Strawberry cake

I think this cake was created around 2003 while we were living up north, it was for a co-worker's birthday and she had mentioned she loved strawberry cake, so I thought I'd try one. The frosting is all vanilla, so it has that sort of "strawberries & cream" flavor pairing, and was simply piped stars with fresh strawberries as garnish.

I love this cake size since it fits perfectly in my cake carrier (bought at target for under $10 and SO USEFUL! - Now I have two :) with plenty of room for even the highest and widest decorations, and it takes just one mix. Mix...did I say mix? YIKES, my secret is out! I admit it, I use mixes almost exclusively, and since the response is always so positive, I'm not even interested in dealing with making cakes from scratch, not when a mix takes 5 minutes and I could spend the rest of the time on a 2nd dessert or elaborate decorations. I generally use the Pillsbury or Betty Crocker Super Moist mixes, in dark chocolate, white (though I don't bother separating the yolks), strawberry, and carrot. I've found I don't like the milk chocolate (too wimpy in the flavor department) and I'm not huge on funfetti, though if it's a good deal (like packaged with free frosting) it's fine. I avoid the chocolate that requires butter, just because the extra step is annoying.

Anyways, this was my very first strawberry cake, and I've since done many similar decorating variations, including a lot of birthday cakes for my husband and in-laws (they're big fans of the strawberry cake...which oddly enough, I'm NOT! And I love strawberries! So strange.)

My one suggestion about using fresh strawberries is not to add them until right before displaying the cake, or they will bleed and turn brown. Putting them in the fridge seems to speed up this process, so if I'm bringing a cake somewhere I'll wash and dry the berries, but cut them on site. I like that if you slice them vertically they look like little hearts :)