Howdy, Jigglers! Today I'm starting a new series on the blog of old family Jell-O recipes, whether they're from my family or from someone I know. It seems like I have accumulated quite a few of these over the past six months or so, so I figured it's time to start sprinkling these into the Jell-O rotation (not that I don't love the upcoming JOJ recipes for my blogging efforts, like Ring Around the Tuna) for some variety.
To inaugurate the series, I am making a recipe that my mom apparently used to make a lot back in the good old days before I came around: Strawberry Jell-O Cake! No, it's not a cake. But it does have strawberry Jell-O, though. It is a nutty strawberry-banana fruit mixture in two layers of strawberry Jell-O with a layer of Cool Whip in between. For a less sweet variation, I have seen this same basic recipe posted around the Internets with straight sour cream in between the two gelatin layers instead of Cool Whip, but of course I wanted to try the recipe as written.
Now, since it was written in the 70s, package sizes and presentations of the various ingredients have changed between then and now, but you get enough to go on, certainly. What my mom left (perhaps intentionally) vague is how to mix all the ingredients together. I guess you could mix everything together in one layer, but research into similar Jell-O salads reveal that most people layer them.
The method for this Jell-O madness is simple and straightforward: mix your Jell-O and boiling water, cool until very thick, mix in the rest of the ingredients (I separated the gelatin into halves before mixing in the frozen strawberries so my top layer wouldn't set too soon), pour half into the pan, let set, put Cool Whip over it, then repeat the process for the first layer for the second one. I was planning on making a layer of half of my Cool Whip in the middle and then putting the rest on top, as my mom indicates in the recipe, but half the tub wasn't nearly enough Cool Whip to make a satisfactory or even noticeable layer in the middle, so I just spread it all on there. Even with all the Cool Whip spread on the first layer, I didn't feel like I had enough creamy goodness, so I spread on a little plain yogurt on top of it. If you really want Cool Whip on top, get two tubs.
The Jell-O layers turned out very chunky, but it just shows how bursting with fruit they are!
The little sprinkly bits in the gelatin are the pecans--we could only find pecan bits and not chopped or halved or whole pecans, or else I would've made those a little chunkier too.
I was pleased with the adherence of the Jell-O to the Cool Whip, since each slice of this "cake" held together pretty well.
Now that's a satisfactory and noticeable Cool Whip layer. This cake reminds me a lot of the Austrian and Peruvian flags. For all my Austrian and Peruvian readers out there, this would be a great dessert for any of your national holidays.
I know I always talking about serving Jell-O dishes at luncheons, but this time I really did serve the Strawberry Jell-O Cake at a luncheon with some friends and their kids, and everybody finished their servings, plus I even sent some second servings home with them. It was very tasty and cool on a toasty day, and the fruitiness of it mixed with all the creaminess in the center was delightful.
It was slightly concerning to see how much cake this recipe made considering the quantity of bananas in them, but the gelatin kept the nanners perfectly preserved for three or four days, so you've got time to finish this beast off, but I do recommend either serving it to a group or making it for a larger family or halving the recipe if you're not sure you can finish it right away.
If you're reading this, Mom, congrats! Your recipe got rave reviews! Even though I don't remember having eaten this as a kid, it still brings back that 70s nostalgia. I can taste the Watergate salad now (stay tuned...)
