Food and DrinkginkaNovember 01, 2013easy strawberry cake, family recipes, recipe, southern food3 Comments

The Strawberry Cake

Food and DrinkginkaNovember 01, 2013easy strawberry cake, family recipes, recipe, southern food3 Comments

My mother has compiled what I like to call the Family Bible of recipes. Aside from a few loose recipe clippings, the recipe for every dish that appears at our family gatherings has been written in her meticulous hand over decades.

Over time the recipes change. Ingredients are no longer available or sizes of packages change. Adjustments have to be made but they rarely get written down. That was the case of The Strawberry Cake. This cake is probably the most requested at family gatherings. It has been to more birthdays and family reunions than I have. It's very simple to make but for some reason mine never turned out as good as my mom's. I figured she was holding something back. In the guise of "I want to feature The Strawberry Cake in a blog post" I talked her into making one to see if she would slip and give away her secret. After a 30 minute explanation about what a "blog" was, we got down to making The Strawberry Cake in her groovy '70's kitchen.

I case you are wondering who gets this in the will, it's me! I should have been a lobbyist.

This cake isn't going to win awards for whole-food-organicness, but it's not going to kill you. Relax!

Ingredients

I box strawberry cake mix (and the ingredients to make it)

1 8 oz block cream cheese, softened

1 24 oz container of sliced, frozen strawberries in syrup

1 very large container of Coolwhip

1/3-c sugar

Thaw and drain the strawberries saving the juice.

Make the cake like is says on the box.

Once the cake is cooled, place it on a serving platter of your choice. In this case, a Tupperware cake toter. I'm not really sure I have ever seen this cake served on anything else because it is always going somewhere. This one was going to my daughter and her roomies at college.

Here's the tricky part, you have to slice this baby in half horizontally. Now, I've done it with a long knife with varying degrees of success but mom, here, uses sewing thread. I tried this and broke it several times. I obviously don't have her delicate touch. I suggest using unflavored dental floss.

Separate the two halves and get on making the frosting/filling.

Beat the softened cream cheese and sugar together.

This really should be a post about vintage Tupperware. That spatula is as old as I am. That's the only spatula I ever remember licking cake batter off of.

Once that's whipped up, stir in the drained strawberries.

And fold in 3/4 of that big old tub of Coolwhip.

Here's what I was missing: in case your filling isn't the right color or consistency, add the reserved strawberry juice as needed. Mom added about a tablespoon.

Spread about 2/3 of the filling on the bottom layer.

Put it's top back on.

And frost the cake with the rest.

We like more filling on the inside than the outside but if company is coming, you want to leave enough to make it pretty.

This cake is light and fluffy and is great in the summer or just when you are starting to miss summer. It does require refrigeration so if you are transporting over a long distance or it has to wait at a potluck, make sure you have an ice chest big enough to hold it or stake your claim on that frig space at the church early.