Can't Stop Won't Stop

Recovering after the holidays is tricky business.  After weeks of cooking for other people and digging through pounds of sugar, flour, butter and chocolate chips, I have re-surfaced ready for 2015.  Its not as if I wasn't cooking for my family during the holidays, I was just cooking things that weren't very pretty.  The recipes are tasty, but the pictures aren't super. I don't like ugly food as much. --speaking of food I don't like as much, lets talk briefly about chocolate gravy.  I like gravy as much as the next girl, and I like chocolate more that I like breathing, so it seems that the two should be married.  but not. I am just a little freaked out by the whole chocolate gravy idea. I haven't tried it, I admit, but I can't bring myself to do it. Anybody have a comment about this? I'm looking for help here. Anyway. That's neither here nor there. I do like cake.
A long, long time ago (probably close to 20 years if I had to really think about it) I encountered this cake that I fell in love with.  Clearly, that meant I had to replicate it.  I mean, what's not to like: yellow cake, with a sugary crunch with bananas and strawberries between the layers and a lovely glaze to finish it off.  "shouldn't be too hard," I thought.  And I was right! so go make this cake and make someone happy when you share it with them. 

(beck's version of) Leo's Cake
what you need: three 8 inch round cake pans, 350 oven, stand mixer, small sauce pan, spoon

One yellow cake mix
4 eggs
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 1/4 Cup milk
6 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 teaspoons shortening, divided

2 bananas, sliced
10-15 strawberries, sliced
1/2 Cup milk
2 Cups powdered sugar

In your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the 4 eggs on the lowest speed. When the eggs are well beaten, add the cake mix, followed by the butter and then the milk (you will want to turn the mixer off and back on for each addition, unless you want to throw cake batter all over yourself and the room you are cooking in -- which I assume would be your kitchen, but who really knows). Leave the mixer on medium high speed for a few minutes while you prepare your cake pans.  Most of the time, I would tell you to give them a light coating of shortening followed by a dusting of flour, but in this case, I want you to use sugar. Two tablespoons per cake pan, please. Roll them around til the sugar just coats the sides and bottom leaving a bit of loose sugar for good measure.  Turn off the mixer to avoid the catastrophic kitchen coating of cake mix I mentioned before.  Pour the mix in to the three prepared pans and then pop 'em right in your 350 oven.  Leave them there for about 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched and a tooth pick comes out clean when you poke them. Let them rest in the pan for a couple of minutes, then turn them out on a cooling rack.   Allow the cakes to cool completely.  Slice up your bananas and strawberries.  Over medium heat, place a sauce pan with the milk and powdered sugar.  When the sugar and milk are completely combined and make a glaze, remove the sauce pan from the heat and set it aside.  Begin assembling the layers of the cake by placing strawberries and bananas on each layer and then drizzling the glaze right on top.  Stack them up and serve this lovely confection to people you love -- or to people you want to fall in love with you -- either way. It works both ways.