An angel food cake dessert worthy of its name. Heaven on Earth Cake brings angel food cake together with sweet cherries and creamy vanilla pudding to create a heavenly dessert that’s out-of-this-world delicious!
Love light and delicious summer desserts? Our Pudding Cake might be right up your alley! We even have a sweet lemon pudding cake recipe our readers love too.
Angel Food Cake Dessert Recipe
Have you tried my Angel Food Cake recipe, yet? After making that cake a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t resist taking it a step further for this angel food cake dessert.
Once you taste it, you’ll understand why I call it “Heaven on Earth” cake! This cold heavenly dessert is part cherry pie, part cake, part pudding and completely irresistible.
Imagine a delicious trifle.
- angel food cake
- layered in a pan with a vanilla pudding cream
- cherry pie filling
- cool whip
Heaven on Earth cake resembles a bread pudding but no baking required!
The light sponge of the cake soaks up the vanilla and cherry flavors, along with the rich sweet cream. Served cold, this was absolute perfection on a hot summer night!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Angel Food Cake- Use our homemade angel food cake, a boxed mix, or store bought. Pound cake is also delicious!
- Instant Vanilla pudding mix– the four serving box size, make sure it’s the INSTANT variety
- Milk- less milk is used than traditionally for pudding mix. This helps create a thick filling.
- Sour Cream- or Greek yogurt
- Almond extract – adds a little extra flavor I think you will LOVE
- Cherry pie filling
- Cool Whip– or our homemade stabilized whipped cream
- Almond slices– optional, but toast the nuts for even more flavor
How to make this Heavenly Dessert
For the Cake Layer: You can make your angel food cake from scratch or pick up one from the bakery at your grocery store.
- Cut the cake into cubes then place a layer of the cake pieces into the bottom of a cake pan. A serrated knife will cut the cake best!
- Spoon some cherry pie filling on top, then repeat with the rest of the angel food cake cubes and pie filling.
Now make the pudding layer!
- For this step, I wanted something a little thicker than your standard vanilla pudding that wouldn’t take a lot of effort. So I used my trusty instant pudding mix, but added added sour cream along with the milk.
- The sour cream adds the perfect tang to go along with all the sweetness in the cake!
- Spoon the creamy pudding on top of the entire cake. Finally, I topped everything with cool whip and an extra dollop of cherry pie filling.
- Use all your self-control to resist diving into the cake right away and pop it in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours.
- Oh, I can’t forget to mention the finishing touch: almonds!
I can never resist the combo of cherry and almond flavor together, so I also sprinkled slivered almonds on top of the cake before ladling it into bowls to serve.
You’ll see this delicious flavor combo with our Cherry Hand Pies and Cherry Almond Braid.
Substitions and Variations
Not feeling the cherry almond thing today? You can easily turn this easy summertime dessert into a lemon lover’s dream.
Lemon- To make a lemon angel food cake dessert, simply swap the almond extract in the filling with a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice! It tastes wonderful with the lemon pie filling, or you can make homemade lemon curd!
Pie Filling Substitutions-
- Blueberry
- Apple
- Peach
- Mixed berry
- Strawberry
Cool Whip – Homemade whipped cream also works well in this cake, if you don’t have cool whip or prefer not to use it. Or try making our homemade cool whip instead.
Easy Dessert Recipes
Heaven on Earth Cake
Ingredients
- 1 Angel Food Cake prepared
- 1 package Instant Vanilla pudding mix 3.4 ounce
- 1 ½ cups milk
- 1 cup Sour Cream or plain greek yogurt
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 can cherry pie filling 20 ounce
- 1 container Cool Whip 8 ounce
- 1 Tablespoon almond slices toasted (optional)
Instructions
- Cut angel food cake into cubes. Set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together pudding mix, milk, sour cream, and almond extract. Set aside.
- In a 13×9 baking dish, lay half of the cake cubes in the bottom of the pan. Spoon 3/4 of the cherry pie filling over the cake.
