Christmas Poke Cake

Why you’ll love this Christmas poke cake:

• It’s easy to make
• No stand mixer required!
• It’s easy to divide the work up over a couple of days

How to make Christmas poke cake

• Combine your cake ingredients—except jello—in a bowl
• Beat until smooth
• Pour into 8-inch cake pans and bake about 45 minutes

Then you’ll cool your cake layers completely. 

If they’ve domed, I recommend using a long serrated knife to trim then so they’re even—this way your cake layers will stack neatly. You can see in the pics below that I’ve trimmed the tops off of the layers.

Once your layers are cool (and trimmed if desired):

• Mix jello and boiling water until the jello dissolves
• Use a fork with long tines (or a toothpick) to poke holes all over the cake layers
• Pour the jello over that

Baker’s tip: Before adding the jello, put the cake layers on a wire rack and set the wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet. That will catch any jello you spill.

Chill your cake layers for at least four hours, or overnight.

Notes:

• I used raspberry jello but you can use any red jello—or green jello!
• If you use a toothpick rather than a long-tined fork, swirl the toothpick around a little bit to enlarge the holes. You don’t want craters but you want the holes a little bigger than the width of a toothpick.
• If you have a favorite from-scratch white cake you can use this same technique with the jello; it works best with cake layers that are fairly firm so the jello doesn’t all run to the bottom of the cake.

How to make vanilla buttercream frosting

• Beat room temperature butter until smooth
• Add powdered sugar and a few other ingredients
• Beat until smooth and fluffy

I recommend using clear vanilla extract in this frosting so your frosting stays white but that’s totally up to you.

• Spread an even layer of frosting over one cake layer
• Top with the second cake layer
• Frost with the remaining frosting

If you want, you can reserve a little frosting, dye it green, and pipe that around the cake. For instructions on how to do this, see below. I used this leaf green gel food coloring.

How to use a piping bag

• Fit your selected frosting tip into your bag (see the notes below for the tip and bag I used)
• Fold the top half of the bag down
• Use a rubber spatula to scrape your frosting into the bag and twist the top to prevent it from oozing out
• Squeeze the bag lightly and press the tip to the cake wherever you want the frosting to go. Release the bag, pull it away, and voila, you’ve added decoration!

Baker’s tip: If you’re new to piping frosting, practice your piping on a piece of wax paper before trying it on the cake. You can scrape any frosting on the paper right back into your piping bag. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful this is!

Notes on decorating your cake:

• I used this Ateco piping tip (#824) and a 16-inch Wilton piping bag
• If your piping bag is brand new, you’ll need to cut a bit off of the bottom for the tip to fit
• If you use the same size tip I used, it’s large enough that you can use it without a coupler fitted into the bag (smaller tips typically require couplers)
• A turntable makes frosting and decorating cakes so much easier–you can turn the cake rather than having to move yourself around the cake. I’ve had the turntable you see in the pics above since high school and it doesn’t seem to be available anymore. This turntable is a great alternative.
• I used this green gel food coloring for my green frosting