Strawberry Swirl Cake

We had company for dinner last Friday night and this is the cake I made. It's something you would probably find yourself making more in the spring or summer, but I just got the recipe from my friend and I had to make it.

This is the same cake that was served at the baby shower in May. There's a better picture on that post of my friend's cake. She wasn't lazy and put the strawberries on top.

Strawberry Swirl Cake
from Food & Family, Spring 2007

1 pkg white cake mix
1 pkg (4-oz serving size) Jell-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 8-oz tub Cool Whip
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two round cake pans (mine stuck a little, so a dusting of flour might be helpful). Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Pour half of the batter into a medium bowl. Add dry gelatin mix; stir until well blended.

Spoon half of the white batter and half of the pink batter side by side into each prepared pan.

Swirl batters together lightly, using a teaspoon. Do not overswirl or the color of the cake will be all pink and not pink and white marbled.

Bake 30 minutes. Cool 30 minutes in pans. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.

Mix sour cream and powdered sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.

Place one of the cake layers on serving plate; spread top with 1 cup of the whipped topping mixture. Top with 1 cup of the strawberries (I just sliced them and placed them until I'd filled up the top, and I cut them a little thick since I thought I might be too lazy to put any on the top).

Top with remaining cake layer (When I stacked them, I made sure the pink side of one was opposite the pink side of the other just to get a good mix when it was cut). Spread top and side of cake with remaining whipped topping mixture. Top with remaining 1/2 cup strawberries just before serving. Store leftover cake in the refrigerator.

I totally wish I'd taken a picture of a slice so you could see it. Hubby was so impressed. He thought only bakeries could make marbled cakes by some special secret! But do you know that we ate the entire cake that night before I could even think about taking a picture. The ten of us that were here all had a piece and that took about 3/4 of the cake. When our company left, four of us finished it off with a second helping.

This is definitely one of my new favorites and one I'll make again and again.