Strawberry shortcake with Thrive products

You may have noticed the "Thrive" link on the right.  Sariah, who's link that is, was kind enough to let me pick a recipe I like, & then send me Thrive food storage ingredients to try making it.  I chose upside-down Strawberry Shortcake.  I love strawberries, & it had a variety of ingredients, so I thought it would be fun to try.

First of all, here's the recipe:

16 oz frozen, sweetened strawberries, thawed
1 pkg (3 oz) strawberry jello
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk

Combine strawberries & jello & set aside.  In a mixing bowl cream shortening & sugar.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each.  Beat in vanilla.  Combine flour, baking powder & salt.  Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.  Pour into greased pan.  Spoon strawberry mixture evenly over batter.  Bake until toothpick come out clean, at 350, approx 45-50 min.

In this test I used Thrive for the strawberries, shortening , eggs, baking powder, & milk.
I was impressed how quickly the strawberries rehydrated in water.  Fast!  I ate one plain, & it tasted as good as a frozen one would have.  It did take extra time to separately mix the shortening, eggs & milk, but that's just part of cooking with food storage.  One plus of the egg substitute, it you can halve recipes & halve the eggs!  Awesome!  I think I drained the strawberries a bit too much (forgetting I would have been using frozen & there would have been juice).  I think that accounts for my having less strawberry mixture on top than normal.  But the important question:  how did it taste?!  Awesome!  I probably wouldn't have known it was made differently if I'd just been served it.  I'm especially excited about the shortening substitute, as a few of my favorite recipes have that.  I was quite happy with the experiment!  And Sariah is so knowledgeable & helpful!