Every family has its share of favorite cakes, we definitely have ours! My husband’s favorite cake is the Curly Boy cake. But this Broken Glass cake is my favorite. It’s a bit more time consuming to make but it’s very appealing to the eye. And the taste buds... 😛
About 10 years ago when I tried this cake I did not like it much. To see all the different cake pieced cut up and thrown into a cake form was unusual to me, and when I tried it I didn’t like that combination. I guess it’s an acquired taste for us traditionalists.
My kids loved it on the other hand, Jell-O is all kids favorite, but the rest of it is fantastic. Rich and delicious. With time I developed a taste for this cake and it’s become a top choice. In the beginning I would not have believed how much I love this cake now with a cup of plain Lipton tea.
I remember when we had visitors and I had made this cake, everyone loved it and was asking for seconds. It’s a great dessert to eat, worth the little bit of extra work to make it. It always goes over well, especially with kids but adults love it too. It looks great on a holiday plate. Change up the colors of the Jell-O to the holiday colors you make it for or around. I make yellow and red for fall, and green and red for Christmas. This cake is so fun and cheerful! Enjoy! 🙂
Ingredients you will need:
4 cups – cold water (split into 2 pots)
1 pack (6 oz.) – cherry Jell-O
1 pack (6 oz.) lemon Jell-O
4 – eggs
1 cup - sugar
1 cup – sour cream
1 tsp. – baking soda
1 tsp. – vinegar
1 ½ cup – all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. – Hershey Cocoa (+ 1 tbsp. for decorating cream)
2 (16 oz.) – sour cream
2 cups – sugar
½ cup – boiling water
3 packets – Knox Original Gelatin
16 oz. – Cool whip
¼ cup - confectioners’ sugar
10 – Lemon drops
Hershey Dark Chocolate bar
Make Jell-O first the night before.
In two separate small pots add 2 cups of water of water in each. Bring to a boil. Add cherry Jell-O into one pot and lemon Jell-O into the second pot. Stir until all gelatin dissolves, cool and place in the fridge to completely set.
Direction for batter:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of your electric mixer at eggs and sugar and beat it on high for 5 minutes.
2. Add cup of sour cream and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.
3. Activate baking soda with vinegar, and mix it for another minute.
4. Add flour through the sifter and mix it on low for 2 minutes. You can mix it with whisker instead of the mixer attachment. You can over beat the flour and it won’t rise, so if you are not using a kitchen aid mixer I recommend to use a hand whisker.
5. Grease both pans with butter.
6. Pour half of the batter into one pan. For the other half add Hershey Cocoa and mix until all combined. Pour the chocolate batter into the second pan. Bake for 30 minutes on 350 F.
7. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
8. Cut white and chocolate bread into ½ inch pieces. Same with Jell-O, cut it into ½ inch cube inside the pots.
How to make the white binding cream for the cake:
1. Start with making gelatin first. Add ⅓ cup boiling water into a cup and add 3 packets of original gelatin. Mix it until all gelatin bits are dissolves.
2. In a medium bowl add sour cream, sugar and mix with a hand mixer on medium until all sugar is combined and the mixture is smooth.
3. Add hot gelatin into the cream and mix it right away until cream and gelatin is all combined.
How to assemble the cake:
1. Place a large spring form pan ring on a cake holder.
2. You need to work fast as cream will set fast (if the cream starts to get too thick, mix it with a mixer again for a minute. You can repeat mixing the cream in between if it gets thick while working). Spread some of the white bread on to the cake holder.
3. Spread some of the cake cream on top of it.
4. Add some of the chocolate bread cubes.
5. Add more cream to cover the chocolate bread.
6. Spread red Jell-O on top of the cream.
7. Add more cream to cover red Jell-O.
8. Spread yellow Jell-O on top of the cream.
9. Cover the yellow Jell-O with cream. Keep repeating these assembling steps until all the bread, Jell-O and cream is gone. Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight before removing the ring.
Decorating the cake:
1. In a medium bowl add cool whip, confectioners’ sugar and lemon drops. Mix it on medium for 2 minutes or until all combined. Remove the ring from the cake by separating edge of the cake from ring pan with knife.
