This Red Velvet Poke Cake is the original poke cake recipe! Red velvet cake poked with pudding, topped with Cool Whip and Oreos!
RED VELVET POKE CAKE
Red Velvet Poke Cake is made with red velvet cake mix with a creamy cheesecake filling and topped with whipped topping and crushed Oreos. The idea for this Red Velvet Poke Cake came when I was at Wal-Mart. I managed to drag my little guy and husband along to the store on this occasion. Y’all have no idea how rare that is to have both of them along.
CAKE MIX, PUDDING AND WHIPPED TOPPING
We were on the baking aisle and I looked at Gene and said, “What do you think of a Red Velvet Poke Cake?” He shrugged his shoulders and casually said, “Sounds good I suppose.” He obviously was not catching on quickly enough to my small moment of brilliance here. I expected a “Well dang – that’s the best darn idea I ever heard of for a cake!” He and I are always on different levels of excitement at different times. Then he asks, “What kind of pudding?” You gotta give the man credit for at least understanding what a poke cake is.
VIDEO INCLUDED BELOW:
CAN I USE HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM?
Of course! If you prefer homemade whipped cream, then by all means, make your own whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream often doesn’t stay stabilized for long though so it won’t hold up as well as Cool Whip.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
red velvet cake mix
ingredients needed to make cake (eggs, oil & water)
instant cheesecake pudding
milk
whipped topping (COOL WHIP),
Oreo cookies
HOW TO MAKE RED VELVET CHEESECAKE CAKE:
Prepare cake 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 warm 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.
In a medium bowl, whisk together dry pudding mix with 4 cups of milk. Whisk until all the lumps are gone. Pour pudding over cake. Taking care to get right 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 cake into the fridge to set and cool (about 2 hours). If you have anything hanging out in your fridge that is stinky, be sure to cover your cake. Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on whipped topping. Spread it out evenly over the pudding layer. If you haven’t done so already, crush your Oreo cookies. 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.
Enjoy!Originally published: July 2012
Updated and republished: May 2019
RED VELVET POKE CAKE
Ingredients
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- (ingredients needed to make cake - eggs, oil & water)
- 2 (3.4 oz) boxes instant Cheesecake-flavored pudding
- 4 cups milk
- 1 (8 oz) tub frozen whipped topping (COOL WHIP) thawed
- 10 Oreo cookies, crushed (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9x13 cake. Once cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for just a couple of minutes.
- Then, with a wooden spoon handle, a spatula handle, or some other similarly-sized object, begin poking holes in the warm cake. You want the holes to be 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.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together pudding mix with 4 cups of milk. Whisk until all the lumps are gone.
- Pour pudding over cake. Taking care to pour it right 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 cake into the fridge to set and cool (about 2 hours).
- Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on whipped topping. Spread it out evenly over the pudding layer.
- Spread crushed Oreos onto the top of the cake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
IF YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE, THEN YOU MUST TRY THESE!
RED VELVET CHEESECAKE CAKE
CHERRIES IN THE SNOW POKE CAKE
CHERRY ALMOND POKE CAKE
this will be made this weekend! Can't wait to taste it.. Amanda
This looks absolutely delicious. A recipe to bookmark for sure.
What a wonderful idea – I absolutely LOVE it! Can't wait to give it a whirl. Thank you for sharing. Rgds Marilene
UGH… girl you're killing me with all these scrumptious poke cake pictures. I wish I ate cake!
Hmmm…me thinks my neighbors would like some poke cake…
I just love your cakes ideas.ilk be trying them out next week when I cook for 80 men at a football official meeting. They will love them.thanks
Just when I thought Red Velvet Cake couldn't be any better! This looks so good!!!
Bran, you've done it again!! I already knew you're a pure genius when it comes to these poke cakes.. but Red Velvet poke cake!!? 🙂 I am IN LOVE!!!! I cannot wait to try this!
