aunt neva's strawberry cake

My Grandma (Ma) is one of 10 kids.  She's the only sibling living now.  One of her sisters, Neva, never married, and lived nearby Ma, and was like a second Grandma to me.  She passed away just a couple of days before I graduated from college.

If you've ever been to my home, lots of things you'll see were Aunt Neva's.  Our big tall bed that I have to use a stool to get into was hers (that was fun when I was pregnant).  I also have a couple of dish cabinets that were in her house.  But the thing I treasure the most, by FAR is her collection of cookbooks and recipes.  Aunt Neva and I shared a love of cooking.  We even had a similar cooking style - make a huge mess and get every dish in the kitchen dirty! 

I don't have all her cookbooks, but I have most of them, and they are jam packed with handwritten recipes that she wrote on scraps of paper.  Someday I'll organize all those....

I came upon probably my favorite recipe several years ago - Aunt Neva's Strawberry Cake!  Yummy!  She made this for my mom's birthday a lot, and sometimes on other occasions.

It is so easy and great! 

And super, super rich. 

As in, you have to brew a pot of coffee to go with this.

The baby bird and I made it to celebrate my Mom's birthday a few days ago.

I'll tell you right now I double the frosting recipe.  One just isn't enough!

Here's the recipe:

Aunt Neva's Strawberry Cake

For the cake:

1 pkg white cake mix

1 pkg strawberry gelatin

3 eggs

1/2 C water

1/2 C salad oil (I use canola)

1-10 oz pkg frozen strawberries, thawed and drained, but RESERVE the juice

preheat oven to 350

grease and flour 2 round cake pans (8 inch)

Mix together the cake mix and gelatin. 

Add water and oil and beat well with your mixer.  Beat in eggs.

Fold in strawberries.

Pour into your prepared pans and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Cool completely before icing.

I cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 10  min. and then invert them directly onto the racks to cool the rest of the way.

for the icing:

1 stick of margarine or butter, softened

1 box 16 oz powdered sugar

1/4 C juice drained from the strawberries

Cream the butter in your mixer.  Add sugar and juice alternately, ending with juice.

Frost your cake!

I double this frosting recipe.

The result is fabulous!  Let me know if you try it!