Fanci-fill Berry Cake

Put on your yalmulke, it's time for Hannukah! No, we're not making sufganiyot (jelly donuts).  My sister got me a Wilton Fanci-fill cake pan as part of my present, so we tried it out over the weekend, using a golden yellow cake mix and a strawberry filling recipe off the Wilton website. I used a Pillsbury Golden Butter Recipe Cake Mix because I wanted to make sure this cake pan actually worked before trying any custom recipes out. It came out delicious and it was pretty easy too.

For the filling:

Start with 1 pkg (16 ounces) of frozen fruit packed in sugar. The Wilton recipe called for sliced strawberries, but I used a mix of blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. I also misread the packaging and didn't see the 'packed in sugar,' so I added 1/3 cup of sugar to the frozen berries so that they could macerate while they thawed.  Luckily the recipe called for the same amount later on, so I just didn't add any then. It still turned out well.

After the berries completely thaw, there should be a good amount of liquid in the bowl.  Drain this into a measuring cup and add enough water to equal 1 1/4 cups.

 In a saucepan, combine the liquid, sugar (if you didn't add it before), 3 tablespoons of cornstarch (I thought this sounded like a lot, but it didn't come out too gelatinous), and lemon juice (I used the juice of half a lime). Mix well and then heat and continuously stir until it boils and thickens.

Cool completely and then stir in the berries.  I sort of mashed the whole strawberries with my spatula so that no one got a mouthful of strawberry.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the cake mix according to the package directions.  Well, maybe. I replaced the butter in the directions with low-fat sour cream and it came out moist and delicious.

Spray the cake pans with cooking spray. I used Pam Baking spray. It worked very nicely.

Distribute the cake mix evenly between the 2 cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine baked for 23 minutes.

Let cool in the cake pans for 10 minutes and then remove from the pans and cool completely on wire racks. 

After cakes are cooled, pour the filling into the recessed area.  Then, very carefully (good luck!) and very quickly invert one of the halves of the cake onto the other. My cake was very moist and kind of stuck to my hand a bit. But, it still worked. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this, please, feel free to explain.

I made fresh whipped cream and topped the cake with that. Delicious!