Red, White, and Blue Poke Cake

I enjoy cooking and baking. I do it often. I cook 4-5 nights out of the week and I am always trying new desserts. Now, this wasn't something that I always did. When Craig and I got married, I didn't know a thing about cooking much to my mom's dismay. She tried many times to teach me but I wasn't interested. I could make homemade ranch dressing, my special cream cheese/Pace dip, and sweetened tea. That's it. But Craig married me anyways.

Once we got married, Hamburger Helper became my best friend. We ate that so much, in every flavor that they had, almost every night for dinner. Let's just say, Hamburger Helper is no longer welcome in my home and my kids don't even know what that is. In fact, most things, not all, but most things I make are from scratch.

So, every so often I will post one of our favorite recipes. I don't ever make anything that's difficult. I just thought I'd share them with you. Let me know how you like them or share some of your favorite recipes with me. I'd love to try them.

First is a recipe I got from BettyCrocker.com. It is called Red, White, and Blue Poke Cake and you're supposed to make the American flag out of strawberries and blueberries. My family is not keen on fresh blueberries, so I just used strawberries. I made this one night when we had dinner at my in-laws. It was an instant hit.

Here is the cake with just stripes of strawberries.




Here is what the inside of the cake looks like. You poke holes in a cooled cake and poor a gelatin mixture over it to get the red on the inside. (Pardon the cheap paper plate, I really do have nice dishes)

Red, White, and Blue Poke Cake

1 box white cake mix
Water, oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box
1 box (4-serving size) strawberry-flavored gelatin
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 box (4-serving size) white chocolate instant pudding and pie filling mix
1/3 cup milk
1 container (8 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Heat oven to 350°F. Make cake mix as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil and egg whites. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack 1 hour.
Pierce cooled cake with fork at 1/2-inch intervals. In medium bowl, stir gelatin and boiling water until dissolved. Stir in cold water. Carefully pour mixture over entire surface of cake. Refrigerate at least 3 hours until serving time.
In large bowl, mix pudding mix and milk until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spread over cake. Arrange strawberries and blueberries on top of cake to look like flag. Store in refrigerator.

This is delicious even without the blueberries. I'm sure you can experiment with different flavors of gelatin and fresh fruit toppings. Enjoy!