Jello Swim Cake

Pinterest is my life, in a manner of speaking. More accurately, it serves as the inspiration to most if not all of my projects, recipes and wacky inventions. My most recent one was an attempt to make a dessert of some kind for a swim banquet. While searching pinterest I found a Jello Cake, not one where you dye the cake with the jello, this recipe had three layers; a sponge cake, a mousse jello, and a jello layer. The original recipe can be found here at Natasha's Kitchen. In her recipe she uses a raspberry jello. Since I was going to make a swimming cake it made more sense to use blue jello and blueberries.
I had the idea to make the cake look like a pool, so the idea was to use the blueberries to mimic the look of the tiles at the bottom of the pool and to use Twizzlers to mimic the lane lines.


When I first told my mother about the recipe, she was confused about the cake and how it would be sponge like without any leavening agent. To clarify, the cake is made from eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla. The sponge part is created when you beat the eggs and sugar together until they are thick and fluffy. The flour and vanilla are folded in as to not deflate the eggs.

The sponge cake in the oven.

The cake pan is only lined with parchment paper and does not stick to the side of the pan. After I pulled it from the oven, I inverted the pan onto a cooling rack and pealed the parchment paper off of the back of the cake then let the cake cool.

Meanwhile, the jello mousse is made as well as the simple syrup for the cake. The jello mousse is made with 6 oz. of jello, 2 cups of boiling water, 1 cup of ice water and once that starts to set, cool whip is mixed in with it. The simple syrup is made with 1/2 cup of hot water, 2 tablespoons sugar and a teaspoon lemon juice. 

The simple syrup is brushed on the cake and once the mousse layer starts to set, it is spread on top of the cake. Nothing should be above room temperature.

While the mouse is setting, the final jello layer is made with 3 oz. of jello, 1 cup of boiling water and 1/2 cup ice water. 

When I made the blueberry cake, I put the blueberries in the mousse layer right after I poured it. After I let the mousse layer sit, I added the Twizzlers and the final jello layer. 

The only problem I had with this step was that once I tried to move the cake, the watery jello layer on top made the Twizzler pieces move so I have to adjust them back into place. Other than that little tid-bit, the cake was quite simple to make. I followed Natasha's video to a T so that helped and I would highly recommend it. she gives a lot of little pointers that she doesn't add to the written instructions.

The Final Product

For the final product, I added 'flags' to make the cake look even more like a pool. At the party, most people didn't want me to cut it because it looked so good so be advised, it might be too pretty to eat!

Happy Jello

More Jello Related Ideas:

Broken Glass Jello

Jello Aquarium

Homemade Gummies