Out of the Box Strawberry Lemonade Roll Cake

Hi, are you a person who has too much time on there hands and wants to create a really cute cottagecore cake that they can keep in the freezer and cut off a slice every few days for a month? Well if you are then you're in luck. This was the first roll cake I ever created and it was a lot of fun and turned out sooooo delicious.

cake mix (preferably vanilla or rainbow bits but a lemon cake mix would allow you to leave out the lemon juice however it might make the sour paste too sour so Id stick with vanilla.)

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of melted margarine or veggie oil

4 eggs (the box may say 2 or 3 depending on the cake mix but add one more than it says if you can.)

koolaid powder preferably any strawberry flavors that have red food coloring, I used strawberry kiwi and pink lemonade because its what I had. If using two different packets only use half of each packet so its not overpowering.

frozen or fresh strawberries and 2tbsp of sugar

I used a regular cookie sheet but if you have a jelly pan it makes a thinner cake for cake rolls

parchment paper

a clean cotton or non textured kitchen towel.

Before anything else preheat your oven for 350 degrees F, then line your baking sheet or jelly pan with parchment paper and grease the sides that the parchment doesn't cover.

Mix a tiny bit of water with the Koolaid powder to make a paste.

Put 1 cup of strawberries, 2 tbsp. of lemon juice, 2 tbsp. of sugar (can substitute for honey the sugar isn't needed but I add it to create a syrup afterword which you can add to the frosting) in a pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes or until fully soften and the strawberries have lost a lot of their color.

In a small cup Transfer cooked strawberries, add 1/2 cup of melted margarine and 1 cup of milk to a blender and blend until creamy then mix in a teaspoon of the Koolaid paste and blend.

Allow your leftover strawberry mixture to simmer until it becomes a syrup while you prepare your cake. (Set aside 1 tbsp. to add to your frosting or to pour on top)

Crack 4 eggs into a bowl and beat them for 2 minutes. Add your butter strawberry milk mixture and then sift your cake mix in and mix for another 2 minutes until smooth.

Take about a cup of your batter and 2 tbsp of flour and add it to you koolaid paste and mix to create a sour is strawberry mixture. put you batter in a sandwich or piping bag and pipe tiny heart shape strawberries on to your baking sheet and let sit for 10-20 minutes then pour your batter over top of the strawberries and and bake for 12-15 minutes checking throughout just in case as ovens can sometime run a little to hot.

Let your cake cool down for about 20 minutes so you can safely roll your cake. You want to roll your cake when its warm so your cake develops a sort of muscle memory so there is a lower chance of cracking. Transfer your cake on the parchment paper from the baking sheet to a clean table. Cut another piece of parchment and put it on your top layer and then put a very clean dish towel over the top. I learned the hard way that using just a dish towel can lead to cake sticking to the towel as box cake is stickier than homemade cake and I had some cracking due to that. Very carefully roll your cake and put on a plate, put it in the freezer to cool down for a few hours. When your cake is cool carefully unroll, if there are any cracks you can sort of press them together on the inside carefully, then cover the whole layer in the frosting: it doesn't need to be super thick. A whole container of frosting should work for one box mix. Then carefully roll back up and wrap in cling wrap and twist the ends so it is very compact and tight. Put in the fridge or freezer over night if you don't plan on eating it all like me in the next few days.

Now plate and enjoy with your family and or yourself for a month straight like me to slowly feed and make the sad monsters in your lonely brain happy again.