Christmas Lush Dessert is a perfectly festive dessert recipe for the holidays. Easy Christmas dessert made with a layer of red velvet cake, a sweet cream cheese layer, a creamy pudding layer and a final layer of whipped cream and sprinkles.
Most lush desserts are completely no-bake, but this one is a little bit different because the bottom layer does require baking. Once the crust is baked, the rest of the dessert is ready to mix up and layer.
CHRISTMAS LUSH DESSERT
The bottom layer of this lush is a thin, red-velvet layer cake crust. The next layer is made with cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add a layer of vanilla pudding, Cool Whip and green food coloring before topping the whole dessert with a final layer of whipped topping. Add some festive sprinkles for a delicious holiday dessert that is perfect for Christmas parties!
LUSH DESSERTS
Lush desserts are a really popular layered no bake dessert that come in endless flavor combinations. A typical lush dessert have a few things in common despite the final flavor. The majority of them have at least 4 basic layers:
- No Bake Cookie Crumb Crust
- Sweet whipped Cream Cheese layer
- Pudding layer
- Whipped cream topping on top!
INGREDIENTS IN CHRISTMAS LUSH DESSERT
Red velvet cake mix – You will need 1 box of red velvet cake mix to make the crust for the lush. You can use a different kind of cake mix if you’d like, but the red velvet cake is the perfect color for Christmas! If you use a white cake mix, you could use food coloring to get the red color.
Egg – Just add one egg to the cake mix.
Butter – Melt 1/2 cup of butter and let it cool before adding to the cake mix. Real butter works best.
Cream cheese – The cream cheese needs to be softened to room temperature before mixing with the other ingredients.
Powdered sugar – Adds the perfect amount of sweetness to the cream cheese layer.
Vanilla instant pudding – You will need 2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding for the pudding layer of the dessert.
Milk – Any type of milk will work. The milk is mixed with the instant pudding mix to make the pudding layer.
Cool Whip topping – You will need a 16 ounce container of thawed Cool Whip. Divide the Cool Whip in half. Half of it will be mixed into the cream cheese layer, a little bit (1/4 cup) will be mixed into the pudding layer, and rest will be spread on top.
Green gel food coloring – Green gel food coloring is recommended, you can use regular food coloring but it will require more product.
Red heart sprinkles or red heart candies – Add some color on top by adding sprinkles. You could use chopped maraschino cherries or strawberries to decorate with instead.
HOW TO MAKE CHRISTMAS LUSH DESSERT
Preheat your oven to 350° and grease a 9×13 baking dish.
MAKE THE CAKE LAYER
In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry red velvet cake mix with one egg and melted butter until combined. Evenly press the mixture into the greased baking dish.
Bake the cake mixture for 15 minutes. Allow the cake to cool completely.
MAKE THE CREAM CHEESE LAYER
Beat the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
Fold in 8 ounces of the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture until combined.
Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly across the top of the cooled cake layer. Refrigerate the cake while you prepare the next layer.
MAKE THE PUDDING LAYER
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry pudding packets and cold milk until smooth. Stir in ¼ cup of whipped topping and green gel food coloring until desired color is achieved.
Remove the cake from the refrigerator and spread the vanilla pudding layer across the top of the cream cheese layer.
ADD WHIPPED CREAM AND SPRINKLES
Spread the remaining whipped topping over the top of the vanilla pudding layer. Garnish with red heart sprinkles if desired.
Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours or overnight before serving.
CHRISTMAS LUSH DESSERT
Ingredients
- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- 1 egg
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- ½ confectioners sugar
- 2 3.4 oz boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix
- 3 cups cold milk
- 16 oz whipped topping Cool Whip
- Green gel food coloring Green gel food coloring is recommended, you can use regular food coloring but it will require more product
- Red heart sprinkles or red heart candies
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° and grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- MAKE THE CAKE LAYER: In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry red velvet cake mix with one egg and melted butter until combined. Evenly press the mixture into the greased baking dish.
