Fresh Strawberry Upside Down cake

I love berries and as I was thinking what quick desert to make for FIFA 2010 inaugral party and to celebrate a friends birthday this recipe came in my mind. Easy to make and extremely delicious. I particularly used strawberries for this one but it can be substituted with any other berry. The original idea comes from one of the most famous and widely made desert called Pineapple Upside down cake.

As I worked on this cake I discovered two very important parts of the recipe that you can *not* overlook:
1) Use fresh strawberries. It's a completely different taste and texture when you use fresh fruits.
2) MASH the strawberries. I used a potato masher and mashed the strawberries in a bowl to extract the juice out.

Now let's get down to the actual recipe

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups crushed fresh strawberries
2/3 (6 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin mix
2 cups miniature marshmallows
2/3 (18 ounce) package yellow cake mix, batter prepared as directed on package

Directions

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Spread crushed strawberries on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. (I use bunt pan as I like the look of the cake that way)
Evenly sprinkle strawberries with the dry gelatin powder, and top with mini marshmallows.
Prepare the cake mix as directed on the package, and pour on top of the marshmallows. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen the sides, and turn the cake out onto a serving tray. Store cake in the refrigerator for few hours for the cake to set and then serve.

Tips and Learning:

Use a bigger serving tray than the actual size of the cake. This is because when you turn the cake upside down all the juices trickle down the side and if you don't have a bigger tray to hold it then it ends up in a mess which was the case with me. The cake is super moist and yummy with the juices trickling down the sides. If you like the cake warm with the juices flowing then you can serve it without refrigerating. However I cooled the cake down for the juices to set down.

You can also serve this cake with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream or just get innovative. It's such an easy desert to make and yet so yummy that you would love making it time and time again. So Njoy!!