Why Adding Jell-O To Your Cake Mix Is Genius

It's hard to top Jell-O as a light and easy dessert you can pull together any day of the week. Kids love the classic treat's bright colors and wiggly-jiggly texture, and it's a base for retro recipes guaranteed to impress your guests. But Jell-O can also be a baker's unexpected best friend. The flavored gelatin powder is perfect for giving your cakes some pizzazz, like other boxed cake mix hacks you'll wish you knew sooner.

Adding Jell-O powder to cake mix most noticeably brings its flavor and color to the dessert. The gelatin works on another level too, creating a moister, denser crumb. Of course, one of the best benefits is how easily it levels up your cake. Most recipes call for one 3-ounce box of regular Jell-O (not sugar-free) for a standard box of cake mix. Eggs, water, and vegetable oil are added, but not necessarily in the same amounts as the cake mix directions, so make sure to follow the recipe. You could also blend Jell-O powder into made-from-scratch batter.

The many cake mix and Jell-O flavors available give you lots of room to experiment. White and yellow cake mixes are a more neutral platform for the Jell-O's flavor and color. But you can use the same flavors, like lemon cake and lemon Jell-O, or blend them, like vanilla with orange Jell-O for Creamsicle cake, or strawberry and lemon Jell-O for strawberry lemonade flavor. It works with chocolate, too — try chocolate mix with cherry Jell-O for a riff on Black Forest cake.

Once you've decided on your cake and Jell-O pairing, you can dress up the cake in other ways. Blend fruit ingredients into the batter that match the flavors, like thawed frozen strawberries, lemon, orange, or lime zest, or finely diced peach or pineapple. Make a glaze with powdered sugar and cream or a matching fruit juice. Make holes in the top of the cake with a fork after it comes out of the oven, and pour over the glaze to let it soak in.

Jell-O can also be used to make a buttercream frosting. Mix the powder with hot water to dissolve and let it cool. Then add it to butter that's been beaten in a mixer for about 10 minutes and sweetened with sugar. Try other toppings like whipped cream, Cool Whip, or dusted powdered sugar. Finally, top with some matching fruit for a pretty touch that also tells you the cake's flavor before digging in.

These cakes are related to Jell-O poke cake, another combination of the two created by then-Jell-O owner General Foods in the 1970s. The cake is baked as usual, and then holes are poked in it with a fork or wooden skewer, and Jell-O powder dissolved in water is poured on. It's usually done with a light color cake so you can see the designs created by the colorful liquid. Blending Jell-O powder with the cake mix instead creates a uniform color and flavor throughout the cake.