You and your poke cakes are epic on Pinterest – congrats on another fabulous looking cake that I know I'll be seeing everywhere 🙂
Yum! I love poke cakes, too. This Memorial Day, I did yellow cake with cheesecake pudding, with strawberries and blueberries on top. It was so refreshing and good! 🙂 So I'm sure your red velvet will be great too.
I'm drooling all over my keyboard! 🙂
Pat
Hi! Sounds like a great idea! Don't get me wrong, I love Oreo cookies, but I was thinking if I reserved a little of the batter to make say, 2 cupcakes, then I could make crumbs from the cupcakes and use that as a topping instead. I think that would look really nice. What do you think?
Making this as we speak! Hubby loved red velvet cake!
I think this is my new favorite website! All those cakes sound amazing!!
I love the idea of the poke cake and anything with Oreo's has got to be good!
That looks amazing! We love red velvet cake so I'm definitely going to be making this.
I just made a chocolate poke cake for my husbands birthday and it's too bad that I didn't see this earlier because his favorite cake is Red Velvet Cake.I will definitely will be making this sometime in the future.
Thanks for another great recipe.
I made the red velvet poke cake and it was heaven in every bite!!!
Brilliance!!!! MUST.MAKE.SOON! I will def remember this for my son in love's b-day…his favorite cake. Thanks for making us smile…again.:-)
That looks way too good!! I would love to make this for my family BBQ next week 🙂
I love your Boston Creme Poke Cake and this Red Velvet one looks like a winner too. Can't wait to try it.
Looks and sounds perfect. You have the best desserts!
Where do I find cream cheese pudding? I've looked everywhere. I'm in Canada
i'm canadian too and pudding can only be bought in the states…i'm stocking up on my next visit.
amazon
I made these today as cupcakes, because I found some fun Olympics themed cupcake liners and we are having spme friemds pver tp watch the opening ceremony tonight. I love the recipe and the cupcakes are yummy, but very messy! I would suggest sticking to a cake with this one! Thanks for sharing the great recipe!
I made this for our out of town company!They loved it. So moist and and there was a fight over the last piece:) thank you????yummy!
Seriously going to be making this!I featured your recipe on my blog, all credits to you! Love your recipes!
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I used sugar-free pudding, light cool whip, and, with a little extra milk, whisked in 4 oz fat free cream cheese to the pudding (will try 8oz next time).
Also, I topped with shredded coconut and chopped walnuts instead of Oreos. I'm not really a red velvet fan and don't like pudding…but this was AWESOME!
Everyone loved it.
I just got done pouring the pudding on and it is in the fridge now!!! Can wait to show up with this beautiful cake tomorrow for labor day!!! 🙂 thanks so much for the recipe I will let you know what everyone thought about it tomorrow!!!
Making this for my boyfriends birthday tonight, very excited.
Made this yesterday for an LSU FOOTBALL party! It was definitely a HIT! (and The best part was that I got to eat the leftovers today! ;D) THANK YOU!!
Oh man! This looks and sounds fantastic!! I am sooooo making this! Thanks for sharing it!
Made this today, but I DID go with the white chocolate pudding, and topped it with cream cheese frosting and raspberries. It's amazing. Just friggin' amazing.
I made this for people moving and making it for a card party on Saturday night. Had trouble finding cream cheese pudding. It is sooo pretty too!
I just put mine in the fridge. I can't wait to taste it. It looks so yummy!!!! Thank you for sharing
Ok…you truly are the "poke cake" queen! I love it! We have a basket dinner with several other churches this coming Sunday. This will be going in my picnic basket! I'll let you know how it goes :).
Red Velvet Cake is a favorite in my house so I knew I had to try it, I posted it today. Thanks for the inspiration – it was amazing 🙂
mickey
I really want to make the red velvet poke cake but the store didnt have the chhesecke instant filling the only had chocolate, do u think that will work??
I just made one with milk chocolate cake, milk chocolate pudding mix, and milk chocolate frosting and it is delicious!
