Lemon Strawberry Poke Cake
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Your friends and family will rave about this Lemon Strawberry Poke Cake! A lemon cake gets drenched in strawberry Jell-O, topped with a fluffy lemon topping and covered in fresh sliced strawberries!
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Have you ever made a poke cake?
It is basically a cake that you poke holes in to allow some yummy liquid (Jell-O, hot fudge, caramel, pudding, etc.) to soak into, creating a really tender and super delicious cake.
I’ve made Orange Creamsicle Poke Cake, Lemon Poke Cake, even Death by Chocolate Poke Cake, Oreo Poke Cake, and Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake! For this version, I chose to pair lemon and strawberry.
Love strawberries? You might also want to check out my strawberry fluff and strawberry marshmallow dip!
Ingredients
- lemon cake (whip up a box mix with the ingredients on the box)
- strawberry Jello
- lemon pudding mix
- whipped cream
- milk
- fresh strawberries
Step by step
- First, bake a 9×13 lemon cake from a cake mix. Nothing fancy there. Allow the cake to cool.
- Then, poke holes in it with the handle of a wooden spoon (or any other utensil like a large fork).
- Pour liquid strawberry Jell-O alllll over the cake and into the holes.
- After you refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours, mix up the fluffy lemon topping.
- The final step – do this right before serving – is to slice up fresh, ripe strawberries and cover the top of the cake! If you put the strawberries on too far ahead, they may release some juice which will seep all over that pretty lemon topping.
I use this same 3 ingredient topping all the time instead of frosting … like for this Triple Lemon Cupcakes, my Triple Strawberry Cupcakes, this Death by Chocolate Poke Cake and even these 5-ingredient Pumpkin Cupcakes. Clearly, it’s pretty much my favorite way to top a cake or cupcake 😉
Doesn’t this look good?!
Cut generous pieces of cake … the topping is light and fluffy, the fresh strawberries are tart and tangy and that strawberry soaked lemon cake is so tender and delish!! See how the Jell-O trickled into the holes, making a bright pop of red in the light yellow cake?
Seriously, if you are on dessert duty for the next potluck or party, this Lemon Strawberry Poke Cake will be the star!
Tips for best results
- allow enough time to refrigerate before frosting so the liquid gets soaked into the cake
- add the sliced strawberries just before serving so the juice doesn’t discolor the topping
- refrigerate leftovers up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge
Making this poke cake for a holiday? Check out our Christmas Poke Cake or Patriotic Red, White, and Blue poke cake!
If you try this recipe, please comment and rate it below, I love hearing from you!
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Lemon Strawberry Poke Cake
- Total Time: 5 hours
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
Your friends and family will rave about this Lemon Strawberry Poke Cake! A lemon cake gets drenched in strawberry Jello, topped with a fluffy lemon topping and covered in fresh sliced strawberries!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- One 9x13 lemon cake mix + ingredients called for on box mix
- 3 ounce box of strawberry Jell-O
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 cup cold water
- Sliced strawberries
For the Lemon Topping
- 3 ounce box of instant lemon pudding
- 1 cup cold milk
- 8 oz. tub of whipped topping (thawed)
Instructions
- Bake a 9 x 13 lemon cake according to package directions and allow cake to cool.
- Use a wooden spoon or another utensil like a large fork or the handle of a regular spoon to poke holes all over the cooled cake. (These holes are where the Jell-O will settle in, so spread them out so every piece of cake will have strawberry Jell-O.)
- Mix the Jell-O powder with 1 cup of boiling water.
- Stir until all gelatin powder is dissolved, then add 1/2 cup COLD water.
- Pour the Jell-O over the top of the cake, getting into each hole and all over the top of the cake.
- Refrigerate cake at least 3 hours to allow the Jell-O to set up.
For the Topping
- Stir together the lemon pudding mix and 1 cup cold milk.
- Once combined, fold in the whipped topping and mix just until incorporated into the pudding mixture.
- Spread the topping over the cake.
- At this point, you can pop the cake until the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, sprinkle on sliced strawberries.
- Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: dessert
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 251
- Sugar: 18.8 g
- Sodium: 351.9 mg
- Fat: 9.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 39.9 g
- Protein: 3.4 g
- Cholesterol: 31.5 mg
I love how tasty and easy this is! What a fun way to bring a little summer into the cold winter!
Very good, hit of the party!
Recipe does not give sizes of boxes of Jello Or pudding. That would be most helpful!
Thank you for the comment, I will update it to reflect the proper sizes.
Recipe was a hit at the 4th of July BBQ that I shared it with yesterday. I did modified a bit – I doubled the jello amount, made and spread a small box of lemon pudding with 1.5 cups of milk (so a little thick) and then made the cool whip-lemon pudding mixture to put on top. The strawberries on top at essential!
Thanks for the recipe!
I just made this but I wonder why the cool whip lemon pudding topping was so runny- ish when I followed the recipe exactly. Oh well we’ll see after sitting in the fridge for a bit if it gets better.