Scarlett Ladybug's First BIrthday cake

Today my baby turns 1. It is exciting and breaks my heart at the same time. I, of course, have been dreaming up her first birthday cake since I found out I was having a girl. This cake I made, is not the cake of my dreams. I wanted to make a layered princess castle cake. I bought the Wilton Romantic Castle Cake Kit, in order to make this castle. The kit is misleading. In order to decorate the cake like the box, you have to buy another kit in addition to the castle kit, plus the cake pans. It irritated me, so I returned it. So I came up with the ladybug cake. I always call Scarlett "ladybug" so it is fitting.

I have spent the past few weeks searching for a perfect strawberry cake recipe. They are hard to come by. I have a recipe I had used in the past, but I am never happy with it. It is always too dense and dry. It also, does not have enough strawberry flavor. Most strawberry cake recipes call for cake mix or Jello. I would never be caught dead using either one, or so I thought. However, I compromised my morals... I am embarrassed to admit it, and I finally settled on a recipe that used both a cake mix and jello. We have not eaten the cake yet, so I don't know how it is. I can say with some authority, that the icing is spectacular. I ate my fair share while decorating the cake. It is a strawberry cream cheese icing. It contains both strawberry puree and strawberry extract, and it is heavenly. It is light and fluffy, just the proper amount of sweetness, balanced by a slight tart element from the strawberry puree. The cakes are sitting in my kitchen, waiting for party time, and the whole house smells like a luscious, ripe strawberry. I cannot wait to dive in. There will be pictures of Scarlett and I both with cake smashed all over our faces! What fun!