It’s the time of year for festive baking! But baking doesn’t have to be hard. To the contrary, this Christmas Poke Cake starts with a boxed mix and uses a few other shortcut ingredients for a cake with festive flavor that runs the whole way through. It’s the perfect (simple!) way to celebrate the season.
What is a Poke Cake?
If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, a poke cake is basically a cake (usually baked in a 9×13 pan) that you poke holes all over to give room for a filling to run down into the cake and create more flavor. There are many ways to do it and most of them are great. (This one might be our most colorful yet.) They usually start with a boxed mix to make life easy and this one does just that. Easy.
What Ingredients Do You Need for Christmas Poke Cake?
It’s not a long list. You’ll need:
- A box of white cake mix. (Plus the eggs, oil, and water it calls for on the box.)
- A box of strawberry jello. (Or cherry or other red flavor!)
- A box of lime jello.
- A box of instant pudding mix.
- A container of Cool Whip.
- Some milk.
- Sprinkles. Obviously.
How Do You Make Christmas Poke Cake?
To start with, you bake that boxed cake mix just how the box tells you to. Do it in a 9×13 baking dish.
Let it cool all the way, and then poke it with a fork or the handle-end of a wooden spoon allll over. I like to do about 1-inch intervals for this one. It really does help to wait until the cake cools for this step; it gives you a cleaner poke.
Then, mix up the two jellos in two different containers. Pour or spoon the jello over the cake in alternating stripes, so you have a red stripe, a green stripe, a red stripe, a green stripe, and so on. Very important — go slow so it has time to sink down into the holes AND don’t use all the jello. You will definitely have some leftover and that’s just fine.
You’ll want to chill the cake for about fifteen minutes to let that jello set up a bit, which is more than enough time to make the topping. The topping is just a matter of mixing up the instant pudding with the milk and then folding that together with the whipped topping.
Spread that over the cake and chill it again until you’re ready to serve it, but at least two hours. The sprinkles you want to save until you’re about ready to serve so they don’t start to leach color into the frosting. Happy baking!
Christmas Poke Cake
Ingredients
- 1 (15 oz) box white cake mix, plus ingredients called for on box
- 1 (6 oz) box strawberry jello
- 1 (6 oz) box lime jello
- 2 cups boiling water
- 1 (3.4 oz) box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
- Red and green sprinkles or decorations
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F or temperature called for on back of cake mix packaging. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with butter or nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, mix the cake mix with other ingredients called for on cake mix package. Pour into prepared baking dish and bake according to package directions.
- Remove from oven and let cool 15 minutes. Using a fork or handle-end of a wooden spoon, poke holes across cake in 1-inch intervals. Let cake cool further while you make the jello:
- In two separate bowls, mix each color of jello with 1 cup of boiling water, stirring until the mix dissolves.
- Pour green and red jello in alternating rows over the cake, making sure you use enough that it sinks down into the holes. (You likely will not use ALL of the jello.)
- Place in fridge to chill, about 15 minutes.
- While cake chills, make the topping:
- Whisk together the vanilla pudding mix and milk. Fold in the whipped topping.
- Spread over chilled cake, then chill for 2 hours more.
- When ready to serve, top with red and green sprinkles. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Julie's Eats and Treats.