5 from 36 votes

Best Banana Pudding Poke Cake is an easy original recipe made with cake mix poked with banana pudding, topped with Cool Whip and crushed Nilla Wafers!

BEST BANANA PUDDING POKE CAKE

Name: BEST BANANA PUDDING POKE CAKE
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 1 box yellow cake mix; ingredients needed to make cake: eggs, oil & water; 2 (3.4 oz) packages instant banana pudding; 4 cups milk; 1 (8 oz) tub frozen whipped topping (COOL WHIP) (thawed); 20 vanilla wafers (crushed)

The inspiration for this Banana Pudding Poke Cake actually started out at work. My co-worker, Heather, loves Banana Pudding. But my other co-worker, Amanda does not like bananas – at all. She likes the flavor of bananas but not the texture. So the idea of the banana pudding poke cake was born. All the banana pudding flavors you love – in cake form.

slice, Banana Pudding Poke Cake topped with a banana slice and Nilla Wafer on a plate

VIDEO INCLUDED BELOW

CAN YOU ADD SLICED BANANAS TO THIS CAKE?

This is made without slices of bananas, however, you could certainly add those on there if you like. My husband and I decided we would just add some freshly sliced bananas right on top of our individual pieces of cake which turned out to be a delicious idea. If I had put them on the cake while I was making it, they would have turned brown within a day. It also makes the cake really pretty if you serve the individual slices with a bit of sliced banana and a Nilla Wafer on top.

CAN YOU USE OTHER FLAVORS OF CAKE AND PUDDING?

Absolutely! Since creating this recipe, I have added about twenty other poke cake combinations. Some of the most popular ones are: BOSTON CREAM POKE CAKE, RED VELVET POKE CAKE, OREO PUDDING POKE CAKE and LEMON BLUEBERRY POKE CAKE.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
yellow cake mix
ingredients needed to make cake (eggs, oil & water)
instant banana pudding
milk
whipped topping (COOL WHIP)
Nilla wafers

HOW TO MAKE BANANA PUDDING POKE CAKE:

Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9×13 cake. Once cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for just a couple of minutes. Then, with a wooden spoon handle or some other similarly-sized object, begin poking holes in the cake.

You want the holes to be fairly big so that the pudding has plenty of room to get down in there. Be sure to poke right down to the bottom of the cake.

Banana Pudding Poke Cake recipe from The Country Cook - holes poked into vanilla cake

In a bowl,whisk together instant pudding with 4 cups milk. Stir until all the lumps are gone. Let pudding sit for about 1-2 minutes so it has just slightly begun to thicken but not fully set, it should still be easily pourable.

mix instant pudding with cold milk in a bowl

Pour pudding over cake. Taking care to get it into the holes as much as possible.

Spread it all out and using the back of the spoon gently push pudding down into the holes.

Put the pudding into the fridge to set and cool. Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on whipped topping.

spread whipped topping (Cool Whip) on top of cooled cake

If you haven’t done so already, crush your vanilla wafers. I just place mine in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Leave some of the pieces big. It’s nice to have a bit of a crunch when you eat the cake.

Spread crushed wafers onto the top of the cake. You can do this part immediately before serving the cake if you like. This will ensure the wafers are crunchy when you serve it.

sprinkle crushed Nilla wafers on top of Cool Whip

I think this cake gets more delicious over time. To me, it’s even better the next day so it’s a great dessert to make ahead of time. Serve with freshly sliced bananas. Keep refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Originally published: June 2012
Updated and republished: May 2019