Made from scratch strawberry cake

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter!  Ours was indeed wonderful; surrounded by family, giving thanks to Christ for his sacrifice and enjoying a meal together around the table.  Not to mention the laughter of children running through the house, Easter baskets in tow relishing their recent finds.  In my world, it doesn't get much better than that.

As requested from a few of you, I'm going to share the made from scratch strawberry cake i served as my dessert.  I think i had one piece leftover when lunch was over....nuff said ;)  Here goes!

Ingredients

2 C. White Sugar

1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs (room temperature)

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup whole milk, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries ( i used fresh strawberries, halved them, and popped them in the blender for a few seconds. instant strawberry puree! yum!)

Method

1  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour Three 9 inch round cake pans.

2.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. Blend in vanilla and strawberry puree. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.               

3.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a small knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in their pans over a wire rack for at least 10 minutes, before tapping out to cool completely.               

*After the cakes cool, spread your butter cream icing (recipe here) and strawberry puree between each layer, then cover the entire cake in butter cream icing. 

*I halved the rest of my strawberries to decorate the top of my cake and placed a whole strawberry in the middle.  super easy and sooooooo good!

* In the future when i make this cake again i will probably separate the yolk from the white of the eggs and use my hand mixer to whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then fold into the cake batter.  I think this would make for a fluffier cake.  The cake was wonderful, but a little dense.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did! I'll definitely be making this again!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of our Easter Sunday.... God has truly blessed us...so thankful

Everyone at lunch (minus a few munchkins:)

as you can tell, Lily Grace had already stripped of her Sunday best into her t shirt and jeans :)

Big Momma and Sweet Saylor

My Precious Family

The reasons i breathe

DIY handwritten covered lampshade

Today, while the girls were sleeping, i crafted... I got this idea from the beloved Pinterest but i couldn't find a tutorial so..... i made my own!  It was super easy, only took me about an hour from start to finish and i love the way it turned out!  The best part is, it didn't cost me a thing!  I used the lampshade that was on the lamp and i had the rest of the materials in my craft area (aka: millions of hobby lobby bags and plastic totes that i had to dig through to find what i needed:) 

All you need is:  Lampshade, sharpie, hot glue gun and burlap or fabric of your choosing!

1.  Start by unrolling the fabric off your lampshade.  This can be a little tricky depending on the thickness of the fabric.  Take your time so you don't rip through it.  This is going to be your pattern!

2. Once you get the whole lampshade unrolled, lay it on top of your fabric and trace around it, or if you're impatient like me you can just freehand around it with some scissors :) it should look something like this when you're done.

3.  Now you're on to the fun part!  hot glue the two pieces of fabric and start writing!  I chose a song from our wedding, "That's what love is" to write on my lampshade.  The possibilities are endless with this project.  You could write your favorite quotes, bible verse or even a letter to your child (to put in their room).

This is what it looked like when i was done (before i glued it onto the lampshade)

4.  Glue your fabric back on to your lampshade, and Voila!  You have a beautiful, personalized lampshade to display in your home!

Happy Crafting Friends!  Have a blessed Easter!