Raspberry Dream Dessert #Recipe

Pam showed us a picture of her home grown raspberries the other day and I have been dreaming of raspberries ever since!  When I was a child I would pick raspberries and bring home big bowls of them to make desserts with – except I never made desserts with them because they were eaten as soon as the bowl hit the kitchen counter. 

To cure my cravings, I ran out and picked up a container of raspberries from my local grocery store.  It isn’t the same as picking your own, but it works. 

The recipe below is called Raspberry Dream.  I have been playing with poke cakes for a few weeks now and I thought fresh raspberries would add a nice flavor.  This dessert is made with a box cake mix, red (any flavor) Jell-O, whipped cream, and fresh raspberries.  I hope you enjoy it as much as my family has~ V

Before you begin you need to decide if you are going to prepare this dessert as a cake or a parfait. 

For Raspberry Dream Parfait:

If you prefer a parfait cup, bake your cake in a jellyroll pan for thin layers.  If you don’t have one, prepare your cake in the biggest cake pan you have.  I have a limited amount of kitchen supplies with me (everything is still in storage back East), so prepared my cake using two pans.  One for the cake variation, and a smaller pan just big enough to make what I needed for the parfait.  Even though I tried to make my layers thin, it didn’t work as well as it does when baking the cake in a jellyroll – just keep that in mind please. 

Use your cup to cut pieces of thin cake into a circle.  If your cake is more than a half inch thick, divide your circles to make them thinner.  Follow the directions below to make Raspberry Dream Cake, repeat with a second layer. Garnish with raspberries.

For Raspberry Dream Cake:

After baking and cooling, prepare your cake to be smothered.  Go ahead and poke holes inside the cake with the end of a wooden spoon to allow the liquid Jell-O to seep into the creases and crannies (see photo below).

Next, prepare your Jell-O.  If you are preparing a “red, white, and blue” patriotic-style dessert, go ahead and use blue raspberry flavor.  For my dessert, I wanted to keep everything red so I used cherry Jell-O.  (Cherry added a sweetness to offset the mildly sweet fresh raspberry.)

After you have prepared your Jell-O, immediately pour it into your cake. 

Top your cake with whipped cream and garnish with fresh raspberries.

I like to see my raspberries so I place my on top of my whipped cream.  If you have an abundance (like Pam), I recommend a layer o raspberries between the cake and the whipped cream in addition to using raspberries to garnish.

Cover and chill for one-three hours.  Keep refrigerated.

Ingredients:

• White or Vanilla Cake
• Red Jell-O
• Whipped Cream
• Fresh Raspberries

Directions:

Bake cake as directed and allow to cool.

Poke holes in your cake with end of a wooden spoon.

Prepare Jell-O as directed on the package.  Pour onto cake.

Top cake with whipped cream.

Garnish cake with fresh raspberries.

Cover and chill for 1-2 hours.

BONUS:  This dessert is less than $5 (depending on the price of raspberries in your area).