~ How to make a White Cake with Strawberry-Rhubarb and Strawberry Garnish Easy and Simple ~

 Alright, cake decorating is a hobby of mine, I truly enjoy it, and it doesn't have to be complicated!  My brother-in-law just celebrated a birthday, and he loves strawberry-rhubarb pie, which I forgot and didn't have fresh rhubarb on hand to make the pie, so I came up with this White Cake with Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce instead.  It was easy to make, from a boxed mix...yes, boxed mix, and so pretty. 

Here's step by step instructions on how to I put it together.

First, I baked the cake according to the package instructions, but I always substitute applesauce for the oil the recipe calls for in equal proportions.  On a white or yellow cake, I will sometimes add canned or frozen pumpkin instead, and is actually one of my daughter's favorite cakes ~ pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting, but with this one, I used the applesauce.

 After the cake was cooled, I sliced it half horizontally, and poked some small holes with the end of a small dowel rod, you can use the end of a thin wooden spoon too, you just want to make some holes so the sauce can creep down into the cake.  Spread strawberry-rhubarb sauce over the entire bottom half of the cake, and it will look like this.  I used a bought version from Tastefully Simple, but I planted rhubarb last year, so I should be able to make and preserve my own sauce this year.  (That is a story all in of itself!)

 I placed the top half of the cake back in the pan while I iced the bottom layer.

I added vanilla buttercream icing over top of the strawberry-rhubarb sauce and iced to just a bit over the edges.  This makes it much easier to ice the outside of the cake later.

I then placed the top of the cake over the bottom iced layer.  Now, this is where I keep it real, because these things happen...the top layer broke apart as I transferred it from the pan...no biggie...I'm icing the top layer, so I just pieced it back together.  This cake is very moist...a perk of the applesauce.  The icing covers this up, and I'm going to guess my brother-in-law didn't even realize it had cracked apart!  Again, no biggie, this is life, and there is no reason to waste an entire layer of cake when something like this happens!!

Once the top is iced, it will look something like this.  This is a great icing technique for a beginner because it is simply a swirl pattern.  You can use the back of a spoon to make the swirls and peaks, or simply the edge of the spatula used to apply the icing to the cake.  See, you can't even tell the top layer split apart, icing fixes everything!!

This step was both fun and easy.  I simply took about one tablespoon of the strawberry-rhubarb sauce and about one tablespoon of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup and warmed it until it had a nice consistency that would pour from a spoon.  This is a very sweet and rich tasting sauce, so you don't need much, since the cake is already sweet.

Apply the glaze over the cake, make sure the glaze is only warm, not hot, so the buttercream icing doesn't melt!  It will look something like this, don't worry about it being symmetrical on the cake, just so the glaze looks overall even, it doesn't have to be perfect.

This is where I garnished with strawberries.  I wanted the garnish to be symmetrical here, so I cut one large strawberry into wedges, I was able to make eight wedges out of this one, it was a huge strawberry!  Anyway, place them atop the cake in a symmetrical pattern...the garnish will end up balancing out the cake since the glaze was just drizzled on.

Take a look at your cake after the first strawberry garnishes are in place, and then decide how you want to fill out the cake.  It doesn't have to be like I have chosen, just follow your eye and add the garnishes to what pleases your eye!  I decided to add just four more wedges in between the first four, and the cake ended up looking like this.

It's beautiful!!  It's the strawberry-rhubarb that he loves, and even though it's not the pie he loves, this will satisfy his sweet tooth until I get rhubarb from my garden!  Also, a footed cake plate can make all the difference in presentation for a cake or dessert, and can be found at springtime estate and garage sales and thrift stores for a fraction of what they cost in a discount or department store.

See, this is a GORGEOUS  cake, and it was so easy to make and put together, really, once the cake baked and cooled, and the buttercream icing was made, it took about twenty minutes to decorate this baby.  That's it...quick and simple, and anyone can present this cake to their friends and family and save a ton of money in the process.

This was such a pretty cake, I made a chocolate cake for my family just to be certain there wouldn't be and icing missing and not so mysterious finger prints in my brother-in-laws cake!!

'Till next time....Have a great day!!  :)