I had to use french vanilla and Thank God it worked
Thank you so much everyone for such sweet comments!! I'm so happy this has been a successful recipe for you! Anonymous, you could use chocolate but obviously you aren't going to get the same flavor as you would with the cheesecake pudding. Cream Cheese frosting is traditional with red velvet cakes. The closest flavor I would probably try would maybe be vanilla. I hope that helps! ~Brandie
This looks so good!! I'm going to be making this later today! By the way, I found Cream Cheese cool whip frosting and I'm so trying it! It's new and I found it right next to the cool whip in my local Walmart!
Hi Erin! I just saw that new product the other day at Food Lion. I am going to try it out too. My husband loves any kind of whipped topping so I know he would probably love those new flavored frostings they have now!
my husband picked this out for his birthday dessert off pinterest. we just finished it off and it was a hit! everyone loved it! not overly sweet, just wonderful, light and yummy! thanks! kennedy's in texas
I just made this tonight for my and a friend's birthday celebration and it was a HUGE hit! I used Vanilla pudding instead of Cheesecake pudding since that is all the store had, but it was still very delicious. Thanks so much, and I look forward to trying your other poke cakes soon!
Do I mix the pudding according to the directions on the box and then mix with 4 cups of milk?
Anonymous – no. Just dry pudding mixes and 4 cups of milk – not 8. 🙂
Hi!! Instead of 2 hrs in the fridge can I leave over night? Or take it out in 2 hrs, put whipped cream on it then stick it back in fridge over night?
Looks Wonderful!!! I wonder how it would to use the new cream cheese cool whip frosting.
I hope this doesn't post twice…. basically I want to know if leftovers can be frozen? Or if not, how long does it last in the fridge? Thanks so much!!
I love the description of the conversation, you had with your love. I think it is exactly the same everywhere but you#re lucky because he did know about the pudding! 🙂 When reading about Cheesecake flavored pudding it makes me even more sad i do not live in the US…. This cake looks amazing and I definitely would love to have a piece of this right now!
Instead of the pudding mix do u think the mix that comes in the cheesecake box with crust would work?
Personally I think this cake is best when you make it the night before. 🙂
Is this cake best if made the same day or can it be made a day ahead and not be too soggy?
I work at an assisted living home and I am always looking for something new for desserts. I have 3 residents that are diabetics. I have a diabetic red velvet cake recipe. I am going to try this with that and use the sugarfree pudding anti light cool whip. I think they will really like this. Thank you.
Vickie-that is great! I'm sure they really appreciate you trying new things to keep it fun & different! I hope they love this one!! -Brandie
All they had were 1 oz boxes of the pudding. How msny should I use?
Growing up my mom made a poke cake with chocolate cake, then after it cools poke holes pour 1 can of sweetened condensed, 1 jar of Carmel sauce, cool whip frosting and Heath bar broken into pieces sprinkled on top. It's very rich but delicious.
Sarah
I am planning to bake this for vday, can the pan be a heart shape or does it have to be a 9×13 pan?
An easy way to test for capacity? Fill 9×13 with water, then pour same water into heart pan. If it overfills or under fills you can adjust…
I got everything to make this morning! I can't wait to try it. Lavenia, I got the cream cheese Cool Whip to use so I'll let you know how it turns out. (:
Tollestrupfamily – are you sure you weren't looking at the Sugar Free boxes. Those are 1oz. but they usually come in a blue box. You could certainly use sugar free but I just use the regular. The regular usually comes in a 3-4 oz. size. If you want to go sugar free, then use the 1 oz. box. Hope that helps! ~Brandie
Does this need to be refridgerated?
Making this as a Valentine's cake for my sweetie right now!
My cake is in oven as we speak. I eat low carb majority ofbthe time so can't wait to indulge. I'm it will be worth the carbs!!!
I'm making this for Easter, but im going to use the golden oreos instead of the regular ones…cant wait to try it!
I made your red velvet poke cake.I had six people over for dinner.Needless to say there was one peice left when I was putting it away.Everyone left and all of a sudden the telephone was ringing off the hook.The ladies were calling for the recipe.One was even at the grocery store calling so she could get the ingredients.Thank you for something different.
