Strawberry-Lemon Shortcake

William turned 19 today. How on earth did that happen. Unfortunately it's proof positive that I'm no longer 29!

He's a bit of a foodie so I decided to try something a little different for his birthday cake (well different for our family anyway) - I made a strawberry shortcake with a lemon twist.  It was delicious and looked so pretty.  

I think lemons and strawberries were made for each other.  The sweetness of one balances the tartness of the other.  The red and yellow compliment each other in the nicest summer-picnic sort of way.

It was an easy dessert because I started with this lemon cake mix.  I mixed it according to the directions and baked it in my new bundt pan. By the way, I'm so excited to finally have a bundt pan that doesn't stick. This might lead to a complete and utter bundt cake addiction. Don't you think cakes look extra special when you bake them in a bundt pan?

I iced the cake with lemon icing glaze using the following ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon butter or margarine

I mixed the ingredients together and then microwaved it for 45 seconds. I gave the icing a good stir so everything was blended. When the icing was cool, I drizzled it over the cake - which was a lot of fun as it poured onto the cake in thick folds making a pretty pattern.

I also grated a little bit of lemon rind to sprinkle on top of the icing.  Just before serving I filled the centre with sliced strawberries that I had mixed with some sugar so they were nice and glossy and juicy.

And I served it with whipped cream.  Yum!

We are firmly in the chocolate cake with chocolate icing camp (you can see an example of a previous birthday cake I made decorated with a Beatles image here), but I have heard there are people who prefer other kinds of cake for their birthdays. What does your family like for birthday cakes?