Do not worry when you cloak the outside of the cake in the Strawberry Bavarian Cream. It is chock full of strawberry slices so your cake won’t have a perfectly smooth layer of frosting. But not to worry, that is the beauty of a homemade icebox cake, it shouldn’t look picture perfect. If it did, it probably wouldn’t taste perfect.

Pour the cold water into a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the cold water and stir the gelatin so that it absorbs the water. Pour the boiling water into the small bowl with the gelatin and stir the mixture so that the gelatin dissolves.

Pour the gelatin mixture over the strawberries. Toss the strawberries so that the gelatin mixture is well-combined with the berries.

Cover and refrigerate the strawberries for one hour, then remove the strawberries from the refrigerator and stir in the lemon juice.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the cream into the strawberries.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the strawberry and cream mixture.

Refrigerate the strawberry Bavarian cream until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Line a 9”x3”x3” oblong loaf pan with plastic wrap, allowing about 1” of wrap to hang over the edges of the pan.

Line the bottom and sides of the pan with 3/4” slices of angel food cake.

Add some of the Strawberry Bavarian Cream to the center of the cake, filling it up to within 3/4” of the top of the pan.

Add a final layer of cake slices on top of the cake.

Place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the cake, and then fold in the sides of plastic wrap so that the entire cake is covered with the plastic wrap.

Place another loaf pan on top of the cake, and then weigh it down with can of tomatoes. (No, don’t open the tomatoes and pour them in, you just need the weight of any type of canned goods.)

Refrigerate the cake for at least six hours.

Remove cake and invert it onto a platter. Tap the pan to release the cake, and then gently remove the plastic wrap.