This strawberry angel food cake vintage recipe is made with jello, cool whip, frozen fresh strawberries, and angel food cake. That’s it! Only four ingredients. It’s a sweet no-bake make-ahead refrigerated strawberry dessert that has become a true family favorite for us.
If you like this recipe (and have plenty of strawberries around), you’ll also love fresh strawberry pie and strawberry shortcake from scratch.
Why You Need Strawberry Angel Food Cake In Your Life
A good fresh strawberry dessert recipe is one of my favorites this time of year. While the strawberries aren’t ripe for picking YET in Ohio, I do know that they are in other parts of the country, which has me thinking about strawberry desserts like strawberry rhubarb pie. And because I see the prices drop at our area grocery stores, I wanted to make a fun dessert that was very easy but used fresh strawberries!
- Fresh strawberries. When strawberries are in season they are the best! This is a unique strawberry dessert that uses only 1 pound of fresh strawberries.
- Easy to pull together. This dessert is super simple to make and a great one to have the kids join in on!
Only Four Ingredients
To make this fresh strawberry dessert recipe you will only need four ingredients!
- Strawberry Jell-O – I recommend the name brand. This is one instance where generic just doesn’t cut it.
- Fresh Strawberries – You will need your strawberries to be frozen. You can use fresh; just pop them in the freezer for 24 hours before making this recipe.
- Cool Whip – It brings this recipe all together. Use good ol’ cool whip or make your own.
- Angel Food Cake – I buy it at the store in the bakery section. I mentioned, easy, right?
How to Freeze Fresh Strawberries
It was easy to freeze the fresh strawberries. I would recommend doing this as you’re able to control the size of each strawberry. You know how huge strawberries can be? I like to be able to control that and cut cut them before freezing.
- Wash: The day before you plan to make this recipe, wash and cut one pound of fresh strawberries. You’ll want the strawberries to be bite-size.
- Freeze: Place them on parchment paper and freeze.
- Store: Once they are semi-frozen you can put them in a plastic bag to use when you’re ready to make the strawberry angel food cake.
How to Make
- Break the angel food cake into 1 – 2 inch pieces. Add to a bowl and set aside.
- Boil 1 1/4 cups of water on the stove. Dissolve the Jell-O into the boiling water. Once dissolved, add the frozen strawberries and stir. I then transferred the strawberry mixture to a mixing bowl.
- Fold in the cool whip into the strawberry mixture. Yum!
- Add the angel food cake into the strawberry mixture until well combined.
5. Pour into an 11×7 pan. You can use a 9×13 pan, but I like my strawberry angel food cake thicker.
6. Chill. Place the cake into the refrigerator for at least 3 hours to chill. Longer is better!
This Fresh Strawberry Dessert recipe took minutes to make! It’s an easy and fresh dessert to enjoy those fresh strawberries on a hot day! No oven required. Top with whipped cream if you prefer and enjoy!
Strawberry Angel Food Cake FAQ
I used a 13 oz bakery made angel food cake for this recipe.
No. I didn’t and had no problems.
I like to be in control of how big the strawberry bites are. I’ve also found that buying fresh certain times of the year is much cheaper. That being said, you could use store bought frozen strawberries if you prefer.
I did in the past, but it was very difficult to get the cake out of the pan. For this reason, I suggest using an 11×7 or 9×13 inch pan.
Watch How to Make This Strawberry Dessert
Strawberry Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
- 3 oz package of strawberry Jell-O
- 1 1/4 cups water boiling
- 1 lb strawberries frozen
- 8 oz Cool Whip thawed
- 13 oz angel food cake
Instructions
- Break angel food cake into 1 - 2 inch pieces.
- Dissolve Jell-O in boiling water. Add frozen strawberries and stir.
- Place strawberry mixture into a large bowl and fold in the Cool Whip. Add angel food cake pieces and combine.
- Pour into 11x7 or 9x13 pan.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or until fully set.
Notes
How to Freeze Fresh Strawberries
- Wash: The day before you plan to make this recipe, wash and cut one pound of fresh strawberries. You'll want the strawberries to be bite-size.
- Freeze: Place them on parchment paper and freeze.
- Store: Once they are semi-frozen you can put them in a plastic bag to use when you're ready to make the strawberry angel food cake.
Nutrition
More Strawberry Recipes
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad Recipe
- Homemade Strawberry Bread Recipe
- Easy Homemade Strawberry Freezer Jam Recipe
Strawberry Angel Food Cake Recipe originally shared May 2014. Updated 2021.
Comments & Reviews
Made this last week and we absolutely LOVED it. It’s seriously my new favorite dessert. It actually got better the longer it sat in the fridge (I’m talkin days). This will be going into the family cookbook. Thanks so much!!
Agree! It gets better with age. 🙂
Could you show the calories count I want a to take to work but I work for a care center. ☆☆☆☆☆
Couldn’t u use a large bowl lined with plastic wrap put cake mixture in after mixed let set up then turnout on dish and frost with a cool whip frosting recipe like a snowball?
That’s an interesting idea. I can’t see why that wouldn’t work. Let me know if you give a try. 🙂
What size container of Cool Whip is to be used?
You’ll need one (8 oz) package of Cool Whip. I’ve updated the recipe, thanks for asking!
Can you use whipped heavy cream in place of Cool Whip?
Yes, you can use heavy whipped cream. I would recommend following a recipe like this one so that you add some sugar to bring the same kind of sweetness that cool whip provides.
Is it 1 and 1/4 cups of water or just 1/4 of a cup!?
Thanks!
Hi. It’s 1 and 1/4 cups of boiling water.
Hi I’m preparing scale 3 but your water measurement 1 1/4 cup for the Jello is the same as scales 1 and 2. Is that correct also for triple the amount?
Thank you! Nadine
Hi. You will want to adjust the water based on if you’re doubling or tripling the recipe. I understand that’s confusing with how I’ve written the recipe and so I’ve updated the ingredient list to include the water so that it will reflect that change. Thanks!
Can you use sugar free jello and fat free cool whip
Yes. It will taste like you made it with sugar free, but the texture will be the same. 🙂
Do you think I can try this without the frozen strawberries? I have leftover angel food cake that I’d like to use up. I have everything else, but no strawberries. What do you think!!!
I haven’t tried it without strawberries, but it should be fine. The texture will be different without bites of fruit but the flavor should still be delicious! Let me know how it turns out.
This sounds amazing! I’m going to make this for our Easter dinner. 🙂
Awesome! Enjoy this easy dessert recipe!
You can put this in a large tupperware bowl, or their silicone muffin pan and it will come out of pan or muffin pans just fine.
Great idea for individual little desserts!