I usually make dessert for my weekly Bible study and am always looking for new things to try. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I ran across this recipe on Pinterest. As we speak, this deliciously yummy looking cake is sitting in my fridge. Can't wait to try it! Thanks so much! 🙂
This cake was amazing. Thanks for sharing
So glad you loved it!
Holy cow this sound sooooooo good! I love your site and I am following you on Pinterest. That's it… I just elected you as my new "food goddess". Thanks for sharing your brilliant ideas.
Aww shucks – thank you! So happy to have you here!
in the frig now but I used one cheese cake and one white choc. cant wait to dig in!!!
Made this twice now. So good! 🙂
Thank you very much for coming back to let me know how it turned out for ya Lexy!
I made this in a triple birthday cake baking bonanza and people were by far the most impressed with this one. The possibilities seem endless. I didn't have enough on hand to make as much pudding as was called for, but it turned out moist and delicious as expected.
I *LOVE* hearing that Laine!! Thank you so very much!
Just found your blog/website . I'm absolutely thrilled and looking forward to cooking with you . I think the banana fosters poke cake will be my first dessert. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Hi Sally! You are so sweet! Thank you so very much for that!!
My daughter made this last night. We went to 4 stores but could not find the cheesecake flavor pudding mix. We went with the new Hershey's brand white chocolate pudding mix. It was delicious! Much better than I thought it would be. Very eye catching with the red cake, white pudding and cool whip and black oreos. We will make again.
Can not wait to make the red velvet& banana poke cakes you have on here. They look awesome!
I made a similar with chocolate cake warm carmael& hot fudge in the jars in micro then put those in the holes. Chill add whipped cream. Pound up heath bars put on top .
Thank you for your recipes.
Blessings ^j^
We could only find the sugar/fat free version of the cheesecake pudding. I won't use aspartame, so we used vanilla pudding and substituted 1 cup of the milk for 8oz of whipped greek cream cheese. It gave it a more authentic cheesecake flavor and turned out fantastic! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing! It looks so good and I'm going to make it this weekend and invite the kids and grandkids over to enjoy a piece…or two.
ok I do have one question my store does not have the regular cheesecake pudding so I got the sugar free so do I still use 2 boxes or just 1 box of the sugar free
I just made this for our group night EVERYONE loved it, I mean it was amazing. We used vanilla pudding and it was fine, but I agree with one of the posters earlier … the possibilities are endless. Thanks so much for this, I was worried about storing it, would it be soggy tomorrow, but it was GONE! All gone … no better compliment that that!!
This does look good! Thanks for sharing! But actually, the original Red Velvet icing was not cream cheese. It's a light wonderfully fluffy white icing that doesn't overpower the cake flavor as much as cream cheese. But it's ALL good!!
wow love banana pudding was raised on it. got to try this one as a cake. thanks so much
have a question my oven is not big enough to fix a 9×13 cake. can I use to 8×8 square pans instead u think it would be ok.or give suggestion. thanks
I have made this cake (it's wonderful) but instead of crushed oreos, I put chocolate curls on top. Yum!
First time to check your post. I have only used jello in poke cakes. I am going to try this. In re: to the posts from Canada. Could you use Vanilla or French vanilla pudding and add about 3 oz. of cream cheese and a little extra milk? Any pics I would post of any remarks I send, will give you the credit. Thanks again. Look forward to checking more of this site out.
I'm in the UK and am using the vanilla pudding mix we can get here and then making a cream cheese topping so you still get the cream cheese flavour, hopefully it works out! I'm also doing the chocolate curls. We can get oreos here but my 4 year old would be very upset if I crushed them for a cake!
do u think white choc pudding would taste ok instead of cheese cake pudding
Awesome! Two of my favorite things easily put together. Thanks for the recipe, will be surprising my valentine with this today 😉
Can you use regular jello brand cheesecake filling? I couldn't find the actual cheesecake pudding 🙁
So, this recipe inspired me to make a lemon cake (I use coconut oil and milk in place of oil and water) with blueberries, lemon pudding, and then whipped topping with blueberries folded in. It was ridiculous. Can you make a lemon poke cake next?
