Strawberry Pickin'

First off I want to thank everyone who participated in our Open House events and give a shout out to our winners, CONGRATULATIONS! Now with that being said, on to the post of the day, strawberries.


I love strawberries, they are one of my absolute favorite fruits, their red ripe sweetness is absolutely divine. In the past I have just purchased our strawberries at the grocery store or maybe the farmer's market but this past Friday I had the opportunity to visit our local strawberry farm and do some picking of my own. I went with my neighbor, her two little ones, and one of my little ones and what fun we had. The kids had the freedom to run around and of course pick all the strawberries they could hold. They would pick a strawberry, then take a bite, then pick and bite, and on and on! There was even a maze at the end for them to do and as a special treat there were homemade strawberry slushies for them to indulge in. This farm was really amazing and just beautiful...everywhere you looked just fantastic views!

We couldn't have asked for a better time, the weather was perfect, the berries abundant, and even better because they had so many ripe berries they had marked them down to a dollar a pound! I came home with one of these bad boys filled to the rim. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all these lovely beauties!


I think first off I'm going to try this recipe from our wonderful Artfire Cafemom Team member Stacey of SWDesigns. I plan on using fresh strawberries instead of the preserves and maybe adding a bit of cream cheese and strawberries to the frosting too. Gotta find a way to use all these berries!

Strawberry Swing Cake

1 box of Moist Supreme Classic White Cake Mix

1 cup of water

1/3 cup of oil

3 eggs

15 ounce ( approximately ) jar of strawberry preserves

8 ounce container of Cool Whip

fresh strawberries for garnish



1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray.

3. Combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl. Add 3/4 cups of the strawberry preserves and blend with an electric mixer for 1 minute.

4. Pour batter into the 13 x 9 inch pan and bake according to the cake mix directions.

5. When the cake is cooled, cut it in half and place one of the cakes top side down on a platter.

6. Spread the remaining strawberry preserves on the top of this cake.

7. Place the other half of the cake on top of this cake.

8. Combine the Cool Whip and the white frosting in a large bowl. Mix with an electric

mixer until well blended.

9. Frost sides and top of cake and add fresh strawberries for decoration.

10. Refrigerate until it is served.