

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the batter in the loaf pan.

**Please note that the batter in the pan pictured above is nearly level with the top of the pan. That is NOT recommended! The batter should only come up about 2/3 the way to the top of the ban. The batter in my bread spilled over the top and made a bit of a “muffin top” bread!

Place on an oven rack positioned in the middle of your oven and bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Using the sides of the parchment paper sling, pull up on the cake and remove from the pan. Cool completely on a cooling rack before glazing.

How to make a simple glaze for moist strawberry crumble cake loaf

If you’d like to add a pretty glaze before serving, just mix together 3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Then add in milk or heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time until it becomes a vanilla glaze that runs off the spoon easily.

For more quick bread recipes:

• Buttermilk Banana Bread
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Bread with canned pumpkin

For more strawberry recipes:

• Strawberry pie – oh my! This is so delicious…
• Strawberry muffins
• Vanilla strawberry cake