Birthday Cake (with Berries)

A good friend of mine went to pastry-chef school and makes wonderful cakes for church activities, friends' birthdays, etc. Since I am a believer in baking from scratch, I asked her for her recipes for white and yellow cake. I've made both recipes a couple of times over the past couple of years and they are always big hits because they are SO good.
Today for my grandma's birthday party, my mom and I made the white cake and put sliced strawberries in the middle and around the outside. It was a big hit. I also used the left-over cream cheese frosting from the red velvet cupcakes as the middle-layer frosting. It was a perfect filling. It cut the sweetness of the cake and I highly recommend it.
Here's my sales pitch: cakes from scratch are remarkably easy and taste so much better than box cakes! They have very few ingredients and if you can follow directions, you can't go wrong. When you bake from scratch, you know exactly what's in the final product. Also, cake batter from scratch is amazing stuff. White cake has only egg whites in it, so the batter is incredibly fluffy and quite delicious (if you like batter, that is, my husband is seriously grossed out by the thought of it).
I feel the same way about frosting. Make it from scratch! It's so easy and tastes much better! Here's the cake from start to finish (I wasn't so great at documenting this one since I admit it was an after-thought).

Batter spread into two 9" rounds, and then cooled on wire racks.My son tasting the batter and exclaiming "I like cake!"

The final product: white cake with butter cream frosting and strawberries. And of course, the recipient (with a little help blowing out the candles).
Happy Birthday, Grandma!