Wednesday was my husband’s birthday. Happy birthday, buddy! When he first laid eyes upon this recipe, he immediately declared, “That’s what I want for my birthday cake.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “It doesn’t even have chocolate in it.” He replied, “It looks fruity and light. That’s what I want.”
Okay. No chocolate for me.
News about this cake spread before the birthday celebration, creating an air of anticipation prior to the unveiling. I was worried about the cake sticking to the springform pan, so I let the birthday man have the honor (and the risk) of unmolding and slicing. The springform ring came off just fine, but it was a little tricky transferring the slices to plates. And the taste? Well, I'm not a big fan of Jell-O, and it certainly wasn't chocolate, but it was tasty. I think it was well received by all in attendance.
A few notes:
-Rather than purchase a can of pineapple juice, I opted to buy pineapple chunks in natural juice. It was about the same price, contained the exact amount of juice necessary, and I got to enjoy some delicious pineapple chunks, too. Mmmm… nature’s candy.
-I was somewhat distracted when preparing the crust and accidentally put ¾ cup sugar in the crust, rather than ¼ cup. It still worked out just fine and I don't think anybody noticed. Until right about now. Whoops, the secret is out.
-9 crackers, crushed, equaled 1 ½ cups of crumbs for me.
Stained Glass Cake
From Cook's Country
12 graham crackers, crushed to fine crumbs (about 1 ½ cups)
¾ cup sugar, divided
5 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3 (3 ounce) boxes Jell-O
4 ½ cups boiling water
¾ cup pineapple juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Stir cracker crumbs, ¼ sugar, and butter in bowl until crumbs resemble wet sand. Press into bottom of 9-inch springform pan and bake until edges are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
For the filling: In 3 separate large bowls, whisk each box Jell-O with 1 ½ cups boiling water until dissolved. Pour into 3 loaf pans or pie plates (I used cake pans) and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours. Once set, cut into ½-inch cubes and keep chilled. Combine ¼ cup pineapple juice and unflavored gelatin in bowl. Microwave, stirring occasionally, until dissolved, 1 to 3 minutes. Slowly whisk in remaining pineapple juice. With electric stand mixer set on medium-high, whip cream, vanilla, salt, and remaining sugar until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add juice mixture until combined. Gently fold Jell-O cubes into cream mixture. Scrape into prepared pan and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours or up to 2 days.
I recently learned that my blog has somewhat of a following among my husband’s family. Thanks for reading!
11 comments:
I'm not a huge fan of jelly (jell-o) either, but I love the look of this! Would definitely be great for a themed party, or for kids... I'm going to hold onto this recipe!
Bellissima e variapionta questa tua ricetta, complimenti .
Ciao Daniela.
I think this cake is beautiful. My family would love it. Unique. Different. Thank you for posting it!
it just looks like the magazine's photo! i wanted to try that too in the future..
i'm mesmerized by all the colours. loving it! xfin
My mom used to make this when I was a kid!! I forgot about this dessert. I will have to make for old times sake! Thanks!
I love it! I'm always drawn towards beautiful multicoloured desserts.
What a gorgeous dessert, I will definitely have to give it a try sometime.
I was waiting for this!! We showed it to Liz's mom on Saturday night and she wrote down the address for your blog.
I made this for christmas this year with just red and green jello. It's funny because i saw your blog about the cake before i made it and i read how you made the mistake with the sugar. I say that because when i made the cake i made the same mistake. I ended up putting another 1/4 cup sugar into the actually cake. Next time if i make it i'll be sure to make it correctly and i'll just stick with the 1/4 cup sugar instead of 1/2 cup for the filling.
I just learned about Stained Glass cake from this time-table of US cakes throughout history. When I did a BING search your awesome blog was the first thing that came up - so thanks! I might just try this out myself.
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