The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #27: Ice Cream Party Dessert

A few months ago my mother came to visit, and we had a laugh riot looking at the recipes from my vintage Jell-O cookbooks. She grew up during Jell-O's heyday, so she remembers all the classics. I asked her to pick out a recipe for me to make because the kinds of recipes I choose to make and the kinds of recipes my husband picks out for me are just a tad predictable, and she chose Ice Cream Party Dessert because it sounded halfway decent.

Being unable to find Black Raspberry Jell-O, I settled for raspberry, and otherwise I stuck to the recipe. I don't have a springform pan, so I made this recipe in my trusty Bundt pan, leaving the ladyfingers to float at the top to form a sort of crust for the gelatin-cream mixture. It was a tad difficult to trim the ladyfingers correctly to make a semi-solid layer, but I got it eventually. Other than that, this was a very straightforward recipe to make, although if making in a springform pan, I highly recommend waiting until the gelatin is at the stage where a spoon drawn through it leaves a definite impression before putting it in the pan. Otherwise your carefully arranged ladyfingers will float to the top and leave you with a less-than-Instagram-worthy result.

During setting the ice cream and the gelatin separate somewhat, but the ice cream layer looks gritty for some reason. It's probably worth noting that I wasn't using top-notch ice cream here, so maybe that's why. Aside from that it looks like a fairly normal gelatin mold (the crinkly texture on the top is due to having been stored under plastic wrap), and it tastes...okay.

The flavor of this dessert is, as you might expect, just like normal Jell-O but slightly creamier and sweeter, which today's Jell-O mixes just don't need. If you replicated this recipe but with unsweetened whipped cream, you would probably get a better end result. As ever, the best part of Jell-O + ladyfinger creations is the airy, spongy texture the ladyfingers get when soaked in gelatin, and that is predictably also the case here. And as per usual, my recommendations on how to improve this recipe are as follows:

-Use unflavored gelatin instead of Jell-O
-Sub in a vanilla-compatible juice for the water, or at least 2/3 of the water

I think this would be particularly pretty and tasty with black cherry juice. Another good option would be orange juice for a creamsicle flavor. Either of those would make for a festive dessert fit for a party, especially in a springform pan, but with actual Jell-O it winds up just overly sweet and artificial tasting. I ate all of it, but I didn't look forward to finishing it off.