Fourth Of July Cool Cake

Arrange lady finger halves upright around the inside edge of a 9 1/2 inch diameter spring form pan. Arrange enough lady finger halves, rounded side down, over the bottom of the pan, breaking some to fit into vacant areas. Evenly sprinkle sherry or brandy or orange juice over lady fingers, if desired. Set aside while preparing filling.

In a small bowl, combine blueberry gelatin and 1 cup boiling water, stirring well to dissolve gelatin. Chill in refrigerator until gelatin is consistency of very thick egg whites. Repeat process twice with remaining gelatins.

In 2 additional separate bowls, combine pineapple gelatin and 1 cup boiling water and then strawberry or raspberry gelatin with 1 cup boiling water.

While gelatin mixtures are chilling, hull strawberries and thinly slice, leave raspberries and blueberries whole, but remove stems.

Gently and coarsely mash strawberries or raspberries and blueberries in 2 separate bowls. Add 4 tablespoons sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice, and a pinch of salt to each, mixing gently. Refrigerate remaining berries until ready to serve.

Fold one-third of the whipped cream or topping into each thickened gelatin mixture, beating lightly if necessary with an electric mixer set at low peed to evenly mix gelatin and whipped cream or topping. Fold blueberry/sugar mixture into blueberry gelatin mixture, mixing just until evenly distributed. Repeat process with strawberries or raspberries in strawberry gelatin and pineapple to pineapple or lemon gelatin mixture.

Turn blueberry mixture into lady finger-lined pan. Refrigerate until set. Repeat with a layer of pineapple mixture, refrigerate until filling is set. Repeat with strawberry or raspberry gelatin mixture. Chill in refrigerator for several hours until filling is firm.

Arrange remaining sliced strawberries or whole raspberries, blueberries, and bite-size pineapple pieces over top of filling just before serving.

To serve, loosen spring form and remove. Arrange cake on lower part of spring form pan on a serving plate. Garnish with additional sweetened flavored whipped cream or sour cream or thawed frozen non-dairy whipped topping of choice, sprigs of fresh mint, and a very small decorative American flags if desired.

cook's notes

May omit lady finger crust and use a graham cracker or vanilla cookie crust. Evenly pack crumb mixture over the bottom and up the sides of a 9 1/2 inch spring form pan, cool crust thoroughly before adding filling.

If using whipped topping, may wish to reduce sugar to 1/4 cup as topping is already sweetened If berries are not quite ripe, sprinkle sliced berries with a few drops of balsamic vinegar and allow to stand for 30 minutes at room temperature to bring out the berry flavor.