At the Farmers' Market, I bought a basket of strawberries. (The great thing about living in coastal California, is that we have Farmers Markets – with fresh strawberries – all year round). But I still didn't know what to do with them. At Trader Joe's I picked up a pint of heavy cream. That could surely be combined with strawberries in some way, but I was still aimless.
When we got home, I turned to Chef Google. Searching for "valentine's day cake recipes" turned up this list which brought me to this recipe for Strawberry Upside-Down Cake. But this was one of these semi-homemade kind of deals with marshmallows, jell-o mix, and boxed cake. That just wouldn't do! But it gave me the idea of where to start.
I could combine a simple strawberry pie filling recipe (strawberries + tapioca: done) with the All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake from the indispensable Cake Bible, and a whipped cream frosting (with red food coloring to make it pink for Valentine's Day!). Becky says this "might be the best cake [I've] ever made." And here it is!
