Almond Cake With Raspberry Cream, Whipped Frosting and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

This cake recipe Instructable is an extension of my Baking Extravaganza Instructable.

I used my usual "from scratch" white cake recipe with an added hint of Almond Extract flavoring. For the raspberry cream, I first put fresh raspberries over a stove-top and added some sugar to balance out the tartness of the raspberries. I then strained the juice from the raspberries and added it to whipped heavy whipping cream and sugar (a container of cool whip can be used instead of the whipping cream if you don't want to spend the extra time with the heavy whipping cream). Spread that over the bottom cake layer and place the top layer on top.

The outside frosting I whipped heavy whipping cream with sugar until a stiff peak formed. I then added pecan chips around the sides of the cake (all by hand and without a cake turn table), so this step is pretty messy for me. I haven't figured out a neater method yet, but one day...

I melted semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave and dipped fresh strawberries into the chocolate and placed it in the refrigerator to harden the chocolate. My own tip: As far as the writing, I didn't want to have to wash another one of my decorating tips, so I just melted some semi-sweet chocolate in a ziplock baggie (yes, just a regular ziplock baggie!), snipped a corner, and piped the lettering through that corner.

Please vote for me in the Cake Decorating Contest!!