Strawberries and Cream Twinkie Cake

Have you ever eaten "Twinkie Cake"?  Years ago I worked for an ophthalmologist, and for his birthday, I decided to make a Twinkie Cake.  The problem is, that I didn't decide this until late one night and we only have one convenience store in our small town that is open late (until 11:00).  We do have one grocery store, but it closes much earlier.  I sent my hubby to get Twinkies for me.  I needed 13 of them, so he had to get 14 of the two-per-package Twinkies.  That Twinkie cake ended up costing me $13.00, just for the Twinkies - not to mention all of the other ingredients!

Most Twinkie Cake recipes have crushed pineapple.  Most of our children don't like pineapple, so I came up with my own recipe, using things we all like.  It's definitely a keeper.  In fact, one of our sons has requested it for his up-coming birthday.  He said it's his favorite cake - EVER!

14 Twinkies (One box has 10, so you'll need 2 boxes)

2 small boxes (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding

2 cups milk

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

2 - 10 ounce containers of frozen strawberries in syrup (drained, but reserve juice if desired for topping)

1 cup sour cream

1 large carton whipped cream

Drain strawberries to remove juice. I was excited to use this tiny colander I got from a Secret Pal a few years ago. Little kitchen gadgets are fun (I'm easily amused!).

Add 1 cup sour cream and 1 cup whipped cream to chilled pudding mixture.  Blend well.

Stir in drained strawberries.

The mixture might be prettier if you added a few drops of red food coloring to make a light pink color.  I didn't add any, though.

Pour strawberries and cream mixture over Twinkies.

Top with a thin layer of whipped cream.  Your casserole dish or pan might be more square on the ends, allowing room for more whipped cream.  Mine was very full!

Chill several hours...or at least a little while!  It would probably be best to chill at least 8 hours, but in our family, nothing is going to chill that long without getting sampled!

Serve with reserved strawberry juice, if desired.  One of our children thought it needed more strawberry taste, so this leftover juice would probably satisfy their taste buds.  You might like it that way, too.

My original plan was to add some sliced bananas over the cream mixture, but I ran out of room.  I have a larger casserole dish that would allow room for that and there's enough cream mixture I would have to add anything else.  It would just be thinner.  Also, I would probably add 2 more Twinkies to the dish, as well, if made in the larger dish. You could add other fruits, as well.