My daughter asked me the other day if I can make the “poke cake thing”. I had zero idea what in the heck she was talking about until she mentioned Jell-o. Now, I do not like Jell-o in general but when used to make a delicious cake? I am all in!

Jell-o Poke Cake

This cake might be the easiest cake to make. The best thing about it – no frosting!

For this cake you need to make a plain old vanilla cake. I used a basic vanilla cake recipe that I use for cupcakes, but I just poured all of the batter into a 9 x 13 cake pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar (or sugar substitute; we use a substitute and it works great)
• 1 egg
• 1 tea pure vanilla
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup butter, soft
• ½ tea salt
• 1 ½ cups flour (we use wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries; thawed and blended

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream together shortening and sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla, beating until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Take turns adding the dry mixture and milk into the creamy mixture. Stir in the thawed frozen blended strawberries.
• Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in preheated oven or until a toothpick comes out clean. You need to watch your cake. Every oven is different and will cook at various speeds. This particular cake came out a little darker than I would have liked but I think the strawberries that I added might have something to do with that.
• Cool completely.

Once the cake is cooled completely I put it into a container that was lined in aluminium foil. The next step is to take a dowel or skewer and poke holes all over your cake – this is where you can get the little kids involved.

Next, mix a packet of strawberry (or whatever flavor you like) Jello with 1 cup boiling water until dissolved. Once dissolved add 1/2 cup cold water and mix. Pour mixture slowly and evenly over the cake. It might not look like it is getting in the holes, but it is. Next place the cake into the refrigerator for an hour or longer. I leave mine for at least about 2 hours.

Now frost the cake. Oh wait! Don’t use frosting. Whip up a little whipping cream and frost it with that! It is light and airy and delicious. I think that this cake would be strange with regular frosting as frosting is too thick. Remember to refrigerate leftovers. This one was gone in less than 2 days so I really don’t know how long it should last. As a rule at my house everything is thrown out in 2-3 days if not consumed.