Strawberry Cake

Yesterday was my little girl's birthday! She turned 3. I decided to make a cake and it was delicious. It was a strawberry layered cake made with strawberry jam, cream cheese whipped topping frosting and strawberries. I used a simple cake box but followed the advice of a pin on pinterest to liven it up and it worked out wonderfully. Oddly it tasted like a more stable version of Tres Leches cake with strawberries, I wasn't expecting that but it was a welcome surprise.:)

Recipe slightly adapted from Baby Gizmo

Ingredients

• Frosting -
• 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (I used low-fat)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• ½ cup seedless strawberry jam
• ¾ cup chilled heavy whipping cream
• Cake -
• 1 vanilla cake box mix
• 1 box (4 oz) pudding mix
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. water
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 4 eggs

Instructions

1. FROSTING: Put a small/medium bowl in the freezer to chill. In a separate large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in sugar, then jam. Remove that chilled bowl from the freezer and beat cream in that chilled bowl until peaks form. Fold whipped cream into frosting. Cover; chill for a couple of hours until it’s firm enough to spread. (If you are in a hurry, you could put the frosting in the freezer to chill quickly.)
2. CAKE:make and bake at 350 for 27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool.
3. Using a serrated knife, divide each layer in half horizontally. Place one half, cake side down, on a cake plate.
4. Spread 3 TBSP of strawberry jam over the cake, then spread ¾ c of the frosting over the jam. Arrange ¾ c of the sliced strawberries on top of the frosting in a single layer. Repeat two more times with cake layer, jam, frosting, and strawberries.
5. Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down. Spread two cups of frosting over the top and sides of the cake in a thin layer, then frost with remaining frosting. Stir remaining jam to loosen, then spoon teaspoonfuls onto the top and sides of the cake. Use the back of a spoon to swirl jam decoratively into the frosting. This recipe makes a very big 4-layer cake that will feed a lot of people.