birthday cake shenanigans

I've been in a cake baking mood as of late so I have been making birthday cakes for members of the fam, see also Spice Cake entry. My latest venture was one for my mother in law. After some contemplation I decided a chocolate cake with a strawberry frosting might do the trick. Here is what I ended up with...
















I chose a Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe from Nigella Lawson. It was very dense and the batter was so thick I was a little worried that it wouldn't come out ok. I think that the cake itself was pretty good... however, the frosting was the real winner in my book. It was Fresh Strawberry Frosting and while I can't seem to follow directions to save my life when it comes to cooking, this came out very well despite my attempts to massacre it.
















I ended up making a double batch and making it a little too thin by not straining the strawberries out enough first, but it actually would have worked very well as a poured frosting over a bundt cake the way I made it. As a result of the thinness of the frosting, I had to line the bottom of the cake with cut strawberries.... really, it ended up being a feature more than a bug.

Happy birthday Janet! I hope you liked the cake. I certainly enjoyed making it :-)
Love, Jo