Lemon Cake with Raspberry Filling

In about a week I'm moving to a new house across town. One of the things that I will miss the most about this house is my raspberry patch.  I got these raspberries from some unwanted volunteers that came up from my grandma's patch the spring after we moved into this house.  Our untouched-for-over-100-years soil here has been good to the raspberries and they have flourished.  I'm trying to figure out if I can sneak a few out and onto my new property, or if that would be unethical. 

This year I was very much looking forward  to these raspberries and brainstormed all the ways that I could use them.  As soon as I had enough - and it didn't take long, I only needed about a pint - I decided on this lemon cake with raspberry filling.  I got the inspiration from I am Baker, but decided to put my own spin on it.

I started with this lemon cake recipe from marthastewart.com, except I skipped the lemon syrup over the top part.  This makes a very light, moist cake with a nice, strong - but not too tart or overpowering - lemony flavor.

I made the cake in two 9-inch layers. I really need to invest in some 8-inch cake pans, I think it would have turned out better.  Then I cut each layer in half, so I had four thin layers.

For the filling, I made one package of raspberry jello according to package directions.  However, I didn't want the texture all jello-y, so about an hour and a half into the chilling process I mixed in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of applesauce to make the jello, well, less jello-y and more sauce-y.

After jello and cake were both appropriately chilled/cooled, I got to the assembly.  On a cake stand, I put one layer of cake, then a thin layer of the jello - being carefull not to get to within a 1/2-inch of the outer edge so it wouldn't smoosh through when I stacked the other other layers.  Next came a layer of cake.  Then a layer of Jello.  Then I covered the jello with about a pint of raspberries.  Then a little bit more jello.

Next came a layer of cake, then jello, then the final layer of cake.  I frosted it with some Cool Whip.  I put a very thick layer on, then used a pattern that I cut out of some cardboard from a cereal box to "comb" the side of the cake to make the design.

This cake was gooooood.  Good enough to make me think about digging up half my raspberry bushes and hauling them to the new house, despite the August heat...and the potential ethics of the situation.