Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake

May is strawberry season in Los Angeles!

It holds the great Strawberry festival up in Oxnard, which is a blast! We try and go each year and eat everything strawberry in site.  I usually come home with a flat of strawberries and a stomach ache! They have everything from strawberry margaritas to strawberry nachos, even strawberry pizzas!

You can ride strawberry rides, listen to the Young Dubliners, or bungy jump to your hearts content.  Plus there are vendor's booths selling all sorts of hand made crafts.  But the main draw for me are the juicy, plump, ripe strawberries! Just thinking about them now is making my mouth water!

So what do you do with a big flat of strawberries?  Well I have lots of recipes that will use them up but first off I wanted to make my Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake. Now this cake is famous among my family. When they heard I was going to break out my 9x13 pan and make Grandma's cake I immediately got all sorts or stories bringing back fond memories of this cake....and requests for the recipe.

My mom handed down this recipe and even she was in love with it. She said the flavors are just outstanding and that the fresh strawberries in the icing are a must to make this cake the bomb!  She told me stories of Grandma serving this cake a family gatherings as it was such a crowd-pleaser and served a lot of people. Mom was smiling ear to ear as she recalled the fond memories of this cake.

I must say it is easy to put together as it uses a box cake mix to start.  I was blown away at the end result. This is one of the most moist cakes I've tasted and full of strawberry flavor. I did change up the icing just a bit from the original recipe. The icing calls for mashed strawberries to be incorporated in the icing.  I chose to chop my strawberries and fold them in leaving them chunky so that you get bits of strawberries throughout.  I must say it came out fantastic!  Everyone just loved the cake and there wasn't a bite left.

Guess I'll have to make another one!

Enjoy!

Grandma Landon's Strawberry Cake

serves 15

FOR THE CAKE:
1 box (18.25 Oz. Box) White Cake Mix
1 box (4-serving 3 Oz. Box) Strawberry Jello
¾ cup Oil
½ cup Water
¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
4 whole Eggs
½ cup Fresh or Frozen Strawberries
3 Tablespoons Flour

FOR THE FROSTING:
½ stick Butter
3 ounces, Cream Cheese, softened
1 dash Salt
1 pound Powdered Sugar
⅓ cup Strawberries, Fresh or Frozen, Thawed And Mashed (I cut mine into chunks)

For the cake:
Mix cake mix and box of Jello until blended. Add oil, water and baking soda and then beat 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs and beat 2 to 3 minutes. Toss strawberries with 3 Tablespoons of flour. Fold the strawberries and any juice that may have accumulated into the batter mixture. Pour into a greased and floured 9″x13″ pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

For the frosting:
Beat butter and cream cheese with salt until smooth. Gradually beat in half of the powdered sugar, then the strawberries, then the remaining powdered sugar until smooth. (Note: if you leave the strawberries chunky then fold them in after the frosting comes together, adding all the powdered sugar.)  Frost the cooled cake and enjoy.