Triple-Layered Strawberry Cake

If you love strawberries, this is the cake for you!

The cake was very easy to make, however, it turned out to be a comedy of errors for me. 

First of all, the original recipe called for a buttercream frosting with 1 cup of finely chopped strawberries, which was way too much liquid and made the frosting way too runny. Please note the section about the frosting in the recipe.

Error #2 for me was not paying attention to what I was doing and made the cake with two pans instead of three.  If you choose to make yours two layers, make the cooking time 30 minutes.

The delicious smell of strawberries fills the air when you bake this cake!

Ingredients for cake only:

1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) package strawberry gelatin
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk



Directions:

Mix all ingredients together for one minute, scrape down the sides, and beat an additional two minutes.

Pour batter into three greased and floured cake pans. Bake for 23 minutes at 350 F or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then remove from the pan to cool completely.

To assemble the cake, place one cake on a plate. Spread the strawberry buttercream frosting over the top, and place the next cake on this. Press slightly, and then spread more buttercream frosting on top of this cake. Place the third cake on top, pressing slightly. Use the remaining frosting to frost the outside of the cake.

Frost cake with your favorite cream cheese or buttercream frosting with 1/2 cup finely chopped strawberries added.  The original recipe called for 1 cup strawberries, but it made the frosting way too runny.


Source: Southern Living

Strawberry Shortcake Cookie Bars

These semi-homemade cookie bars are a quick and delicious

 celebration of the strawberry shortcake.

Recipe and photo courtesy of Pillsbury.com.

Ingredients

• 1 package Pillsbury™ Ready To Bake!™ refrigerated sugar cookies
• 2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (1 tablespoon)
• 4 oz frozen (thawed) whipped topping (half 8-oz container)
• 1 3/4 cups chopped fresh strawberries

Directions

Heat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheet with cooking parchment paper.

Remove cookies from package; place cookies on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack; cool completely. (To speed up process, refrigerate cookies about 1 hour.)

Meanwhile, line 11x7-inch pan with cooking parchment paper.

Once cookies are cool, place in food processor. Cover; pulse a few times until all cookies are crumbled. 

Reserve 1 cup of the cookie crumbs. Pour remaining cookie crumbs into pan; press in bottom of pan to form crust.

In mixer bowl with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy and smooth. Add gelatin; stir to combine.

With rubber spatula, fold whipped topping and 1 cup of the chopped strawberries into cream cheese mixture. Spread over cookie crust. Top with remaining chopped strawberries.

Sprinkle reserved 1 cup cookie crumbs evenly over dessert; gently press with fingers. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

To serve, cut into 5 rows by 3 rows to make 15 bars, or into 6 rows by 3 rows to make 18 bars.


Notes from Pillsbury

If you're on a vegetarian diet, you can leave the gelatin out, but remember to refrigerate a little longer.

These bars can be easily frozen and served as ice cream bars on hot summer days.

Can't get enough strawberries!!

When you live in strawberry country, you can buy tons of strawberries for a ridiculously inexpensive price. Especially if you go to the farm and pick them yourself.

My favorite way to have strawberries is cooked on the stove with simple syrup poured over hot biscuits topped with whipped cream.  I haven't been very adventurous since it is one of my favorite things.

The Captain loves to bake some puff pastry and top it with the same strawberry syrup, topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream with more syrup over the ice cream.  Yeah, it is over the top!

How about this Vanilla Cake with

 Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting?

Talk about some strawberry love!!

Click here for the recipe.

Love the article from chocolatechocolateandmore with enough recipes to keep me experimenting for a long time! A treat for strawberry lovers!

Click here to go to the article

Click here to go to other strawberry articles

15 Best Strawberry recipes from Swanky Recipes . . . click here

Decadent Strawberry Butter and Strawberry Syrup

It is Strawberry Festival time in my part of the world and the best time to stock up on strawberries since they are ridiculously inexpensive this time of year. 

Imagine a delicious strawberry flavored butter you can whip up in minutes that can be enjoyed on biscuits, muffins, pancakes, waffles, and bread.  

Buttery strawberry goodness on a hot biscuit is perfection . . . you can tell by the photo! This strawberry butter is also awesome on pancakes!  In fact, you don't even need to use syrup.

It was so fast and easy to make!  And yes . . . VERY DELICIOUS!!  My plan is to experiment with different fruits to come up with different flavored butters.

The strawberry syrup makes an awesome strawberry shortcake . . . just add some larger pieces of strawberries to the syrup.

To make strawberry syrup:
Clean and cut up fresh strawberries and cook in equal parts of water and sugar (AKA simple syrup), adding some corn starch until the strawberries were soft. (Start off with very small amounts of corn starch and add more as needed.)  
It always makes more than needed for the recipe, but you'll have a delicious topping for pancakes, strawberry shortcake or ice cream.
Cool the mixture before adding to the softened butter.

To make strawberry butter:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened 
• 1/4 cup strawberry syrup 
• 1-1/2 cups icing sugar {powdered sugar} 

Directions:

Mix all 3 ingredients in a mixing bowl using a hand mixer or by hand, until the butter is smooth. If too soft, add more icing sugar until it reaches a spreadable consistency. 

To store: place softened strawberry butter into bowl. Cover and store in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before using.

I also make butter logs . . . place mixture on waxed paper and roll out into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and keep in freezer overnight.  
Now you can slice it to make a nice presentation of butter pats.

Chocolate Indulgence for Valentine's Day!

Have you ever had Chili's Molten Chocolate Cake?  

It is one of my favorite desserts from Chili's!  Pure chocolate indulgence :)

The Food Network Kitchens has come up with their version . . . 

impress your sweetie with this restaurant-style dessert!  

Cooking Channel TV has the recipe!  Emeril never lets me down!  

I can't wait to make this New York Style Chocolate Cheesecake :)  

How about adding some glazed strawberries on top

to make it extra special for Valentine's Day?

Design Sponge has a recipe with photo instructions

 on how to make one of my favorite candies!  

Surprise your sweetie by making a batch of these

 homemade chocolate peanut butter cups . . . 

Karen at Mommy's Moments has an awesome recipe for

 Fudge Lovers Cream Cheese Cake that gets my vote.  

This is what I'm making for my sweetie . . .

Chocolate Covered Strawberries . . . it is as easy as melting

 chocolate chips of your choice in a double boiler and

 dipping the strawberries in the melting chocolate.  

Click here for an article with variation ideas.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake from Fine Cooking

I seriously want to try to this recipe!  My sweetie may get two sweet treats . . .

Strawberry Cheesecake Muffins

Ingredients:

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1-1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup strawberry jam



Directions:

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

In another small bowl, whisk the egg, milk, brown sugar, butter, lemon peel and almond extract.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Spoon half of the batter into greased muffin cups. Top each with 1 tablespoon cream cheese mixture and 1 teaspoon jam. Top with remaining batter.



Bake at 375° for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Yield: 1 dozen.

Strawberry Milk Shakes

July is National Ice Cream month and strawberry ice cream is my favorite ice cream flavor . . . here is one of my favorite things in the world, Strawberry Milk Shakes . . .

I substitute no fat half and half for the milk and strawberry frozen yogurt and omit the sugar when I'm seriously dieting.

1 1/2 pints strawberry ice cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh strawberries (or frozen)


Directions

Pulse all of the ingredients in a blender until the ice cream begins to break down, about 5 pulses, then blend on high until completely smooth.

Serves 4


A fabulous variation to this recipe to make an Orange Freeze . . .

use Orange Sherbet instead of ice cream, omit the strawberries

Make it richer by adding some vanilla ice cream . . .