Try It Tuesday

Holy moly- did I find an amazing recipe on pinterest. Never would I have ever attempted a home-ade strawberry cake. I mean that's the kind of stuff only grandmothers can do, right? Wrong. This is kind of bold, but I think I like this cake better than both of my grandmothers.

You see we supported one of our students who was selling strawberries for a fundraiser at school. Well, we had more strawberries than 2 people could possibly eat in a reasonable amount of time.

Enter pinterest.

I knew I could find some strawberry desserts and thankfully we had a couple of different events this past weekend so I was able to try them out. This was one of them.

Ingredients for 12 Servings

• 1 (18.25-ounce) Package white cake mix
• 1 (3-ounce) Package strawberry gelatin
• 4 Large eggs
• ½ Cup sugar
• ½ Cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
• ½ Cup milk
• ½ Vegetable oil
• 1/3 Cup all-purpose flour
• Strawberry Buttercream Frosting (see below)
• Garnish with whole and halved strawberries

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat cake mix, strawberry gelatin, eggs, sugar, chopped fresh strawberries, milk, vegetable oil and all-purpose flour at low speed with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Scrape down sides, and beat at medium speed for 2 more minutes, stopping to scrape down sides, as needed. (The Strawberries should be well blended.)
2. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes, or until cakes spring back when pressed lightly with a finger. Let cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely (about 1 hour.)
4. Spread the Strawberry Buttercream Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with whole and halved strawberries. Serve immediately, or chill for up to 1 week.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
• 1 Cup butter, softened
• (32-ounce) Package powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 Cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
Preparation
1. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy (about 20 seconds). Add sugar and strawberries, beating at low speed until creamy. (Add more sugar if frosting is too thin, or add strawberries if too thick.)

Now I have to be honest and say that my cake looked NOTHING like this picture! In fact, 2 of my round pans even with cooking spray stuck. So I ended up taking one cake pan to a family gathering and then I stacked the cake that came out clean just on top of the other stuck cake. Classy, I know. So I smeared my icing in between the cakes and on top and around the edges however my icing was a little runnier... so we ended up having an icing fountain with the cake. It was the ugliest thing ever, but it was delicious. I won't say how many pieces I ate!

Hopefully if you try this recipe it will turn out prettier than mine! But I assure you no matter how it looks it will taste yummy!