This recipe for Chocolate Eclair Cake is a classic no-bake dessert made with graham crackers, pudding, and chocolate frosting. Everyone loves this no-bake simple dessert recipe!
My top tip is to be sure to allow this cake to chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours. This gives the graham crackers time to soften!
This eclair cake recipe was originally published in April 2011. The photos and recipe notes were updated in March 2025.
Aimee’s Recipe Notes
- Taste & Texture: Softened graham crackers, creamy vanilla pudding mixed with whipped topping, and a rich chocolate frosting, mimicking the classic flavors of a chocolate eclair.
- Make Ahead: make this cake up to 24 hours ahead of time. Perfect for parties and potlucks.
- Frosting: use my homemade frosting, or a can of chocolate frosting. Both are delicious options.
On this website, you’ll find desserts I’ve made over the years and some childhood favorites from my family.
Today’s no bake Eclair Cake though is the one dessert that I knew how to make at a young age. Easy enough for the kids to help make, and it tastes incredible.
Featured Review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This is such a classic dessert! My absolute favorite no bake sweet treat!” -Anna
Eclair Ingredients
Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card to see the full recipe with measurements and directions.
- Graham Crackers– you’ll need a whole box for this recipe! Cinnamon or chocolate grahams are a great substitute.
- Pudding Mix– be sure to choose INSTANT pudding. I like french vanilla, but regular vanilla works great too!
- Cool Whip– Use store bought whipped topping use my stabilized whipped cream recipe as an alternative.
- Frosting- you can use canned frosting, chocolate ganache, or follow my homemade frosting recipe below!
How to Make Chocolate Eclair Cake
If you’re wondering how to make chocolate eclair cake, it is crazy easy. No messy pastry cream with this easy recipe!
Make the filling. Layer the graham crackers, pudding mixture, crackers, remaining pudding layer, and add another layer of graham crackers. Top it with frosting.
PRO TIP: heat up a can of chocolate frosting and pour over the top of the cake! Either way works! Add a sprinkle of chocolate chips if you like!
Refrigerate cake for at least 8 hours. This is NON-negotiable. Refrigerating the cake helps the graham cracker layers soften. This softening gives the dessert its special flavor and texture.
Storage
- Store leftover cake covered in refrigerator for up to 4 days. The graham crackers will get incredibly soft, but they still taste amazing.
- Freeze eclair cake by assembling the cake in a freezer safe container (I like to use disposable foil pans). Wrap the entire pan in plastic wrap, then in foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight until ready to serve.
Flavor Substitutions
- This Strawberry Eclair Cake contains Cheesecake JELL-O in the filling. Plus there’s no oven needed which means it’s perfect for the warmer weather!
- This easy Banana Eclair Cake is a favorite summer treat. It consists of layers of cinnamon graham crackers, vanilla pudding, and fresh banana. The best part is, you don’t even have to bake it! To top it off, I literally topped it off a cinnamon glaze!
- I made a simple No Bake Pistachio Eclair Cake with pistachio pudding mix and chocolate frosting. You’ll enjoy this tasty dessert!
- Too hot to turn on the oven? Make a Peanut Butter Eclair cake with Reese’s and peanut butter for a delicious chocolate treat.
- If you love no bake desserts, be sure to try this easy S’mores Icebox Cake. Also, my no bake cheesecake recipe is always a hit!
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Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 box honey graham crackers 14.4 ounce
- 2 packages instant french vanilla pudding 3.4 ounce each
- 2½ cups milk
- 12 ounce cool whip thawed
For the Frosting:
- 2 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate
- 2 teaspoons corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Mix pudding with milk in a medium size bowl. Fold in thawed cool whip.
- Layer in a 13×9 dish: graham crackers, pudding, graham crackers, pudding, graham crackers.
- For the homemade frosting, mix the baking chocolate with corn syrup in a double boiler over medium heat. Stir until smooth. Add vanilla, butter, milk and powdered sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Frost the top layer of graham crackers. Cover and refrigerate 8 hours until serving.
