Strawberry Cake for Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is coming, to me that always says strawberry cake! After seeing all the luscious desserts our friends are making for this special day, we thought we would whip up something special as well.

This strawberry cake is semi-homemade, meaning that it does call for a basic white cake mix, but you could easily adapt this recipe if you didn’t want to use the cake mix. It would also make awesome cupcakes if you wanted that rather than a layer cake!

This is a favorite recipe that my mom used to make for Valentine’s Day, and it is rather simple. The recipe is from one of those vintage “church” recipe books, called “Our Daily Bread” from a little town in North Carolina. She actually gave it to me on Valentine’s Day, when I was first married and signed it, Love, forever, Mother. (Thank you for letting me be sentimental, because she is no longer with us.)

Semi-Homemade Strawberry Cake for Valentine’s Day

Wonderfully moist strawberry cake baked in a heart shaped pan.

1 Pkg White Cake Mix
3 Tbsp Flour
4 Eggs
1 Cup Cooking oil
1 Pkg Strawberry jello (3 ounce package)
1.5 Cups Strained Strawberries (Save the juice)
1 Pound Confectioners Sugar
1 Stick Butter (room temperature)
1/2 Cup strained strawberries (Grind into small chunks)

Mix all dry ingredients for cake and add liquid ingredients to them. Slightly grind your strawberries so you don't have huge chunks in the cake batter.
Mix well, then place in a greased floured pans to bake for 30 to 40 minutes at about 325 degrees. I use 2 heart shaped pans to create 2 layers.
Let cool.
While cake is cooling, cream together confectioners sugar and butter.
Add 1/2 cup of the drained strawberries. Slowly add in some of the strawberry juice until you achieve a nice thickness and pastel pink color.
Once icing is mixed, place first layer on cake plate, and spread on top and sides. Next add second layer, and spread on the top and sides, smoothing as best as possible.
This cake will need to be refrigerated