Eat Dessert First: Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

At our wedding reception 3 years ago, we had strawberry cake. And it was delicious. In fact the most delicious cake I had ever had. We have been talking about that cake ever since. And since I have really gotten into baking, I decided I needed to find a strawberry cake recipe of our own. So when Rob's birthday came up this year, I decided I would start searching. And I found a couple. This one I found on a blog with comments that stated it was delicious. So this is the one I started with, and the question now is if we keep searching or say that we found our very own strawberry cake recipe to cook at every occasion we can.

Dessert Brought To You By: Christy Jordon's Southern Plate blog

Here's What You Need:
1 package plain white cake mix
1 cup chopped strawberries, with juice
3/4 cup milk
1 package strawberry gelatin (3 ounces)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
--ICING--
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
4 tablespoons margarine, room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar

Here's What You Do:
Grease and flour two 8 inch round baking pans or one 9x13-inch pan. Gently mash strawberries by placing them in a large plastic bag and rolling over them with a rolling pin or large can. Place cake mix, milk, gelatin mix, vegetable oil, and eggs in large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about two minutes or so. Add in strawberries and juice, mix again until well combined. Pour into baking pans. Baked at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If using two round pans, allow to sit for ten minutes before turning out of pans to cool completely. If baking in 9x13-inch pan, simply allow to cool in pan.

Combine all icing ingredients and mix with electric mix with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Ice cooled cake.

Store cake in refrigerator.

**You could also add 1/2 cup of the crushed, drained strawberries to this icing as well. Mix it in after the icing is smooth and creamy and after all other ingredients have been added.

So I'm not a master cake decorator but that doesn't matter much when it tastes delicious.

I learned a couple of things, however. When it says 1 cup of strawberries, it doesn't mean beforehand. It means after you crushed them, so we didn't have as many strawberries as we should have. But if it was delicious without all the strawberries that it was supposed to have then it would be even more delicious with the full amount.

This was definitely a good strawberry cake, but we are thinking of continuing to look for a strawberry cake recipe. Maybe one that doesn't use a cake mix as a cheat. Not that there is anything wrong with getting some help. Especially when it helps produce something this delicious.