Easter Poke Cake

This Easter poke cake is bright, colorful and super yummy. If you are looking for a festive addition to your Easter desserts, then this is one to try. Made from boxed cake mix, you only need 7 ingredients, some food coloring and about 40 minutes.

Easter is full of lots of colors and, so is this Easter poke cake. With a delicious white cake base, vanilla pudding middle and thick whipped cream on top this cake is over the top sweet and so easy to make. This is a perfect Easter dessert as you can easily make a full pan for a crowd.

Poke cakes are easy to make desserts that look fancy with all their layers. Just like this patriotic poke cake, lemon poke cake and heath bar poke cake.

🧁Why To Try This Recipe

📋Ingredients

• White Cake Mix - any brand
• Eggs
• Oil
• Water
• Milk
• Vanilla Instant Pudding
• Food coloring - yellow, purple, pink, teal. Gel is the best for bright colors.
• Whipped Topping - thawed

See recipe card for quantities.

📖Substitutions & Variations

Check out these ingredient substitutions and variations you can try.

• Use a different pudding flavor - we like vanilla pudding to match the base cake flavor and also let the cake colors take centerstage. But you can certainly use any flavor pudding you prefer.
• Different colors - you can use any combination of food coloring for the colors in the cake that you want.
• Add more decoration - change up the sprinkles, add crushed mini eggs or even a Peep on top of each piece of Cake.

Love colorful Easter desserts? Try out these layered Peeps Rice Krispie Treats.

⏲️Instructions

Follow along with these process pictures and step-by-step instructions to easily bake up your own Easter Poke Cake.

Step one: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Step two: Add cake mix, eggs, water and oil to mixing bowl. Whisk together until well combined.

Step three: Separate cake batter evenly into four bowls.

Step four: add different colored food coloring to each bowl and mix well.

Step five: Add dollops of different colored cake batter into 9x13 pan until pan is completely filled. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 - 25 minutes.

Step Six: Allow cake to cool, then use a metal straw, wooden skewer or other utensil to poke holes in the cake.

Step seven: Whisk together milk and instant pudding mix until it just starts to thicken.

Step Eight: Pour pudding over cake, using a spoon to press pudding into holes.

Step nine: Once pudding is evenly spread, spread whipped topping over it in a consistent layer. Then, add sprinkles on top.

Hint: make sure that whipped topping is thawed so that you can spread it evenly over the top of the cake.

Storage

Cover or put in an airtight container and store in the fridge for 4 - 6 days.

Or, put in an airtight container and freeze up to 3 months. Defrost by setting it in the fridge overnight.

Easter Poke Cake

Bright and colorful, this Easter poke cake is easy to make. Using a boxed cake mix and some food coloring, you can bake this bright dessert up quickly.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Cooling 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12 pieces

Equipment

• Mixing bowl
• 4 small bowls
• Whisk
• 9x13 Pan
• Wooden skewer, spoon or metal straw for poking holes
• measuring cups

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Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 Box White Cake Mix any brand
• 1 Cup Water
• .5 Cup Oil
• 3 Eggs
• 2 3.4 oz Box Vanilla Instant Pudding
• 3 Cups Milk
• 4 colors Food Coloring gel is best
• 8 oz Whipped topping thawed
• Sprinkles

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• Add 3 eggs, 1 cup water, .5 cup oil and 1 vanilla cake mix to mixing bowl. Whisk together until well combined.
• Separate cake batter evenly into 4 bowls.
• Add one color of food coloring to each bowl and mix until combined.
• Spoon out large dollops of different colored cake batter into the 9x13 pan until all cake batter is used. If desired, use a thin skewer or other item to swirl colors into one another.
• Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 - 25 minutes. Cake is done when you can insert a fork or toothpick and remove without anything stuck to it.
• Let cake cool.
• Mix 3 cups milk and 2, 3.4 oz boxes of vanilla pudding in a bowl. Whisk together until it starts to thicken.
• Using a metal straw, wooden skewer, handle of a small wooden spoon or other round utensil poke holes in cake. Holes should be an inch or two apart.
• Pour pudding over top of cake, using the back of a spoon to press it down into the holes.
• Spread whipped topping over top of the pudding in an even layer.
• Add sprinkles to the top.

Notes

Tips:

• Make holes big enough - whatever you use to poke holes, make sure to rock it back and forth a little in each hole to ensure the are well defined and big enough for pudding to go into.
• Baked cake: cake is ready to come out of the oven when you can insert a toothpick or fork and have no cake stuck to it.
• Swirl colors: once you spoon random dollops of colored batter into the pan, use a skewer or other thin utensil to lightly swirl each of the colors together slightly.
• Pudding consistency: don't whisk the pudding until it is at full thickness or it is difficult to spread into the holes. Just whisk it to the point where it starts to thicken up.
• Thawed whipped topping - make sure the whipped topping is thawed so that it spreads easily.

Storage

• In the fridge in an airtight container for 4 - 6 days.
• In the freezer in an airtight container for 3 months.

 

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Nutrition information provided is just an estimate and may vary based on specific ingredients used.