Easter Dessert

I was looking for a nice spring dessert to bring to my family's Easter dinner and came across this on All Recipes. The frosting they suggested seemed very heavy (and labor intensive) for this type of cake so I tweaked the frosting from the Pina Colada Cupcakes below. The frosting was delicious, but the cake wasn't quite as flavorful as I hoped. I increased the amount of pureed strawberries when I wrote out the recipe, which I think will yield better results. Overall it was very good, I'd definitely make it again.

Strawberries 'n Cream Cake 


2 3/4 cups cake flour*
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
1 - 3oz package strawberry jello mix
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pureed strawberries


1 - 8oz container cool whip
1 - 3 oz package cheesecake flavored pudding mix
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 cups thinly sliced strawberries


Cake:
Preheat oven to 350, grease/flour 2 - 9" round pans. In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar, and jello mix. Beat in eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking powder. Alternately beat flour mixture and 1 cup milk into butter/sugar mixture. Do not over mix. Fold in pureed strawberries and 1 tsp vanilla. Divide evenly into pans, bake for 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely. 


Frosting:
Wisk together 1 cup milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Gently fold in cool whip. 


When assembling cake, arrange sliced strawberries between layers and on top of cake. I put my last layer of strawberries under the frosting so I could decorate the top. 


*I don't have much storage space for ingredients, so I make my own cake flour. Here's how: http://frugalliving.about.com/od/makeyourowningredients/r/Cake_Flour_Sub.htm