Chocolate Strawberry Pudding Cake

I signed up to bring a dessert and since the Raspberry Crunch Salad is called salad, I thought I better make an unmistakable dessert as well! What's wrong with that? This mostly looks like a blob once it's served, but could potentially be really pretty in the bowl. It makes a TON so don't try to put it in a triffle bowl- Use a punch bowl. The pudding soaks into the cake bites and makes for the most moist and gooey chocolate cake goodness ever. This is one of my top 5 desserts. What do you think?

1 box Devil's Food cake mix & called for ingredients
4 C milk
4 tsp strawberry jam
2 boxes (4 serving size each)white chocolate pudding mix
1 C chocolate syrup
30 oz strawberries, sliced
1 container (8 oz) cool whip

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9x13" pan. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box. Run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

In a large bowl, mix milk and jam. With wire whisk, beat pudding mix into milk about 2 minutes or until blended. Cut cooled cake into 1" pieces. Arrange half of pieces in 3 1/2 quart serving bowl. Drizzle 1/2 C of the syrup over the cake pieces. Spread 2 cups of the pudding. Reserve 1/2 cup of strawberries for garnish; arrange remaining strawberries over pudding. Add remaining cake pieces. Top with remaining chocolate syrup, remaining pudding and the whipped topping. Cover; refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled.

Garnish dessert with strawberries {I dipped mine in chocolate- 1 C chocolate chips melted with 1 tbsp of shortening}. Store covered in refrigerator.

The original recipe called for mandarin oranges instead of strawberries. I haven't tried that yet, but I bet it'd be good, too. BTW- don't use raspberry jam instead of strawberry; raspberry makes the pudding a unappealing purple-gray color.