Turns out, you can replace all the sugar with Jell-O in a cake for intense color and flavor!
I tried swapping sugar for Jell-O because Jell-O is almost 90% sugar and they have some great flavors that would be really hard to find as extracts - key lime, island pineapple, apricot, strawberry etc.
The flavor is intense, the color is incredibly bright, and the cake smells wonderful. The texture is soft and a bit sticky, but still like a great pound cake.
I used 765 grams of Jell-O in place of my regular 800 grams of sugar (this ended up being about 3/4 cup less sugar in total). The outside browned more, I believe because of the acid in Jell-O.
Mile High Orange Jell-O Pound Cake
1 pound (4 sticks) butter, room temperature
27 oz orange Jell-O (4 family size boxes plus one regular box), not sugar-free
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 large eggs, room temperature
4 1/2 cups cake flour or White Lily All Purpose Flour
1 1/3 cup half and half, room temperature
Preheat oven to 300°F. Prepare Old Country Kitchenware square tube pan by brushing with pan coat (if using two piece pan, fit with a parchment paper square between the two pieces first). Beat butter and Jell-O in the bowl of a stand mixer until pale, light and sticks to the bowl (about 6 minutes at medium speed). Add extract, baking powder, salt, and 1/2 cup flour, beat until combined. With the mixer running on low, add one egg at a time, beating well after each addition until fully incorporated. Alternate beating in the flour until it just disappears and drizzling in half and half with the mixer running on low, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat for another 10 seconds. Pour batter into prepared tube pan and gently shake to settle the batter. Place on middle rack of oven with a baking sheet on the rack below it to catch any drips. Bake 2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool until the pan is comfortable enough to handle. (If using two-piece pan, place it over a metal can and press down to remove the outer piece first). Transfer the cake to a wire rack in two steps: first, turn the cake up on its side, then invert fully. Let cool completely.