Easy Ice Box Strawberry Cream Cake

This is such a cool ice box to make because it's cute, retro and super duper easy!
I made this recipe up a few years ago and always get so many good complements on it so I wanted to share with all of you.

What you'll need:
1 box yellow cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines) + eggs, oil, water
1 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip (thawed)
1 basket of strawberries
1 small box of vanilla instant pudding + milk

If you hit the sales just right you can usually make this dessert for about $5.00 : ) And it serves 12 people.

Bake the yellow cake according to package directions - use a 13 X 9 lasagna pan for the best results.
My oven bakes a yellow cake mix perfectly in 35 minutes - don't over bake if you can help it. Cool on wire rack in pan for about an hour and then turn out on wire rack to complete cooling.
While cake is baking make your vanilla pudding according to package directions (use "Pie" directions which calls for less milk) - chill in fridge until cake has completely cooled. Wash and slice your strawberries (keeping each strawberry together after slicing) - put back in fridge.
Once it's cooled you can cut the cake in half. Now split each cake into two by slicing through horizontally. What you are trying to accomplish here is making four layers to stack on top of one another.Lay your first layer down on a pretty plate and then divide your vanilla pudding into 3rds. spread pudding onto first layer, then add a cake layer and repeat. You should have 4 cake layers with pudding in between each layer. You might need to secure your cake with tall toothpicks or skewers since this baby is kind of tall.What I do now is trim each side by slicing down to make the sides pretty and even. Evenly spread Cool whip over the entire cake and sides. One whole tub tends to be just a little too much "frosting" so I usually have about 1/4 c. left over. The last step is to decorate the top and sides of your cake with sliced strawberries! Be creative and get fancy with your designs if you want to! I usually use almost a whole basket of berries and that's good news if you do because if you have kids or a hungry husband who can't wait to dig in you can always give them the left over cool whip , cake ends and berries to tie them over until the cake is done chilling. That's right....you read correctly, now it's time to chill! I put a loose layer of plastic wrap over the cake and pop in the fridge. I think this is what makes this cake super fabulous is the resting period. I love to let it sit a day before digging in but if you can't wait an entire day I understand...but at least wait a couple of hours. It's best served straight out of the fridge with a nice big glass of cold milk! MMMMMMmmmmmmm Yum!Enjoy!