Orange Dreamsicle Cake...with sprinkles!

I love that my friends and co-workers give me the opportunity to try out new recipes and experiment a bit with things that I've been wanting to try.  And that they truly seem to enjoy the results, as well!  The second experiment for the week was the cake that I made Thursday night for a Friday gathering.  When I asked what he would like me to bring, one of the hosts immediately said "orange cream cake."  I'm pretty sure that this is because I made some orange cookies some time ago that he really liked, and not just because he was being super-specific.

I experimented with combining and slightly altering two recipes that utilize jello to enhance both the flavor and color of a cake.  Both of the basic recipes are classics from Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cake Mix Cookbook: the Color Vision Cake (1950s) and the Raspberry Poke Cake turned orange (the 1980s).  The recipe below is the combined version.

Ingredients: 
2 (4 serving size) packages orange geleatin (I used the Jello kind, duh.)
1 package white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.
2. Stir/beat/mix cake mix, water, oil, egg whites and 3 Tablespoons of dry Jello mix. Pour into cake pan.
3. Bake according to box instructions, until toothpick/cake-tester inserted in center comes out clean
4. Cool cake completely, about an hour.  Then pierce cooled cake all over with a fork (about every 1/2 inch).  
5. Stir gelatin and boiling water together until smooth.  Stir in cold water and then pour over cake.  If cake is stuck on sides, run a knife along edges to loosen.  Refrigerate cake for at least 2 hours.  (I put mine in the fridge overnight.)
6. Frost with your choice of frosting: vanilla, orange buttercream, Cool Whip, etc. Then keep stored in fridge.  It looked a little plain, and since I have sprinkles from the previously-made donuts, I added sprinkles.  

The cake turned out really good.  Moist, orangey, and delicious. Good for summer, I think.  I think lemon would be super, and also might try flavor combos in the future.  I can see raspberry or cherry lemonade cake as great combos.