What a sweet treat...

Not too long ago one of the All Aboard Wheat Harvest gals posted a new dessert she tried. When harvesting it is essential to have easy recipes on hand that use minimal ingredients and require little preparation.

This weekend I decided to give Jada's strawberry upside down cake a whirl. I had some strawberries I needed to use, and this seemed like a good idea. It wasn't the worst idea I've ever had - not even close - but it didn't exactly turn out like I had imagined.

Layer fresh strawberries into a greased 9 x 13 pan. 

Sprinkle strawberry jello over the top of that layer. I used sugar free jello. 

Layer a bag of miniature marshmallows over the top of the jello'd strawberries.

Prepare a yellow cake mix according to the box. 

Spread the yellow cake batter on top of the layers and bake at 350 degrees until the cake is done.

Now, this is where I might explain that I didn't have any oil. It was nearing 110 degrees outside and I wasn't going to run to the store for a third of a cup of oil, so I decided to put my "impromptu" chef hat on and use melted butter instead. It's oily. If you're asking why I even attempted to make a cake without oil, I have an answer for you.

I already the mix, the eggs, and the water mixing in the Kitchenaide. That's right, I don't "gather" ingredients. I just fly by the seat of my pants. I read somewhere (okay, on Pinterest. I read it on Pinterest) once that Paula Deen used butter instead of oil, and she doubled the amount - so I did it, too. The batter was much thicker, but it looked good and wasn't runny so I decided to roll with it and put it in the oven. 

Here's where I tell you that everything was perfect! I wish I could. Melted butter makes things burn. Now, it didn't burn the cake, but it got really, really brown. There was no burning smell, but cake smell - so I thought we were good. As it kept getting browner I was getting slightly worried because the cake was taking a really, really long time to bake. Finally, it was done and I pulled it from the oven.

I let it cool for a while and then decided to do the "upside down" part. I don't own any plates or platters this big, so I laid down a piece of foil on the counter and flipped the pan over. It looked really good - from the bottom. 

This is the cake trying to come out. Gravity was helping, but this is when I was worried.

I shouldn't have been worried, but I was. I'm not exactly the kind of cook that follows directions and after looking at the top of the cake I was second guessing my choice to try butter rather than oil. I had no idea what the cake was going to be like, but I had some faith restored when I could see the bottom looked like it was supposed to. 

Ha! What was I worried about - I plated some up and it looked just like Jada said it would. 

The cake turned out okay! I bet it would be really pretty if I took the time to "present" it correctly. 

However, I did leave out one pic - and I'll go ahead and post this one. This is what the cake looked like when I got it out of the pan. It looks a little ragged, right? That's because all the edges were still in the damn pan. I'm not sure I would do the flip it upside down step - maybe just serve it like regular cake? 

Well, the middle of the cake came out alright. The edges were still in the pan. 

Regardless, it tasted fantastic! It's very similar to strawberry shortcake, and I bet it's great with whipped topping, or even better - homemade ice cream.  I think this is something I'll try again - when I get some oil.