Strawberry season will be here soon! Strawberries are super delicious, whether you’re adding them to a dish or eating them by themselves. Here at cakejournal.com, we love fruit and fruit inspired cakes!

Strawberries are grown all over the world, except in the most frozen southern and northern areas. Not to mention, there are over 600 varieties of strawberries! The best time to buy strawberries is between April and August. Lucky for us, April is right around the corner!  Apparently April showers bring May flowers and beautifully scrumptious fruit! Here is a wonderfully delicious ombre cake recipe to appreciate the coming of “strawberry season”!

Ingredients needed:

2 boxes of white cake mix (or your own homemade cake recipe)

Eggs, water and oil to suit the necessary ingredients for your boxed cake mix

6 teaspoons imitation strawberry

Red food dye

2 cups of strawberries (or however many you desire)

Cream cheese icing

First, start mixing the cake mix and the water, eggs and oil. I used white cake mix that called for 2 1/2 cups of water, 2/3 cup oil and 6 eggs. Then, separate the cake mix into 3 equal bowls for the 3 layers of the cake.

Next, add in the imitation strawberry. Add a little at a time and taste as you go. I ended up putting two teaspoons into each “layer”. You can opt-out of the strawberry flavor, or adjust to your liking. Add the red food dye next. The lightest colored layer needs 2-3 drops of red dye. The medium colored layer looked best with 5 drops of red dye. Lastly, the darkest layer looked best with 8 drops of dye. Adjust, if desired.

Grease 3 8-in cake pans thoroughly and fill about 2/3 of the way full with cake batter. Tap out the air bubbles. Bake the cake as called for. My batter took about 32 minutes to thoroughly bake. Wait for the cake to fully cool before removing from the pan. Level off the cake with a large serrated knife along the top of the cake and the sides of the cake. Stack the cake layers on top of each other from darkest to lightest, using frosting as the glue in between the layers.

Next, frost the cake. P.S. This is my favorite part. Start with the top and work your way down and around the sides. I like the textured look to the icing on this cake, but you can always make the icing more smooth if you prefer.

Garnish the cake with some strawberries or however you desire! I topped mine with cut strawberries on the top and around the bottom and some strawberry stems in the middle.

 And you’re done! Ready to eat right away, but you can chill the leftovers in the fridge as well! This delicious and beautiful cake is perfect for a sunny, soon-to-be spring day! Share this with your friends and family and share your creation with us on Twitter @CakeJournal. Likes us on Facebook at Cake Journal and follow us on Pinterest at Cake Journal!

Happy Baking!