Notes
- You can swap out homemade frosting for one can of milk chocolate frosting. Remove lid and foil cover. Microwave 20 seconds, stir, and spread over graham crackers.
- If you can’t find french vanilla pudding mix, swap it out for instant vanilla pudding mix.
- Store leftover cake covered in refrigerator for up to 4 days. The graham crackers will get incredibly soft, but they still taste amazing.
- Freeze eclair cake by assembling the cake in a freezer safe container (I like to use disposable foil pans). Wrap the entire pan in plastic wrap, then in foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in refrigerator overnight until ready to serve
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More Cake Recipes
This Eclair Cake recipe is an old fashioned icebox cake with layers of graham crackers, pudding, and chocolate frosting. An easy no bake dessert recipe!
Do you think this would work putting in a sheet pan? I’m doing a large group and would like to put in a commercial size sheet pan
A sheet pan won’t be deep enough for this dessert.
An afternoon of fun with our oldest grandchild, who’s now a teen and haven’t been together in the kitchen in some time. Well, that changed on Saturday, we made this together as his dad is a BIG eclair fan. It turned out so yummy, just like an eclair and my first thought was it needs more chocolate on the top, just like the bakery ones, so making this ourselves we were able to double the topping and added more to have a full layer on top. Thank you for the great recipe and time with my grandson.
So glad it was a hit and you spent time together in the kitchen!
I made this recipe for my son In laws birthday as he loves éclair cake, however I accidentally bought cinnamon Graham crackers and my heart sank as I never had used those in anything and I didn’t have time to go purchase the regular. It looked great and I kept my mouth shut and prayed no one would notice.My granddaughter posted on Facebook the next day and stated that her and her Dad absolutely loved it. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I am looking forward to trying more of them.
I made the cake exactly as described, no substitutions or variations for an informal lunch. I live in Canada and we are on the metric system so some of our packaging is different.
A box of Graham wafer crackers corresponds roughly to the recipe box. Ditto the Jello instant vanilla pudding. The issue was the Cool Whip, which comes in 500 ml and 1 litre sizes. Did some digging and found that 12 ounces of Cool Whip is about 4 1/2 cups.
The dessert held together beautifully and was easy to cut. I had no issue with the icing coming off because I didn’t cover it.
Anyhow, it was a big hit. Pleasantly surprised for what I call a junk dessert.
One thing to consider: perhaps you could provide weights or measurements in cups for your Canadian readers given the two different systems.
Hi Lee,
Thank you so much for your review 🙂 I typically don’t weight or provide metrics for my recipes as the majority of my readers are from the US and I am most comfortable with our current system. But it sounds like it worked out perfect for you 🙂
The chocolate elcair cake was awesome. I will definitely try some of the others.
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I made the eclair cake for a graduation party and it was a hit… I also added powdered vanilla to the pudding and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top of crushed Graham crackers. I should of made two
I made this and it turned out great. Making it again for Christmas. Family and my husband LOVED IT
I made this for Christmas, It tasted good, but it did not cut well, the icing stuck to the cling film and pulled right off the cake. It seems to me that it would be better to freeze it, my refrigerator is very cold, I made it the day before, followed the directions, but it did not firm up well at all.
Make it in a Tupperware Lg snack store container. Plenty of room and the frosting won’t stick to the seal.
What can we substitute with cool whip and french vanilla jell-o as it is quite expensive
I use the generic store brands and it’s always cheaper and you can’t tell the difference.
Delish dessert. Not able to make day ahead as suggested. I improvised and dipped each graham square in milk plus 1/2 tsp of almond flavoring. This method was used for each graham cracker layer. I also used a basting brush with any extra milk to ensure the graham crackers were completely moistened.
I didn’t see how much milk to use.
can you make this with cook and serve pudding? do you change the amount of milk added?