Strawberry Birthday [Short]cake

Sometimes the best things happen by accident. Child knew she wanted to bake a cake for her birthday and it should have layers and strawberries.

So we started with a Betty Crocker Starlight Yellow Cake adapted slightly since I didn't have shortening.

I used a jelly roll pan for one layer and the corresponding sized cake pan for the second.

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease and flour pans.

The cake:

(Put all ingredients in, 30 seconds mixing on low, 3 minutes on high.)

- 2 1/4 cups flour

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/4 cups soy milk

- 3/4 cup butter (softened)

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla

- 3 eggs

We cooked ours 30 minutes.

The filling:

I had leftover cooked strawberries frozen from a previous dessert and used fresh strawberries and homemade lemon whipped cream to stretch it out

The whipped cream:

(In a cold mixing bowl with a cold blender)

- one pint heavy whipping cream

- one tablespoon powdered sugar

- one teaspoon lemon extract 

Mix until it "creams"

Take the layers out of the oven. Cool the pans on wire racks for ten minutes. Invert them and the layers should fall out. When cool, spread strawberries and whipped cream on one layer, top with other layer, ice with more whipped cream. Decorate with strawberries. Store in fridge.

My ten-year-old did all the work. I supervised.

Whipped cream

I bought Market Pantry heavy whipping cream at Target. It expires very soon, and I wanted to try making my own whipped cream. There was a recipe on the box.

Tonight we had $6 left to our name and I noticed we were somehow out of powdered sugar. So, after picking up our new glasses, we stopped at Giant.

The powdered sugar was $1.50. Then I grabbed some Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation (because it was $1.25 for the box). And fearing we didn't have enough milk at home grabbed an aseptic carton of vanilla rice milk. The bill was $4.24.

I had left the mixing bowl and beater of my kitchen aid mixer in the freezer.

We poured in:

- 1 carton (2 cups) heavy whipping cream

- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

And beat on medium-high until peaks formed. Delicious!

And the cocoa? The cheap Swiss Miss, rice milk, vanilla coconut milk AND unsweetened almond milk.