Independence Day Cake
It’s Cake Wednesday again and I have been rushing around this week trying to get my posts done for the next couple weeks because I am going on vacation. So I have actually baked two cakes this week and done ALL 8 other posts. Yes, I have been very busy.
But that means I really won’t have to do much other than publish them for you! I have some really yummy stuff coming up and I am very excited.
I did want to get a couple 4th of July recipes up for you in case you need them though so in case you haven’t noticed, I do have a little 4th of July tab up at the top of my site where I have grouped together what I think would be perfect dishes to take to a 4th of July celebration.
I also decided to skip this week’s cake recipe which is a Graham Cracker Cake, I will post it next week. I opted, instead, to do an Independence Day Cake. I saw a few ideas for this floating around on Pinterest and decided to come up with my own version of it and I LOVE how it turned out.
I is a poke cake so it is really supposed to have more color floating down in the cake, but I really like how it turned out. I think I just needed to pour more of the jello over the cake and maybe let it sit out longer but I was scared it would be difficult to ice with jello on it and I REALLY didn’t want the cake to get soggy.
Because that would be gross.
But the cake didn’t get soggy at all and in fact is DE-lic-ious.
I found this awesome white cake recipe at Epicurious and thought it sounded pretty good and then I found a recipe on Martha Stewart for parfaits with homemade jello. Yes, I made my own jello out of fresh fruit. Maybe a little crazy? Nope.
It tastes amazing and I don’t have to feel guilty about feeding my family something with who-knows- what ingredients. Namely – food dye which we all know is very bad for you. So yes you could make this cake with a box cake and box jello but it certainly won’t be very tasty and you will be ingesting all kinds of nasty preservatives and artificial flavorings.
Now I am not saying this cake will be healthy or anything, but it’s better than that AND it tastes incredible.
{my kids and I may or may not have fought over the last bite….}
FOR THE CAKE- 2¼ cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans
- 1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar (12¼ ounces)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened but still cool
FOR THE RASPBERRY JELLO - 1 pound fresh red raspberries
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1½ envelopes unflavored gelatin
FOR THE BLUEBERRY JELLO - 1 pound fresh blueberries
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1½ envelopes unflavored gelatin
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING - 3 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup soft butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 300˚. Prepare your 9" cake pans by coating with soft butter and then cut out a circle of parchment to fit the bottom of the pan and press that smoothly into the bottom, set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the milk, egg whites and both extracts and beat a little with a fork just to combine things a little.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter. Beat on medium speed until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.
- Add the milk mixture in 3 additions, mixing just until moist and scraping the bowl between additions.
- Once the batter is smooth, divide it evenly between your cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely in the pans (do not remove from pans!)
TO MAKE THE JELLO - While the cakes are cooling, make both jellos. Place the raspberries into a saucepan over medium heat and add the sugar to the pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring often and simmer until the berries are nice and soft, about 5 minutes.
- Next get a small cup or bowl and pour about ¼ cup of cold water into it, then sprinkle the gelatin packets over the water and let sit for 5 minutes. Once it has sat, pour the gelatin into the raspberry mixture and stir until dissolved, about 2-3 minutes.
- Then pour the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. Place it in the fridge while you make the blueberry jello, following the same procedure.
- Once both jellos are made and have come down to room temperature, take a toothpick and poke little holes all over your cake layers (still in the pan). Then pour just enough jello over the cake layer to cover the whole top.
- Place the cake layers in the fridge until the jello firms up, about 2 hours.
ICING THE CAKE - Once the jello is firm, make your icing. This is a super easy icing to make and spreads very well and tastes amazing. I licked the bowl.
- Place the whipping cream in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high until soft peaks form.
- Add the sugar, butter and vanilla and beat on high until stiff peaks form.
- Done.
- Now you can stack and ice your cake and top with berries if you choose and serve!
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
internet
Independence Day Cake – Foods of Our Lives