strawberries 'n cream, pretzel-crusted double-cake with chocolate ganache

until i met bill, i'd never heard of strawberry cake. the first time i made him a birthday cake, i asked what kinds he'd like. obviously, he answered that his grandmother used to make strawberry cake and he'd like that. (no pressure, though, right?)

i scoured the internet (okay, i googled) to no avail. when i happened to discover artificial strawberry flavor in the spice section of the grocery store, i felt like the luckiest person EVER, and made a strawberry-flavored white cake.

shortly thereafter, mimi told me to add a packet of strawberry jell-o to my cake batter and then my mother-in-law informed me that her step-mother's strawberry cake was a CAKE MIX. i know, right? i felt like a fool.

after two birthdays and four strawberry cakes, bill was ready to move on to better and more complicated cakes. enter the strawberries 'n 'cream, pretzel-crusted double-cake with chocolate ganache.

for this cake i used this cheesecake recipe, omitting the topping and replacing the graham cracker crumbs with crushed pretzels. in between layers i used strawberry jam, though really you don't NEED to fill this cake. the top layer was a strawberry blitz-cake from the joy of cooking, you could use whatever cake recipe you like with a generous splash of strawberry flavoring. the frosting was this chocolate ganache recipe (maybe doubled?). and the decorations were, obviously, mini pretzels and fresh strawberries.