Make this Cake with a Vanilla Bean Baby Cake Mix (Learn how to make square layer cakes)

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This makes an extraordinarily good strawberry cream cake! It looks complicated. It's not.

And once you know how to make this cake, you can make all kinds of square layer cakes. (Everyone else is making round layer cakes.)

Here's how you build this cake!

First, let's talk about the cake mix.

This is a cream cake mix-"pudding in the mix"-with real ground vanilla beans added to the mix. It's different than store mixes, and not just the ground vanilla beans. It's moist, has more substance, and will hold up to some manhandling.

How to put it together:

1. Use a 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper or grease and flour it so that you can remove the cake from the pan.
2. Scrape the cake batter into the pan and gently push the batter to the edges, leaving the center slightly depressed. We want the cake to be flat, not domed.
3. Place a cooling rack over the cake and pan, and then invert it so that you can easily peel the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake. Then invert the cake onto a cutting board for trimming and decorating.
4. Trim the edges from the cake so that you have clean, neat cut edges. Use a ruler to measure where to cut and cut the cake, either laterally or longitudinally, into two equal parts. (The lemon cake was cut longitudinally. The strawberry cake, horizontally.)

Now you have two layers to stack, frost, and decorate. You can frost the vertical edges if you like. In this case, we did not.

You can use your favorite whipped frosting. We used a whipped cream frosting. We added a quarter cup of meringue powder to two cups of heavy whipping cream. That's enough meringue powder that the frosting will hold up for hours. Light whipped cream frosting will not hold up well overnight.

The thin layer of strawberries you see on the frosting between the layers, we used a strawberry cutter to cut those thin slices.

Use a round pastry tip to create diagonal rows on the top of the cake.

That's a dusting of finally chopped nuts poured across the top of the cake.

This is a fabulous cake.  If you take it step by step, it's not difficult to make, and square-layer cakes are fun to make. It's a truly elegant strawberry shortcake, featuring a vanilla cake, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream.

It will impress your guests.

Learn what makes this a better cake than those from the store!

• What's a cream cake? It's not like store mixes. It's a cream cake mix with pudding in the mix. It's more moist and dense. It balances better with frosting. 
• Why is it called a baby cake? It was initially designed for cupcakes. We wanted a cake with more substance, one that wouldn't be overwhelmed with all the frosting and filling found in a cupcake.  We found that it works great for cakes, especially specialty cakes--like carrot cakes.
• How does this compare to those in the grocery store? These are not the light and fluffy cupcakes found in a grocery store. It's a cream cake mix. Think pudding-in-the -mix.  It's not as dense as a pound cake, but it's somewhere between a pound cake and a grocery store mix.
• The "suspension" thing--is that a big deal? We think so. The batter is thicker, so it holds chips, candies, nuts, or fruit suspended in the cake so they don't sink to the bottom. Nuts or chips don't work well in light-as-air cakes. You can do more with it.  And there's more flavor.

Dennis Weaver

What you can make with this mix is absolutely fascinating! This is your adventure cake. When you want to make something different, reach for this mix

What others are saying:

It's guaranteed to be better. Give it a try!

You can do more with it. With a store mix, chocolate chips sink to the bottom. With a cream cake, the chips stay suspended.

It's guaranteed better. Give it a try!