Cake "Broken Glass" - Valya's Taste of Home (2024)

Every family has its share of favorite cakes, we definitely have ours! My husband’s favorite cake is the Curly Boy cake. But this Broken Glass cake is my favorite. It’s a bit more time consuming to make but it’s very appealing to the eye. And the taste buds... 😛

About 10 years ago when I tried this cake I did not like it much. To see all the different cake pieced cut up and thrown into a cake form was unusual to me, and when I tried it I didn’t like that combination. I guess it’s an acquired taste for us traditionalists.

My kids loved it on the other hand, Jell-O is all kids favorite, but the rest of it is fantastic. Rich and delicious. With time I developed a taste for this cake and it’s become a top choice. In the beginning I would not have believed how much I love this cake now with a cup of plain Lipton tea.

I remember when we had visitors and I had made this cake, everyone loved it and was asking for seconds. It’s a great dessert to eat, worth the little bit of extra work to make it. It always goes over well, especially with kids but adults love it too. It looks great on a holiday plate. Change up the colors of the Jell-O to the holiday colors you make it for or around. I make yellow and red for fall, and green and red for Christmas. This cake is so fun and cheerful! Enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients you will need:

4 cups – cold water (split into 2 pots)
1 pack (6 oz.) – cherry Jell-O
1 pack (6 oz.) lemon Jell-O
4 – eggs
1 cup - sugar
1 cup – sour cream
1 tsp. – baking soda
1 tsp. – vinegar
1 ½ cup – all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. – Hershey Cocoa (+ 1 tbsp. for decorating cream)
2 (16 oz.) – sour cream
2 cups – sugar
½ cup – boiling water
3 packets – Knox Original Gelatin
16 oz. – Cool whip
¼ cup - confectioners’sugar
10 – Lemon drops
Hershey Dark Chocolate bar

Make Jell-O first the night before.

In two separate small pots add 2 cups of water of water in each. Bring to a boil. Add cherry Jell-O into one pot and lemon Jell-O into the second pot. Stir until all gelatin dissolves, cool and place in the fridge to completely set.

Direction for batter:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of your electric mixer at eggs and sugar and beat it on high for 5 minutes.

2. Add cup of sour cream and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.

3. Activate baking soda with vinegar, and mix it for another minute.

4. Add flour through the sifter and mix it on low for 2 minutes. You can mix it with whisker instead of the mixer attachment. You can over beat the flour and it won’t rise, so if you are not using a kitchen aid mixer I recommend to use a hand whisker.

5. Grease both pans with butter.

6. Pour half of the batter into one pan. For the other half add Hershey Cocoa and mix until all combined. Pour the chocolate batter into the second pan. Bake for 30 minutes on 350 F.

7. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely.

8. Cut white and chocolate bread into ½ inch pieces. Same with Jell-O, cut it into ½ inch cube inside the pots.

How to make the white binding cream for the cake:

1. Start with making gelatin first. Add ⅓ cup boiling water into a cup and add 3 packets of original gelatin. Mix it until all gelatin bits are dissolves.

2. In a medium bowl add sour cream, sugar and mix with a hand mixer on medium until all sugar is combined and the mixture is smooth.

3. Add hot gelatin into the cream and mix it right away until cream and gelatin is all combined.

How to assemble the cake:

1. Place a large spring form pan ring on a cake holder.

2. You need to work fast as cream will set fast (if the cream starts to get too thick, mix it with a mixer again for a minute. You can repeat mixing the cream in between if it gets thick while working). Spread some of the white bread on to the cake holder.

3. Spread some of the cake cream on top of it.

4. Add some of the chocolate bread cubes.

5. Add more cream to cover the chocolate bread.

6. Spread red Jell-O on top of the cream.

7. Add more cream to cover red Jell-O.

8. Spread yellow Jell-O on top of the cream.

9. Cover the yellow Jell-O with cream. Keep repeating these assembling steps until all the bread, Jell-O and cream is gone. Refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight before removing the ring.

Decorating the cake:

1. In a medium bowl add cool whip, confectioners’ sugar and lemon drops. Mix it on medium for 2 minutes or until all combined.Remove the ring from the cake by separating edge of the cake from ring pan with knife.

2. Cover the cake with the cream. Shape the cake with Wilton cake tracer, and cover the cake with grated dark chocolate.

3. With left over cream decorate the edges. Add 1 tbsp. of Hershey Cocoa.

4. Mix the cream and Cocoa with a spatula until well combined.

5. Place the cream into decorating bag with Wilton 21 attachment and decorate the bottom of the cake.

6. With Ateco 87 attachment decorate the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 10-12 hours for the cake to completely set before serving.

Enjoy with your favorite cup of tea!

Recipe Card

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