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5 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Cake

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When you make this 5 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Cake, everyone will love the smooth and sweet combination of strawberry banana flavors. The cake on the bottom adds to the fluffiness and the pretty whipped topping makes it that much more decadent!

The way it’s constructed, this strawberry banana cake is more of a strawberry banana trifle but either way, it makes an amazing addition to your dessert table any way you look at it.

Strawberry banana cake with a spoon on the upper right corner with strawberries and sparkles next to it.

Why You’ll Love This Strawberry Banana Cake Recipe

  • It’s incredibly easy to whip up, like my 3 Ingredient Blueberry Dump Cake and no one will know that this recipe took only 5 simple ingredients.
  • No “from absolute scratch” cooking because this uses a stock of premade ingredients saving you valuable time.
  • There’s no baking involved if you buy the angel food cake pre-made in the bakery.

Ingredients Needed to Make this Strawberry Banana Trifle Recipe

  • Angel food: Try and find the premade angel food cakes often sold in the bakery section of the grocery store. Often times they’ll have them on sale/clearance so it makes for an even more inexpensive dessert.
  • Strawberry Jello: Use your favorite brand of jello here. Regular or sugar-free jello mix works for this recipe. If you find premade jello, you can use that as well, as long as you have the right amounts called for in the recipe.
  • Frozen strawberries: Using fresh strawberries is fine and I like to use a few for garnish. Personally, I like the juice that frozen strawberries create when thawing – it’s a great added flavor to the cake.
  • Banana pudding: To make this trifle recipe even easier, I used simple banana pudding cups for the pudding layer. Go ahead and use an instant banana pudding mix that you prepare ahead of time. Just make sure it’s nice and set up before assembling this cake.
  • Cool whip: Good old standby, cool whip. It’s delicious and stable without deflating much over time, making this a great ‘make ahead’ cake recipe. You can whip up your own whipped topping or whipped cream

How to Make this Strawberry Jello Dessert

 Start by ripping or chopping your cake into chunks. These chunks can be as irregular as you like; it really doesn’t matter. 

A baking dish with cut up angel food cake.

Prepare the strawberry jello according to the box directions. When you’re done dissolving the mixture in the water, (and it’s cooled off slightly) add the thawed strawberries to the jello.

Strawberries added to jello in a green bowl.

Pour this mixture over your cake. Try to drizzle the jello mixture over as many cake pieces as possible. You may need to give a light stir to get an even spread. 

The jello strawberry mixture is poured over the angel food cake in the baking dish.

After adding the jello/strawberry mixture, add the banana pudding and put it back into the fridge, covered.

Spreading the banana pudding overtop the cake mixture.

When you are ready to serve this dessert top it with some cool whip or homemade whipped cream.

An overhead photo of the cake topped with whipping cream.

EAZY NOTE: A printable recipe card with exact amounts, directions, tips, and hints is at the bottom of this post.

Ideas For Switching Things Up

 The sky is the limit with this dessert!

Try mixing it up by swapping out the flavors of the jello and pudding for another flavor, adding in a different frozen or even fresh fruit depending on what you have on hand. Combinations like orange jello with pistachio pudding would be a hit!

Want to spice it up some more? Add your own layers or garnishes using things like vanilla wafers, cookie crumbles, or candies on the top of your cake.

Try switching up the angel food cake flavor. A confetti angel food cake would be a fun switch-up!

Try a decadent strawberry chocolate version using chocolate pudding and toppings over the whipped cream with some shaved chocolate or some chocolate truffles

A side view of the cake. Whipped topping is sprinkled with sprinkles.

Serving Suggestions

This dish makes a great dessert to bring to all your holiday dinners this year. Because it is easy to customize by swapping out things like the choice of fruit or jello, you can make a few of these quickly and easily to add variety to any dessert table.

This can be a great treat for other times as well when you are not having a big gathering. It makes a fun desert on a hot summer day because it is nice and cold. You can serve this at your next backyard barbeque as long as you have a way to chill it until serving.

Storing Leftovers

This five-ingredient strawberry dessert will store great for up to 4 days as long as it’s kept covered and chilled.

For the best results mix it up the day you plan to serve it. If you have leftovers, store them in an air-tight container. If you used whipping cream instead of cool whip, then the trifle may not last as long in the fridge as the cream topping may start to break down and go watery.  

I don’t recommend freezing this dessert as even the pudding will become watery when it melts making for an odd and possibly unpleasant texture. 

A plated portion of the jello cake. A spoon is on the right of the dessert.

Questions You Might Have

I can’t find premade angel food cakes in my bakery. What else can I do?

The baking section in the grocery aisle will have the boxed mix of angel food cake. often, they are a simple “Just add water” mix. That’s the one you want. They’re easy to whip up and while it does require baking, it’s a super simple extra step to making this scrumptious dessert.

Did you make this 5 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Cake? I’d love to hear what you thought about it by leaving a comment and a star rating below!

If you wish to ask me questions about the recipe directly, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected]. Have a fantastic day!

Yield: 10 servings

5 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Cake

5 Ingredient Strawberry Banana Cake

This 5 Ingredient no-bake Strawberry Banana Cake is so incredibly easy to make, and so delicious to eat! Flavors of banana pudding with sweet strawberry jello and fresh strawberries on a bed of cake - wow! It's everything I dreamt it would be!

Prep Time 20 minutes
Additional Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 premade angel food cake
  • 8 ounces coolwhip, thawed
  • 6 0z box of strawberry jello
  • 21 ounces (600 grams) frozen strawberries, thawed
  • Red sugar sprinkles *optional
  • 14 ounces Instant Banana Pudding, *see notes

Instructions

  1. Prepare the jello according to the box directions. When the jello is cooled and half set, add the thawed strawberries. Mix well
  2. In a 9 x 13 or deep set 9" dessert pan, rip the angel food cake into 1" pieces.
  3. Pour the jello mixture over top of the cake pieces, trying to make sure all the pieces are covered with some jello liquid. You may have to give it a stir to ensure good distribution.
  4. Place in the fridge, covered, until set.
  5. After it's set, spread the instant banana pudding over top of the strawberry jello mixture.
  6. Cover the entire cake with cool whip. Put it back in the fridge until you're ready to serve. (see notes if you'll be using freshly whipped cream).
  7. To serve, spoon out the layers into a dish and garnish with fresh strawberries and even more cool whip if desired.
  8. Enjoy!

Notes

You can also use fresh strawberries if you'd like to mix them in the jello. I recommend dicing them smaller for more even distribution.

I used 4 banana pudding cups (99 mls each) to make the banana pudding layer for the cake. A standard box of instant pudding usually yields 24 ounces, so you can premake this pudding and chill it before using it on the cake.

To make it ahead of time, do all the steps up until topping with cool whip. If you are going to use your own whipped cream, whip the sweetened cream and then top the cake, and chill for 20 minutes.

Nutrition Information

Yield

10

Serving Size

1 cup

Amount Per Serving Calories 169Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 1mgSodium 127mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 1gSugar 17gProtein 2g

All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands used, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.

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