CREAMSICLE JELL-O CAKE

Steps:

• 1. Instructions to make/bake the cake: Preheat oven to 350º. (If using a metal or glass pan, preheat oven to 325º.) Grease inside of one 13x9x2-inch pan with shortening. Lightly flour the pan.
• 2. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and water. Beat ingredients at low speed for 30-60 seconds. Then beat at medium speed for about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of bowl, then continue to mix batter for another minute or two, until batter ingredients are well combined together.
• 3. Pour batter into cake pan, and bake immediately. (Since I used a pyrex glass cake pan, I baked my cake for 35 minutes in a 325º oven.) Be sure to check the back of the boxed cake mix, to see how long to bake your cake, for what type of pan you are using.
• 4. After removing pan from oven, use a toothpick to poke wholes over the entire cake. This may seem a bit time consuming, but be sure to poke every inch of the cake. Set cake aside to cool. Once the cake has cooled, follow instructions for preparing the gelatin.
• 5. In a heat-proof bowl, add the orange gelatin and hot boiling water, and stir for 2 minutes. Now add the 1 cup of cold water, and stir for about 30 seconds. Use a large spoon to pour the liquid gelatin over the entire cake. Once that is done, I then place the cake in the refrigerator for several hours, (about 4-6 hours) before frosting the cake.
• 6. Instructions to prepare frosting and to frost the cake: In a large deep bowl, add the softened cream cheese; beat for a minute with an electric hand held mixer. Now add the milk, and beat until milk and cream cheese are well mixed together. Add the extracts, kool-aid, and boxed pudding mix; beat well to combine all the ingredients together. Using the hand held mixer, gently mix in the entire container of Cool Whip. Spoon large dollops of the frosting over the cake, until it's covered the entired cake. Carefully spread frosting to cover the cake.
• 7. I refrigerated the cake overnight in the fridge, and served it the next day. Cut cake into 16 slices, before serving. Carefully remove cake from pan when ready to serve, as this is an extremely moist cake.
• 8. Note: I found this cake keeps well for several days in the refrigerator. Also, when making this cake, I had noticed the boxed cake mix I used, had expired past the due date, so when I mixed the cake ingredients together, I also added 1 tablespoon of merguine powder, which I got from the baking dept at our Festival Foods Store. The merigune powder added some height to the cake. Some cakes when past the expiration date, may not rise as much, so by adding the tablespoon of the powder, helps the cake to rise up nicely.