Strawberry Upside Down Cake

I love to bake, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I always follow the rules. Baking is supposed to be precise, but sometimes I just don't have time for that. Some days I wake up on a Saturday morning and decide that I must bake something. Anything! It must be sweet and gooey and it must be something that I can throw my leftovers into. I've always got some leftover chocolate chips or whatever just sitting in my pantry. After I made the blueberry-strawberry pie for the 4th of July I still had leftover berries to use so I put together a blue berry buckle using leftover ricotta cheese and yogurt I had in the fridge. It was awesome.

This morning I had the same urge to bake something quick. I had leftover strawberries that were going to go bad any day. I also had this half used bag of mini marshmallows that have been in there for at least two months. (they weren't even stale or hard at all... weird)

But anyway, this is what I came up with...

I know I'm calling it Strawberry Upside Down Cake but I never actually turned it upside down. Does that make the cake a lie?

It's so easy I don't even want to call it a recipe. Here is what you need:

Half a box of yellow cake mix, prepared according to the instructions. Use the whole box if you have a huge casserole dish or want to double the recipe.

About two cups of sliced strawberries or any berry you choose.

1/4 Cup sugar

1 and 1/2 Cups of miniature marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the sugar with the berries and let them rest in a bowl while you prepare the cake batter.

Pour the berries on the bottom of the casserole dish and layer the marshmallows on top.

Pour the batter on top and bake for 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when you poke it.

Anything like this will have to be watched in the oven to make sure it doesn't bake too long. I thought this would only take about 30 minutes but it ended up taking much longer, probably because of the strawberry juice. The marshmallows popped up on top of the cake and turned golden brown (Yum!) and the juice bubbled up nicely around the edge. We served it with a little ice cream.

Nothing like using up leftovers!