American Flag Jello Cake (Icebox Cake)
Make this easy no-bake layered Jello icebox cake recipe ahead of your summer festivities, and slice to reveal a beautiful red, white and blue American flag pattern on the inside!
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 503kcal
Ingredients
- 4 cups heavy cream
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons coconut extract
- 14 ounce box graham crackers
- 3 ounce box red jello mix
- 3 ounce box blue jello mix
- 2 cups boiling water divided
- ½ cup shredded coconut divided
- Red and blue food coloring
Instructions
- Line a 5 x 9-inch loaf pan with plastic wrap. Set aside.
- Place the cold heavy cream in a large bowl. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and coconut extract. Use a hand mixer to beat the cream into very firm whipped cream. Then cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Set out two wide shallow dishes that are big enough for dunking a whole gram cracker. Pour the blue Jell-O mix into one dish and the red Jell-O mix in another dish. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into each dish. Stir them both immediately to dissolve the Jell-O mixture. (Add extra red and blue food colroing, if desired, at this time.) Then carefully break several graham crackers into quarters along the perforated lines.
- Spread a very thin layer of whipped cream across the bottom of the bread pan.
- Dunk several small graham cracker pieces in the blue Jell-O, flipping once or twice. Before they fully dissolve, move them to the bread pan. Line one long edge of the bread pan with blue soaked graham crackers. Repeat stacking the graham crackers five layers high to create the top blue corner of the American flag. If the graham crackers do not fill out the entire length of the bread pan, carefully trim small sections to stack at the end.
- Then dunk more graham crackers in the red Jell-O, flipping once or twice, and layering them on the other side. (See images within post.)
- After each even layer of red graham crackers, spread a thin layer of whipped cream across the entire pan creating the white stripes in the American flag. Continue to layer red Jell-O soaked graham crackers and white whipped cream in even layers until the pan is filled to the top.
- Cover the pan and freeze until the icebox cake is rock-hard, at least 3 hours. Place the remaining whipped cream back in the refrigerator for later use.
- Meanwhile, divide the coconut into two small bowls. Drop 1-2 blue food coloring drops in one bowl and stir vigorously until the food coloring is blue. Then drop 1-2 red drops in the other bowl and stir vigorously until the coconut is red. Set the coconut aside for later use.
- Once the freezer cake is very hard, flip it out of the loaf pan onto a dish or cutting board. Gently peel off the plastic wrap. Then spread the remaining whipped cream over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle with red and blue coconut on all sides. Then placed the freezer cake back in the freezer until ready to serve.
- When ready to serve, slice the cake into ¾ inch pieces in place on dessert plates. Make sure to lay the flags out in the right direction.
Notes
To intensify the red and blue colors, add additional food color to the jello.
Jello cake will keep well in the freezer for up to a month. Keep it wrapped tightly in a layer of plastic wrap, then in a layer of aluminum foil.
Nutrition
Serving: 1pc | Calories: 503kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 317mg | Potassium: 164mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 1166IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 80mg | Iron: 2mg