Adam's Graduation Cake

I made Lindsay her graduation cake while my friend Adam was over and he asked me to make him one after defending his thesis. Then he sent me this recipe for one of the strangest cakes I have ever made. I told him I would under two conditions: 1) I would not use cake mix and 2) I would not use Cool Whip. He agreed and I was off into the weird world of dumping gelatin on top of a cake.

Gelatin Poke Cake gladly modified from Kraft:

Makes 1 strange cake

1 recipe Lindsay's Graduation Cake (not in layers)

1 c.  boiling water

1 pkg. (3 oz.) strawberry flavor gelatin

½ c. cold water 

8 oz. heavy cream, whipped

After cake has cooled in pan for about 15 minutes, remove from pan and pierce cake with a large fork at

½" intervals. 

Add boiling water to gelatin mix in a small bowl; stir two minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in cold water and pour over cake. At this point I should have realized that my cake was much smaller than the one Kraft describes and I was pouring too much stuff on the cake, but I decided to just roll with it anyway. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Frost cake with whipped cream. Refrigerate for 1 hour. I honestly don't know why anyone would use Cool Whip. It's got a zillion ingredients in it and whipped cream has two: cream and air. It tastes better too. Anyway, that's what I used. In the end, this strange cake turned out and it tasted kind of like a Crunch Berry, which isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm glad I made my friend happy, but I am unlikely to ever make a cake like this again.

I'm not a fan of using gelatin in general (check out my awesome gelatin free panna cotta for proof!), so if anyone knows of a way to do this without jell-o, that'd be rad.