Mason Jar Strawberry Cake

First, I just want to thank everyone for your kind comments yesterday. I'm finding this blog world to be filled with such wholesome, kind hearted people and, in a non phsyco way, I really do love y'all! I had a dream about that little boy last night and a grandfather type figure was tucking him into bed and gave him a kiss on his forehead. It settled my heart and I'm leaving it all in God's hands. I've found that the sooner I give something to Him, the healthier I am mentally and physically. Hmmmmm.....watch out it seems another "deep thoughts, by Ko" post is brewing ;)

I know that I've been posting a lot of cakes lately. I don't know what is going on with me...but my family is pleased :) This recipe was fueled by a huge cake flop/doozie just hours before a BBQ. Not only did the cake pan overflow in the oven, but it came out sickeningly sweet and unserveable. After making several changes I've come up with an awesome, crowd pleasing dessert. Y'all, this beats any summer cake I've ever made! Promise! And it can easily be assembled a day in advance.

Cake:
1/2 cup plus 1TB salted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking-soda

Strawberries:
2 pounds of strawberries, sliced and diced ;)
1 tablespoon sugar

Icing:
One 8oz package of cream cheese
1 cup salted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Mason Jars:
8 - 8oz mason jars and one medium baking dish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 16x12x1 inch baking sheet and set aside. Slice and dice your strawberries, toss in a bowl with the tablespoon of sugar and set aside.

Mix your cake batter together and spread evenly in the baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, add additional time if needed until the top of the cake is golden brown. Cool completely and then invert the pan, the cake should pop right out.

While the cake is cooling mix up your icing and set aside. Try not to lick the beater ;)

Now it's time to assemble!

Make sure your mason jars are freshly washed. Just an FYI when you bring them home from the store and open them up they have a crazy bad toxic smell to them. A good wash and it's gone. But don't even think about trying use them for anything straight from the package!

Search your kitchen drawers to find something that can cut the cake into the right size circle to fit in the jar. My mother-in-law bought these prep cups years ago and they are the perfect fit. You need to be able to get  24 cake circles to do 3 layers per jar for 8 jars. Be impressed with my math, it took a lot of brain power and finger counting ;) And DONT throw away the in-between pieces, you can use them later :)

Push a piece of cake into the jar

Swirl some of that dreamy icing in.

Top with strawberries and repeat, finishing with pretty swirl of icing!

This is what you get! I like to serve mine with a container of the diced strawberries in case anyone else would like more.

With the extra cake pieces, strawberries and icing layer them all in a separate baking dish and you can serve it up family style!

Enjoy!