2. Cover the cake with the cream. Shape the cake with Wilton cake tracer, and cover the cake with grated dark chocolate.
3. With left over cream decorate the edges. Add 1 tbsp. of Hershey Cocoa.
4. Mix the cream and Cocoa with a spatula until well combined.
5. Place the cream into decorating bag with Wilton 21 attachment and decorate the bottom of the cake.
6. With Ateco 87 attachment decorate the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 10-12 hours for the cake to completely set before serving.
Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea!
Recipe Card
Cake "Broken Glass"
Ingredients
- 4 cups – cold water split into 2 pots
- 1 pack 6 oz. – cherry Jell-O
- 1 pack 6 oz. lemon Jell-O
- 4 – eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup – sour cream
- 1 tsp. – baking soda
- 1 tsp. – vinegar
- 1 ½ cup – all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp. – Hershey Cocoa +1tbsp for decorating cream
- 2 16 oz. – sour cream
- 2 cups – sugar
- ½ cup – boiling water
- 3 packets – Knox Original Gelatin
- 16 oz. – Cool whip
- ¼ cup - confectioners’ sugar
- 10 – Lemon drops
- Hershey Dark Chocolate bar
Instructions
- Make Jell-O first the night before.
- In two separate small pots add 2 cups of water of water in each. Bring to a boil. Add cherry Jell-O into one pot and lemon Jell-O into the second pot. Stir until all gelatin dissolves, cool and place in the fridge to completely set.
- Direction for batter:
- Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of your electric mixer at eggs and sugar and beat it on high for 5 minutes.
- Add cup of sour cream and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Activate baking soda with vinegar, and mix it for another minute.
- Add flour through the sifter and mix it on low for 2 minutes. You can mix it with whisker instead of the mixer attachment. You can over beat the flour and it won’t rise, so if you are not using a kitchen aid mixer I recommend to use a hand whisker.
- Grease both pans with butter.
- Pour half of the batter into one pan. For the other half add Hershey Cocoa and mix until all combined. Pour the chocolate batter into the second pan. Bake for 30 minutes on 350 F.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.
- How to make the white binding cream for the cake:
- Start with making gelatin first. Add ⅓ cup boiling water into a cup and add 3 packets of original gelatin. Mix it until all gelatin bits are dissolves.
- In a medium bowl add sour cream, sugar and mix with a hand mixer on medium until all sugar is combined and the mixture is smooth.
- Add hot gelatin into the cream and mix it right away until cream and gelatin is all combined.
- How to assemble the cake:
- Place a large spring form pan ring on a cake holder.
- You need to work fast as cream will set fast (if the cream starts to get too thick, mix it with a mixer again for a minute. You can repeat mixing the cream in between if it gets thick while working). Spread some of the white bread on to the cake holder.
- Spread some of the cake cream on top of it.
- Add some of the chocolate bread cubes.
- Add more cream to cover the chocolate bread.
- Spread red Jell-O on top of the cream.
- Add more cream to cover red Jell-O.
- Spread yellow Jell-O on top of the cream.
- Cover the yellow Jell-O with cream. Keep repeating these assembling steps until all the bread, Jell-O and cream is gone. Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight before removing the ring.
- Decorating the cake:
- In a medium bowl add cool whip, confectioners’ sugar and lemon drops. Mix it on medium for 2 minutes or until all combined. Remove the ring from the cake by separating edge of the cake from ring pan with knife.
- Cover the cake with the cream. Shape the cake with Wilton cake tracer, and cover the cake with grated dark chocolate.
- With left over cream decorate the edges. Add 1 tbsp. of Hershey Cocoa.
- Mix the cream and Cocoa with a spatula until well combined.
- Place the cream into decorating bag with Wilton 21 attachment and decorate the bottom of the cake.
- With Ateco 87 attachment decorate the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 10-12 hours for the cake to completely set before serving.
- Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea!
If you make this Cake "Broken Glass" Recipe please share a picture with me on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. Tag with #valyastasteofhome. I’d love to see your creations! ?
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lily says
The best broken glass cake I ever had!!!
My children keep asking for the cake birthday after birthday!
Valya's Taste of Home says
I'm so happy to hear that. It is one of my kid's favorites as well. Thank you for an amazing review!
Yuliya says
Hi, I was just wondering how far ahead of time can you make this cake?
