Fun, colorful and absolutely delicious this Rainbow Jello Poke Cake is an easy and tasty cake to whip up that is full of flavor and color! Everyone will fall in love.
I love color, I really do. The more color the better. I’m a super tie-dye loving person and you should see some of the fun colorful stuff I own, but let’s talk about colorful desserts.
This Rainbow Jello Poke Cake is not only fun, it is flavorful, with multiple different flavors of jello poured into a deliciously fluffy cake and topped off with whipped cream and sprinkles?!
I mean how much more fun can it get than that! We love making this cake with my daughter, she has such a colorful personality that it absolutely matches her perfectly.
Also I think it is fun for multiple different holidays coming up such as St. Patricks Day and Easter! I mean who wouldn’t love eating this cake for those holidays.
Especially St. Patricks Day, I mean its all about the shamrocks, gold and rainbows isn’t it? So I think this would be the perfect cake to make to celebrate that date.
Some of our other favorite cakes that we have on our site include Donut Cake, Strawberry Ricotta Cake and this Funfetti Cake!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With minimal ingredients it comes together quickly.
- You can use a cake mix or a homemade cake.
- You can use your favorite jello flavors as long as it creates a fun rainbow effect.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE BELOW):
White cake mix
Water
Oil
Eggs
Strawberry jello
Lemon jello
Blue raspberry jello
Lime jello
Cool whip
Sprinkles (optional)
Look at those minimal ingredients, I love recipes like this and don’t think for once that I’m opposed to using box mixes and think that everything needs to be homemade.
I love myself a good easy recipe, and like I always say, some of the easiest recipes out there really do taste the best!
HOW TO MAKE A RAINBOW JELLO POKE CAKE, STEP BY STEP:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9×13 inch baking pan with a light coating of cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool, then using the handle of a wooden spoon poke holes over each inch of the cake. Set aside.
- In four small bowls, combine each jello package with 1 cup boiling water. Whisk together until fully combined.
- Use a Tablespoon to pour jello mixture into the holes in cake, alternating colors according to preference until each hole has been filled. Do not use all the jello.
- Place the cake into the refrigerator and let it cool for 2 hours.
- Spread the whipped topping over the cooled cake and top with sprinkles as desired before serving.
How easy is this Jello Poke Cake, honestly? Like you really can’t get easier than this. The only downside is waiting for the jello itself to set up, but I can absolutely deal with that.
I love Jello Poke Cakes, they are so retro but have made such a comeback over the years and with so many different varieties to boot!
WHAT IS A POKE CAKE?
A poke cake or a poke and pour cake can be a few different things, you can either use jello, pudding, sweetened condensed milk among other things.
The most popular two being jello and pudding. The concept is to poke the cake and pour the jello or pudding into the holes of the cake so when you eat it you have a little surprise inside.
These cakes have been around for generations and passed down from person to person, family to family. You really can’t go wrong with having at least one Poke Cake in your recipe box!
HOW TO STORE JELLO POKE CAKE:
Because of the topping and thee jello this cake needs to remain refrigerated. You can refrigerate in the baking pan covered tightly with plastic wrap or foil up to 3 days.
This Rainbow Jello Poke Cake can also be frozen! To do this you need to bake and cool as directed, do not frost the cake with the whipped cream.
Wrap your cake with plastic wrap and then foil, place in freezer and it should keep for up too 3 months. When ready to serve, defrost in the refrigerator overnight and then frost.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- We like to use white cake as it pairs well with all flavors of jello and shows of the colors more but you can use a yellow or vanilla cake as well.
- You must let this cake cool the full 2 hours otherwise you might end up with a soggy bottom, the jello needs time to set up.
- You will not be using all the jello, so you can use the remaining too create jigglers or pans of jello!
- We like to use the back of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the cake but you can use a straw, toothpick, fork etc. But you might have smaller holes.
- This cake can be frozen, see my tips above on how to do that.
- You will want to fill each hole with about 1 tablespoon of jello.
- We like to use a syringe to fill the holes as it is easier than using a spoon.
If you want a fun and colorful but tasty dessert for the upcoming holidays or just because then you need to make this Rainbow Jello Poke Cake!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this RAINBOW JELLO POKE CAKE or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Rainbow Jello Poke Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 4 cups boiling water divided
- 3 oz pkg strawberry jello
- 3 oz pkg lemon jello
- 3 oz pkg blue raspberry jello
- 3 oz pkg lime jello
- 8 oz container Cool Whip
- Sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9x13 inch baking pan with a light coating of cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool, then using the handle of a wooden spoon poke holes poke holes about an inch apart. Set aside.
- In four small bowls, combine each jello package with 1 cup boiling water. Whisk together until fully combined.
- Use a Tablespoon to pour jello mixture into the holes in cake, alternating colors according to preference until each hole has been filled. Do not use all the jello.
- Place the cake into the refrigerator and let it cool for 2 hours.
- Spread the whipped topping over the cooled cake and top with sprinkles if desired before serving.
Notes
- We like to use white cake as it pairs well with all flavors of jello and shows of the colors more but you can use a yellow or vanilla cake as well.
- You must let this cake cool the full 2 hours otherwise you might end up with a soggy bottom, the jello needs time to set up.
- You will not be using all the jello, so you can use the remaining too create jigglers or pans of jello!
- We like to use the back of a wooden spoon to poke holes in the cake but you can use a straw, toothpick, fork etc. But you might have smaller holes.
- This cake can be frozen, see my tips above on how to do that.
- You will want to fill each hole with about 1 tablespoon of jello.
- We like to use a syringe to fill the holes as it is easier than using a spoon.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Irene Gibson
we did red and green for our Christmas poke cake ….Turned out great and there was none left over ….
Kim B
there are so pretty! made this for my daughters birthday and everyone was blown away. mine wasn’t quite as pretty but it was delicious and was the center of attention at the party.