Jello Not Included

I worked with Michele for 5 years.  Michele has long red hair, glowing skin, and a penchant for sparkly shoes and floral accents.  She also likes strawberries and cream.

Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

When Michele announced she was ending her tenure with our company and moving on to her next adventure, I wanted to give her a fancy send-off.  I had never made a strawberry cake before, and all of the recipes on the Great Wide Internet and in Mom's Recipe Box included strawberry jello.  In these recipes, the jello is the only added strawberry flavor, and imparts an alarmingly bright pink shade to the batter.  

No, thank you.

Even my trusted food blogs were letting me down.  Finally, in the most distant corner of the internet, I found a cake recipe that uses real strawberries.  The cream cheese frosting and pink coconut came from constant inspiration, Joy the Baker.  

The result was a delicately pink, transcendent strawberry cake.  It adds unexpected beauty to the party, just as Michele does wherever she goes.