Easy Lime Jello Cake and Corned Beef hash

Happy Spring!  In true Oregon fashion, spring has arrived along with a rain storm. Today the sun has been trying to peek out in between downpours, hail, and a few thunder claps.  I have been getting a jump start on my spring cleaning by reorganizing my baking supplies cupboard, and thought I would take a break to share a couple of yummy recipes we enjoyed this week.

We had a very nice St. Patrick's meal on Sunday, with lots of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, soda bread, and Irish butter.

Here's our Soda Bread, I use the same easy recipe every year and it always turns out nice.

For dessert I made a Lime Jello Loaf cake, I have often added a packet of Jello to flavor a cake mix, but this time I wanted to make the cake a little richer.  Here's my recipe.

Easy Lime Jello Cake

1 White cake mix
1 large box lime Jello (6 oz.)
1/2 cup oil
4-5 eggs
1 large tub of cool whip- thawed
2 cups warm water


I mixed a large box (6 oz.) of Lime Jello with two cups of warm water, and mixed until Jello was dissolved, and set it aside.  Then I mixed a box of white cake mix with 1/2 cup of oil, and 5 eggs (next time I might only use four eggs), then 1 1/4 cup of the dissolved lime Jello (set aside the rest).  Mix until blended, and pour evenly into two greased loaf pans, bake according to package directions.  I love the green color of this cake, perfect for spring and St. Patrick's day!

After you get the cake in the oven, put the remaining lime jello in the fridge for about 10 minutes, just long enough to firm it up a bit, but still soft enough that it can be mixed into cool whip.  After it has cooled a bit, stir the rest of the lime Jello into a large tub of cool whip.  I let my Jello set up a bit too long, but still caught it before it was completely set up, so I had some bits of set up jello in the cool whip, which actually looked nice, but there has to be enough unset Jello left so that it blends with the cool whip and helps to thicken it.  When you have thoroughly mixed the jello and cool whip, return it to the fridge to chill until cake is cool and ready to be frosted.

Here is what the cake looks like sliced, the lime cool whip frosting is a refreshing topping for this moist cake. I plan on trying this recipe out for Easter with Cherry or Raspberry, I imagine just about any flavor would work.  The cake was a perfect way to finish our St. Patrick's meal.

This year I made two corned beef briskets, one in the crock pot and one in a covered roaster in the oven, so we had plenty of left-overs.  I decided to use some of the left-overs to make a delicious corned beef hash for Gary and my lunch yesterday. This was a very rustic, hearty dish, that I imagine would be a perfect part of breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  I sauteed a chopped onion in a little butter and olive oil until the onions were softened, then I added diced cooked red potatoes with their skins still on, and diced corned beef along with plenty of fresh cracked black pepper, I sauteed the mixture until everything was heated through, and the potatoes were lightly browned.

We both really enjoyed this, and I will definitely be making this more often!

I hope everyone is having a good start to spring, I am looking forward to the new season!

Thanks for reading. :)