i made up a recipe

Yes you read that right! I made up my own recipe! People who know me know that I’m not much of a cook, so this is a big deal for me. For example the soda and baking soda mix up of 2003ish (when a recipe calls for “soda” they mean baking soda not diet coke) Anyways, back to my awesome recipe. It all started when I first tasted the best cake in the world! The strawberry cake from Joe’s Italian in Alabaster, after that first taste and every time after that I new I had to replicate this wonderful cake. So I memorized this cake and came up with my own recipe to replicate it. I wanted to make my mom a cake for Mother’s Day and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to experiment with my recipe. And it was a success! Everyone loved it and it tasted just like the one at Joe’s! Yay!



Melissa’s Strawberry Bliss Cake

Cake
1 box strawberry cake mix (Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Strawberry Cake Mix)
1 1/3 Cups Water
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Large Eggs

-Follow the directions on the box. I used two 9 inch round cake pans.


Strawberry Sauce
16 ounces fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup water

-Mash strawberries (to save time you can just put them in a food processor or blender and pulse a few times)
-In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and water until smooth.
-Bring it to a boil and stir until thickened.
-Stir in the mashed strawberries and remove from the heat.
-Stir in lemon juice the transfer to a small bowl.
-Refrigerate until chilled.

Let the cake and strawberry sauce cool before you assemble the cake.


Cool Whip Frosting
Large Cool Whip (thawed)
1 package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup cold milk
Strawberry Sauce to taste

-Mix pudding, milk and powdered sugar with mixer for about a minute until creamy.
-Fold in cool whip and some Strawberry Sauce (not much, just until it’s a slight pinkish color.

Now it’s time to assemble!

-Spread enough Strawberry Sauce to cover the first layer of cake, and then spread some Cool Whip Icing on top of that
-After you carefully add the next layer of cake, spread more Strawberry Sauce on top.
-Now spread the Cool Whip Icing over the entire cake.
-Top the cake with thinly sliced fresh strawberries (Don’t add the fresh strawberries until soon before you serve the cake)




Enjoy!