Shopwhy, hello there. i just looked to see when the last time i paid attention to this blog, and i’m…shocked, but not shocked? (i also just realized that i have never shared my big celebration weekend here, so i’m gonna need to do that too!) so, we have some catching up to do and i figure 4th of july is a good time to start!
our 4th of julys are my fave. it’s one of our many framily days throughout the year and as my bestie’s family has grown, our 4th of julys have grown too! there’s more food than you can imagine, bags, a highly patriotic golf cart dressed to the nines for neighborhood rides, and of course, fireworks!
and, in my usual fashion, i went shopping with #1 the night before the 4th and to my absolute surprise, #1 had his own idea about a dessert he wanted to make! he had the idea to take a family favorite (jello cake) and create a “captain america” shield out of the whole thing. (genius move! my creative mama heart was soaring!)
so in case you want to bookmark this for next year, or make this for any given day throughout the year, here’s how we did this dessert together:
supplies:
one vanilla boxed cake mix
any red-flavored jello (we used strawberry!)
two 8″ round cake pans
one 16 oz. cool whip
strawberries
raspberries
blueberries
white icing
star cookie cutter
- the cap shield is obviously round. so, we pulled out our two 8″ round cake pans and prepped a vanilla boxed cake mix. (nope, i don’t do cakes from scratch!) followed the directions on the box to make our two 8″ rounds.
- after the cakes came out of the oven, we let them cool on the counter for about an hour. this is crucial, especially with jello cake (in case you’ve never made jello cake before!)
- once the two rounds are cool, take a toothpick or a fork and poke holes in your cakes. prep your jello per the package instructions (we used strawberry flavor, but you can choose whatever you’d like!)
- pour half of the jello mix into each 8″ round and put both rounds in the fridge to allow the jello to set. (pro tip: it’s especially helpful if you do this hours before your party so the cakes have enough time to cool and set up with the jello. like, if you are planning to go to the pool for a few hours, make the cakes and add the jello before you leave for the pool so you can be super productive while lounging poolside!)
- once you get the rounds out of the fridge, you’re going to want to stack them. we added a thin layer of cool whip between the layers. (pro tip: jello cake is *moist* (yes, i hate that word too). don’t try to use traditional icing. it’s too thick and it will pull the cake apart when you’re trying to smooth it on the cake. we also left the bottom round layer in its pan, added the cool whip on top of that, then only needed to transfer the top layer. we still had a little crumbling!)
- now it’s time to start your fruit details! we started with the outer circle of strawberry halves. wash your strawberries, then half them vertically, and place them end side out around the cake pan.
- next up: a border of white icing. i know i said don’t spread frosting on the cake…for this we’re going to pipe the icing on, so there’s not the risk of the cake falling apart like there is if you spread it on the cake. i bought this wilton pre-packaged piping frosting which was just what we needed! (you should have some left over. set this aside, because we’re gonna use the rest of it in a minute!)
- once your icing is piped on (we did a double layer because who doesn’t love icing??), grab raspberries and place a border next to the icing with the bottoms of the raspberries face up.
- grab your star shaped cookie cutter and position it in the center of the remaining cake. gently push the cookie cutter into the top layer of the cake so you end up with a nice outline of the star on the cake. you’re going to use this outline to trace the star with the remaining icing and fill it in.
- to finish it up, spread blueberries in the remaining cake area and around the white iced star!
