In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought I’d share a recipe from my mom’s collection.
This is one that she really liked, simple and yummy!

Only, I had to put a little twist on it.  I’ve seen so many adorable desserts in a jar (like on Our Best Bites), I thought this one would work well in darling, individual portions.

For the cake:  My mom used to use a betty crocker white cake mix, which is good and easy!  I have made it with this, with the cake mix, a pound cake recipe, a vanilla cupcake recipe, and this time I used Martha’s white cake.  I use my ice cream scoop that is a little bigger than the regular cupcake size.
For the cream cheese filling:  Whip up 8 oz. of cream cheese with 2 cups powdered sugar. Add to that, 12 oz cool whip or 1 pt. freshly whipped cream.  (I prefer the real whipped cream).
For the strawberry layer:  Mix 1 pkg of Danish dessert (strawberry flavor) with 2 cups cold water.  Then heat it in a saucepan, bringing to a boil and stirring with a whisk.  Let it boil for one minute.  After it cools, add 2-3 cups of chopped strawberries.

Tips:
Here is a picture of the danish dessert, so you know what you’re looking for at the store.  🙂

My mom used to make this recipe in two 9×13 pans.  Using half the ingredients in each pan.   I found that with the half pint jar, it made about 20 jars worth, with a bit of filling and strawberry left.

When you fill the jars, use ice cream scoops and try not to get any on the sides of the jar.  Can you see where there is a little cake batter streak on one of these?  Also, I used a different ice cream scoop to put the filling in, then I used a spoon to flatten it out, trying not to get cream on the top part of the jar.  The cake domes a little and I could’ve trimmed it so it was perfectly flat, but it didn’t bother me when you couldn’t tell from the outside of the jar.

The only trick when putting the top layer in was not to overfill.  I wanted just enough so it was totally full, but not spilling over when I put the canning lid on.

After I put the metal lid on, I put a piece of cut cardstock on then screwed the rest of the lid on.

I fancied them up with a little paper embellishment and some lace.  I stuck it to the blue paper with a little dab of hot glue.  It looks homey, and feminine and perfect for mother’s day, I think.  And I think my mom would’ve loved the idea of this cake in a little jar!

As we’ve talked about before, Kathryn and I lost our mom to cancer 10 years ago now.  Mother’s Day is pretty bitter sweet for me.  I miss her dearly and my heart aches when I think that my kids are missing out on knowing her and learning from her many talents.  I try to keep her memory and legacy present in my life and tell my kids stories about how fun she was, how proud she would be of them and all the ways she would be spoiling them.  My oldest was the only one to know her and this picture was taken shortly before she passed away.   She keeps her picture of “grammie” in her room.

A couple of weeks ago, I found this note in an old random file.  It’s not dated, but I assume I was probably 12-14ish as determined by the “dot letter” signature and thanks with an “x.”  I cried and had a moment when I read this.  I was just so glad that sometime in between my teenage mood swings, I told her how much I loved her.  She truly was a wonderful example of creativity, a positive attitude, working hard, living the gospel, learning new things, and always laughing along the way!  Most of all she taught me there is a huge amount of joy to be had in being a mother and in life in general.

Whenever I get sad, I always quickly remind myself that I am incredibly blessed to have had her as my mother.  I got 23 years to learn from her!  I’d have to say the glass is half full!

And my heart, will always be overflowing with love for her.