Christmas Red Velvet Poke Cake

4.72 from 14 votes

Christmas Red Velvet Poke Cake is a delicious, moist holiday cake that is easily made with a boxed cake mix, pudding, and whipped topping.

Prep Time10

Cook Time25

Chill Time4

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 525kcal

Preheat the oven to 350*. Spray a 9x13 with bakers spray (Baker's Joy or generic version). Set it aside.
Using a medium size mixing bowl and a handheld mixer on medium speed, prepare the cake mix according to the box directions.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Using a rounded handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes into the cake about ½ inch apart. Set it aside to cool.

Using a medium size mixing bowl, whisk together the pudding mixes and the cold milk for 1 - 1 ½ minutes, just until the pudding starts to thicken.
Evenly pour the pudding over the prepared cake. Use a spatula to smooth the pudding over the prepared cake.
Tightly cover the cake and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Using a spoon, stir in the green food color into the thawed whipped topping. Stir until the color is uniform.
Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Evenly spread the tinted whipped topping over the pudding layer.
Evenly sprinkle the mini marshmallows over the tinted whipped topping layer.
Evenly sprinkle the red and green m and m’s and the red sprinkles.
Cut 12 - 3 inch x 3 inch squares.

Storage:

Keep any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Tips:

To poke holes, I recommend using a large round wooden spoon handle or other similar sized object so that the holes are fairly big and the pudding has plenty of room to seep down in between. Be sure to poke right down to the bottom of the cake.
Don't let the pudding set before pouring onto cake. Whisk the pudding well for a minute or two then start pouring straight into the holes of the cake.
Depending on how dark or light you prefer the tinted whipped topping layer, you can use green food gel. Gel food coloring is very concentrated and not as "liquidy" as liquid food coloring. Therefore, gel food coloring is good to use when you want very vibrant colors.
You can shorten the chill time to 2 hours, but keep in mind that the longer you leave the cake in the refrigerator, the longer the pudding has to set properly.
If you choose to decorate your cake with white chocolate shavings, you can use a white chocolate candy bar or white almond bark and a vegetable peeler. Carefully use gentle downward pressure against the side of the candy bar.