- Repeat cake layer. Pour pudding over the top of the cake, spreading it out evenly.
- Spoon the Cool Whip over the pudding layer. Dollop the remaining pie filling on top.
- Refrigerate cake for 4 hours, or overnight. Sprinkle almonds on top when ready to serve.
Notes
- Make it in Advance- I like this cake best when it has had the chance to chill in the fridge. You can make it the night before and let it set in the refrigerator overnight.
- Serve as a trifle- This dessert is beautiful served in a glass trifle bowl too!
- Cool the Cake- Be sure to use a completely cooled cake before assembly!
- Storage- Keep this dessert in the fridge in airtight container (or covered with plastic wrap) for up to 3 days.
- Use homemade whipped cream instead of Cool Whip.
- See blog post for more recipe tips and tricks.
Nutrition
Using ready made ingredients, this is one homemade dessert that everyone has time to make. Dress up your angel food cake for dessert tonight for a taste of “heaven on earth!”
This looks soooooo! Good….going to make it this week for a baptism get to gather…Thks and I can do this gluten-free..
I’m not a fan of sour cream or yogurt. Can this be made without these ingredients?
Can the leftovers be frozen! Love it! Super easy?
Iam stuck with ounces are they centimeters or grams or what?
My daughter’s favourite dessert. Can you freeze?
I was only trying to use up about half an angel food loaf so I only made a small bowl of the layered dessert but I could call the pudding mix the star of the show! I added a bit more extract to the extra pudding I had because I love almond…. and then I used it as a fruit dip and it was amazing!!
This is the best dessert I have ever made.I took this to a church potluck tonight. I set my dessert on a table and sat down to eat a sandwich. I thought I’d better go up and get some before it’s gone. Well when I went to get some it was basically gone. I got just a little that was left. The minister said to me that some desserts you just eat but this you savor the flavors.
If you wanted to use Strawberry Pie Filling what would be best for pudding, regular vanilla, French vanilla or some other flavor. What flavor extract would you use or is it necessary?
Does it have to be cow’s milk or would almond milk work?
Eileen I learned that almond milk can work — you just need to add a little at a time — until it thickens and then continue to add until you get the consistency you are looking for – I learned this by googling. I use unsweetened almond milk when making chocolate pudding and when adding half of the required amount of milk until it thickens you can then add more to loosen it up to the consistence you want,.
I’m trying to make this it sounds so good, but the boxes of instant pudding that I find are either 1 ounce, 4 servings or 1 1/2 ounce, 6 servings, so I’m confused.
I have been making this dessert for probably 30 years. It has always been a big favorite and we have used every fruit imaginable to change it up. My kids call it a “slungolian”, named so because my youngest son said it looked like it was “slung” together. Yes, there truly is one in every bunch. 😁
Ha I love that 🙂
I enjoyed it immensely. How would I incorporate pineapple in this same recipe? Maybe crushed pineapple on the top layer of cake before the pudding? I truly love the taste of cherry and pineapple together. Advise. Tyvm. Love your articles and recipes.
You could use a can of pineapple pie filling!
Hmmm I believe I will do just that. I’ll let you know how it ‘pans out’ 😁
Pun intended. Thanks!
You could pineapple with the pudding
Looks so delicious and pretty. I got the same recipe out of a magazine about 15 years and it called for fresh peaches. It is a perfect make ahead dessert. Thanks for sharing.
i want to try this, but as a diabetic could i use fruit only? vanilla pudding sugar free, angel food cake I have….just the pie filling is a problem for me!
Diabetic pie fillings are available. Walmart, it can be ordered from there, many different brands and fruits.
Yep, swap the pie filling for fresh berries!
If I swapped for fresh berries, about how much should I use. A quart of sliced hulled strawberries folded into the pudding? Could I use frozen sliced unsweetened strawberries ( that have been thawed).
This reminds me of my mom’s trifle she always makes. Such yummy fruit and cake flavor!
The hardest part about this cake is having patience while it’s in the refrigerator! We all just wanted to dig right in!
Me too!