What to Cook When You Hate to Cook, Recipe 14: Birthday Cake Light

I have never been crazy about cooking. I can think of about a million things I’d rather do with my time. Napping springs to mind. I try to limit recipes to 5 ingredients or less, and 15 minutes or less (this one only takes about 5 minutes) so that that nap will only be postponed for a brief period.

But recently, Dear Husband’s birthday rolled back around, so of course cake is to be expected. Granted, cakes aren’t that hard to make if you aren’t making them from scratch. The thing is, we’re both trying to eat healthier food, and a heavy cake covered in thick, sugary, cloying frosting doesn’t fit into that category. And yet we both have a sweet tooth. If you can’t indulge yourself on your birthday, you may as well abandon all hope as far as I’m concerned. So, what to do?

While casting about for ideas, I suddenly remembered what my mother always enjoyed on her birthday. It’s so simple to make that you don’t even need ingredient amounts, which is also something that appeals to me greatly. Just use your instincts.

Now, I’m not claiming that this recipe is original to me. I’m sure you can find hundreds of variations online. But I suspect that most of them are not putting themselves out there as a birthday cake substitute, so I deserve a tiny bit of credit there. So, without further ado, here is:

Birthday Cake Light

Ingredients:

• Bakery Fresh Goodness Dessert Shells (shown below)
• Frozen Strawberries, thawed
• Fresh Blueberries (or any other fruit of your choice, whether it be fresh, frozen, or canned)
• Cool Whip (You could use that spray can stuff instead, but personally, I find it nasty.)
• Cinnamon

I prefer to use a clear glass container so that everyone can see the pretty layers.

Crumble the dessert shells into big chunks and line the bottom of your container with them. Then add a layer of thawed strawberries. (I like to use these because when they thaw, they naturally produce a nice sauce, and that soaks into the dessert shells. Do NOT get frozen strawberries that come in a sauce with added sugar. That’s gilding the lily and adding calories.)

Next, do a layer of Cool Whip, then a layer of blueberries, then more Cool Whip. You can add as many layers of berries and cool whip as you wish, and make each layer as thick as you wish, but the last layer should be Cool Whip. Then, dust that layer with cinnamon, and if you have any leftover fruit, decorate the center of that layer to make it even prettier.

If the spirit moves you, you can add candles as a final touch. Enjoy! And Happy Birthday!

I forgot to take a picture of my creation, but here’s a picture that I found online that looks pretty similar. You get the idea.