FRESH STRAWBERRY CAKE

This is my first blog and I am so excited. It has been a long time (seems like it anyway) since I had a web site when I was teaching school in California. Even with my limited free time then, I really enjoyed posting pictures of my family, favorite recipes, and things I had made.  But that web site no longer exists. 

When my husband and I retired, we moved to MO to be closer to family. (I never intended to be a "long-distance" grandmother.) One son lives here and the other one lives in COS, which is only a 9-hr drive.  Most of my extended family also lives about 9 hrs away in AR and LA. My children joined Facebook so I joined to keep up them and their families.  Facebook also became a good outlet for me to be able to share pictures, recipes, and things I had made. But then I discovered Pinterest, and I wanted to be able to do more.  So here I am. 

For my first blog, I wanted to share the recipe for my Fresh Strawberry Cake.  I have been making this cake for years and have made changes as the years have gone by.  I will tell you the changes I make at the end.  It is great either way.  I recently made it for a dinner club my husband and I belong to, and received rave reviews.

 

FRESH STRAWBERRY CAKE 

 CAKE:

                   1       small box of strawberry Jello

                   1/2   cup water 

                   1/2   cup canola oil

                   1/4   cup applesauce

                   4       eggs

                   2       Tablespoons all-purpose flour

                   3/4   cup fresh strawberries, sliced

                   1       box (18.25 oz) white cake mix.

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour two  -  9 inch round cake pans.

Mix together all ingredients except the strawberries and cake mix until blended.  
Blend in cake mix, and then beat 2 minutes at medium speed.  Add sliced, fresh strawberries and beat 1 minute.  
Divide mixture evenly in two  9-inch round cake pans.  

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until toothpick come out clean when inserted in center of the pan.  Cool for 10 minutes before taking the layers out of the pans.  Let layers cool completely on wire racks.

ICING:

                  1     box powdered sugar

                  1     stick of margarine

                  2     teaspoons of milk, if needed

                  1/4 cup sliced strawberries.

Cream sugar and margarine adding a little milk if too thick.  Beat until smooth.  Add berries and blend until well mixed. (This should break up the strawberries.)  Frost the cake after it has completely cooled.

If you like you can decorate the top with addition strawberries."

If you prefer to make a "sheet" cake instead of a layered cake, it works well in a 9 x 13 in cake pan.  Cook the cake for about 32 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
Cool completely before icing. 
If you want to serve the cake without the pan, cool the cake 10 minutes on a rack and then invert on rack or platter.  Cool, then ice.

In an effort to reduce calories, I use sugar-free/fat free strawberry Jello and unsweetened applesauce.  I also use a light margarine and it works out fine for the icing.  

A friend asked me if you could use frozen strawberries.  I have never made it with frozen strawberries, but I think if they were thawed and drained, they would work fine in the cake.  The main problem with the icing is the amount of liquid in the frozen berries.  If I didn't have fresh strawberries, I might just omit them in the icing because of the extra liquid.  The icing isn't pretty when there is too much liquid and adding additional powdered sugar didn't work for me when I made the cake with fresh berries but used 2 tablespoon of cream as the original recipe called for. 

I would love to hear how your cake turned out if you choose to make it.  My friends told me my picture didn't do the cake justice.  I guess that will have to be my next undertaking....learning to take better pictures.