Friday Flop ... a strawberry cake failure and then success...

So, I was going to try a new fruit with the cake recipe that I usually call "John's Mom's Rhubarb Cake".  I've used this cake recipe before with apples, blueberries, peaches, rhubarb and they have all turned out really good.  So, when I had the idea to use strawberries I figured it would be equally as GREAT!  BUT, I soon found out as it was baking that not as much boiling water needs to be added to it, and the spill over of strawberry juice overflowing onto the hot oven caused the whole house to be filled with smoke ...ugghh!!

After getting the hot oven a bit cleaned up, and trying to bake the cake more, because it was far from done yet, I finally took it out and even after it cooled down, all I had was strawberry cake SOUP!

Although it tasted good... it looked bad.

So, I decided to try two smaller cakes, and add less boiling water at the end ... and it WORKED!

So, here are the steps ... delicious strawberry cake for tomorrow's workshop! YUMMMM!

Cut up strawberries and fill the bottom of a baking dish....

Mix together (for each of these small round dishes):

3 tablespoons of Crisco shortening

3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 cup of milk (if the dough seems too stiff, add a few more tablespoons of milk)

 Then spread the cake over the top of the strawberries.

After that, mix together in a separate bowl:
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 (heaping) tablespoon of cornstarch

Sprinkle that over the top of the cake dough you have on the strawberries.

Boil water, and add about 1/2 cup over the top of your cake.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for approx. 50 minutes ... check it before that time incase your oven runs hot.

NOTE:  I put tin foil under my cakes after the first fiasco with it boiling over.

If you use this cake recipe with things like rhubarb, I add more boiling water over the top of it ... 1/2 - 1 cup, depending on the size of the baking dish.