Red Velvet Poke Cake (+Video)
This Red Velvet Poke Cake is the original poke cake recipe! Red velvet cake poked with pudding, topped with Cool Whip and Oreos!
A SIMPLY DELICIOUS RED VELVET 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. The Banana Pudding Poke Cake recipe was such a hit when I first introduced it here that I really wanted to create something special for Valentine’s Day. That is where this Red Velvet Poke Cake was born! It turned out so good!
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.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)
- 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 POKE CAKE:
Prepare cake according to package directions for a 9×13-inch 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.
Spread crushed Oreos onto the top of the cake. You can do this part immediately before serving the cake if you like. This will ensure the cookie bits are crunchy when you serve it.
Then dig in!
CRAVING MORE RECIPES?
Red Velvet Poke Cake (+Video)
Ingredients
- 15.25 ounce box red velvet cake mix
- (ingredients needed to make cake – eggs, oil & water)
- 2 (3.4 ounce) boxes instant Cheesecake-flavored pudding
- 4 cups milk
- 8 ounce tub frozen whipped topping (COOL WHIP) thawed
- 10 Oreo cookies, crushed (optional)
Instructions
- 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, 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
Nutritional Disclaimer
“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
Originally published: July 2012
Updated and republished: May 2019
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!!
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!!
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
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.
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!
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^
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.
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!!
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!
Made this twice now. So good! 🙂
Thank you very much for coming back to let me know how it turned out for ya Lexy!
in the frig now but I used one cheese cake and one white choc. cant wait to dig in!!!
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!
This cake was amazing. Thanks for sharing
So glad you loved it!
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! 🙂
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'm making this for Easter, but im going to use the golden oreos instead of the regular ones…cant wait to try it!
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!!!
Making this as a Valentine's cake for my sweetie right now!
Does this need to be refridgerated?
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
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. (:
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…
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
All they had were 1 oz boxes of the pudding. How msny should I use?
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