Valya of Valya's Taste of Home says
3 days before serving is ok. It will have plenty of time to soak in the flavors. Would love to see the picture of your creation.
Oksana says
What size pan do u use for this cake? Looks very delicious...
www.valyastasteofhome.com says
You can use any size pan since you will have to cube the cake sponges anyway. 8" inches is ok to use.
Oksana says
Awesome, how about the pan u lay it out?
www.valyastasteofhome.com says
10" inch round springform.
Roxanne says
I made this cake last night. It was so pretty straight out of the mold that I decided I'm not even going to bother frosting the outside. My husband doesn't like frosting anyways :). The only problem I ran across was not having enough of the white filling that gets poured in between the cake/Jello pieces. I just quickly made a half portion more and that solved the problem. Also, I filled the ring rim to the top and still had some cake and Jello leftover. No problem, kids gladly took care of it. Otherwise the taste is delicious and its a gorgeous cake.
valya'stasteofhome.com says
I'm very happy to hear that your cake turned out, and you guys like it.
Sometimes you don't have enough of the white filling if you put to much in between the cake/jello pieces. I do go over the rim and use up all the cake and jello. I'll try to make the cake by posted recipe to double check if I didn't miss anything since you were short on cream filling. Thank you very much for awesome review Roxanne. 🙂
N says
Can I use strawberry and orange jello instead of cherry and lemon. Would it taste different
valya'stasteofhome.com says
You can use any flavor of jello. It will not change the taste of the cake, just the jello part. I used different jello in the past. Like lime and cherry for Christmas or lemon and orange for fall. I hope that helps.Thanks
Marina | Let the Baking Begin! says
My goodness, I can just imagine how popular this cake is with kids!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
I know, kids really love different colors in one cake. Thanks Marina! 🙂
Baker says
What a beautiful creation! So unique, just as some of your other things! I am still new to baking and cooking, and I am so thankful for bloggers like you! I am definitely going to try this cake and the cherry Iake one for a holiday! Thank you!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thanks! I'm glad I can be a help. Let me know how it turns out. 🙂
Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking says
That is really cool! I can see why it is your favorite!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thank you Lindsey!
huntfortheverybest says
what a pretty cake! you can really make holiday versions with different colors.
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thank you! You"re right! It will really stand out on the holiday table. 🙂
Natasha says
Yum! Absolutely delicious! It's like 4 major flavors in one bite! The chocolate cake, the white cake, jello and the cream:) my top 3 favorite! Thanks for posting! I've been waiting for this post for a long time.
valya'stasteofhome.com says
You are very welcome! I try to accommodate all the recipe request as soon as I can. 🙂 Thanks Natasha!
Tatyana says
Wow! That's looks delisious! I'm not real good in baking but maybe I should break my shell and try it out! Thanks for sharing and God bless!!!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
You are very welcome Tatyana! Its not as hard as it looks, especially if you get the hang of it, it's piece of cake! Gods blessings to you too Taneychka! 😉
Stacey @ Bake Eat Repeat says
What a fancy looking cake! This is really interesting, I've never heard of broken glass cake before, but you're right, the kids would definitely love it, jello in a cake!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thanks Stacey! Even picky eater kids absolutely love this cake. "Yum... Jell-O" you hear from them. 😉
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says
Wow this cake is incredible! Definitely looks like it was worth the extra work. I love this!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
It sure is. I make this cake about 5 time a year and never get tired of it. Love to see that "WOW" expression on peoples faces. Thanks Gayle 🙂
mira says
Valya,this cake looks so colorful and beautiful! Great for kids! Your cooking skills are amazing!
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thanks Mira! 16 years in the kitchen will give everyone amazing skills! Your cupcakes are beautiful too! 🙂
spicedblog says
What a fun recipe! I can totally see this showing up at the holidays. Thanks for sharing! P.S. You did an awesome job with that seashell border. 🙂
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thanks David!:)
Rachel @ Bakerita says
Okay - this cake is SOO cool looking, and you did a great job and showing how to make it! Great recipe 🙂
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thanks Rachel! Worth the time making it! 🙂
tworaspberries says
wow! this is absolutely beautiful 😉
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thank you! Tastes good too! 🙂