“Bake it and fake it” Island Cake

Hi all! I was super excited that this turned out so well. I’ve seen this type of cake floating around the Internet and decided to try my hand at it for no reason other than I’ve been stuck in my house since March with absolutely no end to this pandemic in sight. Here is our pretend vacation in cake form.


My husband and I got a kick out of styling those pictures—more than we probably would under normal circumstances. I followed the assembly instructions and recipe for the jello mixture here:
https://youtu.be/e2g5FSB3Fx0

I baked my own chocolate cake (the one on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa box) and made my own ganache (350 grams milk chocolate chips and 200 grams cream). My cakes were 6 inch rounds and I used a 7 inch pan with a remove-able bottom (I covered the outside of the 7 inch pan in a couple of squares of press-n-seal plastic to keep it from leaking) to mold the jello. To the jello mixture I omitted the lemon juice and added a good splash of clear vanilla extract and cherry extract. It’s still not great tasting—but it’s extremely firm (firmer even than jello jigglers), so you can easily peel it away from the yummy cake when you eat.

Here are my in-progress shots. It really wasn’t too difficult, but I think it looks impressive. My kids will freak out tomorrow morning when they look in the fridge.

30 Likes

This is SO COOL!

2 Likes

I love this!

2 Likes

Fun idea!

2 Likes

You forgot the gummy sharks.

Great cake!

2 Likes

Extremely unique…love the staging!

2 Likes

I’m so impressed by this fantastic cake. The kids are going to remember this cake, for sure!

2 Likes

Next time!!

1 Like

That is so cool! The pictures are awesome!

What did it taste like?

2 Likes

This is too amazing to eat… I haven’t seen anything quite like this before, and so now I’m in love! However, I know it will be fun to pretend to be a family of Giant Sea Monsters while cutting it up and devouring it!

3 Likes

What??? Woah!!! That cake is next level!!!:scream_cat::raised_hands:

3 Likes

I love that you embedded it in a gelatin “ocean!” And, it’s so cool how you set it up to have a beautiful sunset sky background. Impressive work!

2 Likes

Wow! I love this!!! :heart_eyes:

2 Likes

OMG, this is incredible!! Even though you said Jello, my brain was like, HOW?! lol…awesome! I agree - we need a verdict on taste!

2 Likes

Congrats! Your Bake it and Fake it Cake is one of this week’s featured projects. You rock!

3 Likes

That is SOOOO cool!

2 Likes

I had no idea this was a cake! It’s so amazing! When I read it was Jell-O, all I could think of was Jim putting Dwight’s stapler in Jell-O. You way outdid Jim. :rofl:

2 Likes

Thank you!!! For those asking—-no one ate the jello, lol. It tasted very rubbery and watered down sweet. But the cake tasted like a regular chocolate cake, so that’s good. :slight_smile:

6 Likes

That looks so cool! I have never seen a jello cake, lol.

1 Like

Genius and your artistry in creating the island vegetation on the mountains is just superb

1 Like