- Bake the cake mixture for 15 minutes. Allow the cake to cool completely.
- MAKE THE CREAM CHEESE LAYER: Beat the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Fold in 8 ounces of the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture until combined.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly across the top of the cooled cake layer. Refrigerate the cake while you prepare the next layer.
- MAKE THE PUDDING LAYER: In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry pudding packets and cold milk until smooth. Stir in ¼ cup of whipped topping and green gel food coloring until desired color is achieved.
- Remove the cake from the refrigerator and spread the vanilla pudding layer across the top of the cream cheese layer.
- ADD WHIPPED CREAM AND SPRINKLES: Spread the remaining whipped topping over the top of the vanilla pudding layer. Garnish with red heart sprinkles if desired.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours or overnight before serving.
Nutrition
📫 Save this recipe! Send it to your email! 📩
I consent to receiving emails from this site.
HOW LONG IS CHRISTMAS LUSH DESSERT GOOD FOR?
Lush desserts are good for about 3-4 days in the fridge if you keep them well covered. I don’t recommend letting them last any longer than that because the ingredients begin to separate.
WHAT KIND OF CREAM CHEESE TO USE IN LUSH DESSERTS?
I usually use regular cream cheese, but you can also use a low-fat or non-fat variety in lush desserts. Just make sure it is softened to room temperature before adding to the recipe.
HOW TO SOFTEN CREAM CHEESE
Cream cheese is easy to soften – you can set it out at room temperature or soften it more quickly in the microwave.
-To soften at room temperature more quickly, just set the cream cheese on a plate and cut into smaller pieces. The cream cheese should reach room temperature in about 15-20 minutes with this method.
-To soften the cream cheese in the microwave, remove the foil packaging and set the cream cheese in a small bowl or on a plate. Microwave for about 10-15 seconds. If the cream cheese is still cold and hard, continue to microwave for about 5 seconds at a time until the cream cheese is soft throughout. Just make sure not to microwave it too long or it will start to melt!
CAN YOU REPLACE THE COOL WHIP IN LUSH DESSERTS?
If you can’t find Cool Whip where you live or you prefer not to use it in recipes, you can use stabilized whipped cream instead. If you just use regular whipped cream, the consistency will be too light and the cream will not hold up very well when mixed into the cream cheese layer. It’s very simple to make your own stabilized whipped cream and it just takes a few minutes!
HOW TO MAKE STABILIZED WHIPPED CREAM
To make stabilized whipped cream, you will need the following ingredients:
- 6 ounces of cream cheese (softened to room temperature)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream.
- Beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar and vanilla until soft and smooth.
- In a separate bowl, beat the whipping cream just until soft peaks form.
- Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
A little tip for making whipped cream faster. Use a metal bowl for whipping the cream and place the bowl in the freezer for about 30 minutes before you make the whipped cream. This will significantly decrease the amount of time that you will need to beat the whipped cream – the process will go much faster!
MORE CHRISTMAS DESSERT RECIPES TO TRY:
- CHRISTMAS CAKE BATTER FUDGE
- ELF BAIT CHRISTMAS SNACK MIX
- CHRISTMAS SHEET CAKE
- CHRISTMAS CHEESECAKE
- CHRISTMAS JELLO POKE CAKE
- CHRISTMAS CREAM PUFFS
- SOFT CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIES
- RED VELVET CHRISTMAS COOKIES
- CHRISTMAS MUDDY BUDDIES
- CHRISTMAS CINNAMON ROLLS
- CHRISTMAS CRANBERRY CAKE
- HOT CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS COOKIES
- M&M CHRISTMAS COOKIE BARS
- CHRISTMAS CANDY PUFFCORN
- CHRISTMAS PEPPERMINT PATTIES
Christmas Lush Dessert is a perfectly festive dessert recipe for the holidays. Easy Christmas dessert made with a layer of red velvet cake, a sweet cream cheese layer, a creamy pudding layer and a final layer of whipped cream and sprinkles.
Leave a Reply