Made this today for my daughter's Birthday cake! Insanely good!
What a wonderful idea – I absolutely LOVE it! Can't wait to give it a whirl. Thank you for sharing
I'm making this one tonight for my hubby's 10-year high school reunion picnic tomorrow (mascot was the Red Raiders, so had to have Red Velvet cake!)…I just LOVE the taste and simplicity of so many of your poke cakes…my hubby is a butterscotch fan so I experimented and made him a butterscotch pudding poke cake topped with Heath toffee crumbles that turned out delish! Thank you!
These look amazing!! Thanks for sharing!
This poke cake was absolutely delicious!!!!!! My husband and I ate it everyday for a whole week! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hello,
Thanks for the cake recipe! I made it tonight and unfortunately, I didn't love it.. Sad, I know! Maybe I'm not a fan of red velvet… but due to how rich and sweet it was, I had to stop eating after a few bites. I almost think the pudding adds way too much of a sugary taste.. Maybe I can find ways to modify!
I have been asked to make this cake for Thanksgiving (made it a while back and everyone loved it). I know it's not really a Thanksgiving dessert but oh well, haha. Anyway, I was going to make it at my house and take it to my grandma's, however, her house is about two hours from me. She won't have room for me to bake the cake her oven, so I will have to at least do that part here. If I make the cake here but wait until I get to her house to put the pudding and whipped cream on it, will that be okay? Or will it turn out wrong?
Thanks
This was perfect! Do you know SO many other bloggers copycat your poke cake recipes?! I see them on pinterest all the time. But some of us know that your blog was the first to share it!
Thank you making this for my husbands birthday in a few days. Time to hit the store ????
Will be making this very soon!! Thanx a million
Mike
Sounds Amazing!!!
On my way to the store! Red Velvet Poke Cake?! OMG! BUT, Oreo has made a Red Velvet Oreo recently and it would be perfect for this cake. I am on a quest now to find them again. This cake sounds sinfully delicious. Another winner!
We just made this poke cake, however, must have done something wrong. We couldn’t find the 3.4 oz boxes of pudding, so use 6 of the 1 oz pudding mix. The pudding was so thick that we couldn’t pour it onto the cake, so we tried to push this thick pudding into the holes. Consequently, not much pudding got into the cake.
Are the pudding ingredients correct? or did we over mix the pudding that made it so thick?
Taste good, but not what we had expected for the results.
Hi Darlene – glad you still enjoyed it! Sounded like it might’ve been a little too much pudding, Also, it might have gotten too thick while you were stirring. That instant pudding sets up quick! So the best thing to do is stir just until combined then pour. Don’t stir for more than a minute. Hope that helps 🙂
I’m making this cake tomorrow. It says to make the cake in a 9 x 13 pan but the picture looks like a 9″ square pan?
I am making this tomorrow for a family gathering. While at Walmart, I came across red velvet flavored pudding! So I will use it instead of the vanilla pudding and see how it turns out. Will let you know. 🙂
Ooooohhhhh – that’s new! I hope you’ll get a chance to come back and let me know how it turned out!!
Love this cake. All my coworkers and family love when I make it.
I have made the Boston Cream Cake and the lemon cake. These are probably one of the best cakes I have ever had, just love them and they are soooo easy to make. There is no end to the variations you can make. So glad I came across this site, they will be my "go to" cake when I need a dessert.
This looks so delicious,,????,I will most definitely be giving this one a try????….
Hope you love it Sharon!!
Made this many times. Everyone thinks I slaved for hours to make it nope. Sometimes I do French vanilla and cheesecake instead of just cheese cake pudding.
This is one of the best cakes I have ever made. It was so moist and creamy. YUM.