Pistachio/Strawberry Cake

We've had two outings this week and I made this cake both times. Once for our Quilter's Guild meeting and then the next day I taught a SWEET group of girls a quilting lesson. This cake went over really well both times, so I'll share. Now it does look alittle Christmasy, but we had no pretty daisies left, and the only yellow flowers we have are marigolds and who wants a 'stinky' flower on their cake?!

Use a white or yellow cake mix, bake according to directions in a 9x13 pan.

After baking, dump it within 5 minutes and
then using a cookie sheet and flip it again so that the rounded top is face up.
After letting it cool, trim the 'hump' off with a long serrated knife, so that the cake is flat.
If you have time, let it air dry an hour or so, would be best over night.

Cut the cake into thirds.

For the icing mix large 1 carton of whipping cream until it is almost finished (soft peaks).
Then add one package of pistachio instant pudding mix.
Whip only a minute or so until it is mixed throughly. Do NOT over whip.

Using a pastry bag pipe out the icing around the edges of the cake,
you could also just use your spatula and put it on if you did not have a pastry bag.

I used a strawberry/rhubarb jam that Olivia made last week.
Regular jam would be fine, or use just the icing if you don't want the jam.
On the first cake I made the jam really soaked into the cake,
so on the second one I did a thin layer of the icing
before adding the jam and that seemed to help.
I also let the cake air dry (with a light towel on it) over night before cutting and icing.

Place the middle layer on.
You will want to press in down a little to help it get settled.

Repeat what we did on the first layer.

Add the top layer and ice the cake with a thick layer on top and then the sides.

You can use a large star tip to decorate with your left over icing (I did not do it on this cake). Add some fresh mint leaves and/or fresh flowers.
Fresh strawberries would be very pretty too!

ENJOY!

Note: On this cake I did not use as much whipping cream and I thought the icing was a little too heavy. So on the second cake (not pictured) I use the whole carton of whipping cream and it was lighter, which I liked better.