Berries and Cream Punch Bowl Cake

This Berries and Cream Punch Bowl Cake just maybe our favorite dessert this summer. It so refreshing and oh sooooooo delicious! Fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are layered in between light tender chunks of angel food cake that’s nestled in a billowing cloud of the most amazing sweet cream! This dessert will blow you away!  

You can whip it up it a snap, and there is no baking to it!

I made this Berries and Cream Punch Bowl Cake over the Memorial Day Weekend. Wow! It was the perfect dessert to kick off the summer season! I wanted to have a dessert that was patriotic looking. This red, white, and blue dessert fit the bill.  We loved all flavors, from the sweet tartness of the berries, the sweet creamy angel food layers to the crunchy pecan topping. It was ALL good. My husband said that he could eat the whole bowl by himself. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed it!

You can call it a trifle or a punch bowl cake. Here in the South, we called them punch bowl cakes. It’s one of those “Southern Things.”  Anyway, we Southerner’s love our punch bowl cakes anyway you fix them. There are many different recipes for punch bowl cakes and they are all delicious.

Be sure you put it in something glass so all the beautiful, colorful layers will show through,  and also be sure that you chill it overnight in the refrigerator a day before you plan to serve it. That gives time for all the delicious flavors to soak in. This cake will taste even better two or three days later which makes it a fantastic dessert for entertaining, or if you have out of town guests coming in for the weekend. You can make this up days ahead giving you time to  get ready for your guests. I love anything that makes entertaining easier, don’t you?

This punch bowl cake is different from any that I’ve ever tasted. I know that you are going to love it too. You will be adding this to your punch bowl cake repertoire.

This dessert is perfect for:

• Patriotic holidays such as Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and Veteran’s Day
• Father’s Day
• Summertime bbqs and backyard Cookouts
• Picnic’s
• Ladies luncheons
• Family reunions
• Church suppers
• Potlucks
• And a great dessert to make on a family vacation! ( No baking required!!)

This is what you will need:

• A glass trifle dish, punch bowl, or large glass bowl
• 1 Angel food cake (14-ounce store bought)
• 2 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese
• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar or powdered sugar
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (5 ½ -ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 (16-ounce) container frozen container of Cool Whip
• 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 ½ cups fresh raspberries
• ⅔ cup toasted pecans
• **Save a few berries for garnishing the top

How to make the punch bowl cake:

• This is an eight layer dessert including the whipped topping.
• Using a serrated knife or your fingers, cut or tear the angel food cake into small pieces. Set the cake aside while you make the cream mixture.

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese together with the powdered sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk to cream cheese mixture and beat well.

Next, fold the Cool whip into the cream cheese mixture. Stir in the cake pieces and mix well.

Spread ¼ of the mixture on the bottom of trifle bowl. Place the slices strawberries on the cream cheese mixture. Repeat the same process with remaining cream cheese mixture and berries. Top with the remaining Cool Whip, sprinkle with pecans and garnish with the remaining berries. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Here’s the first four layers with the strawberries and blueberries. Next you will layer with the cake mixture and sprinkle with raspberries. Spread another layer of the cake mixture and the last layer is the remaining Cool Whip topping. Plus, of course, the beautiful fruit and pecan garnishing. We loved the pecan topping and toasting them just a little bit gives it an extra great taste.

Substituting Tips:

You can be creative with you punch bowl cake!

For something different, you can try substituting different fruit such as black berries, peaches, pineapple, mangoes or kiwi.  You could do just strawberries and cream or peaches and cream. Now that would be delicious! I may have do make another punch bowl cake with some fresh juicy Georgia peaches and call it “Peaches and Cream Punch Bowl Cake!”

This cream mixture is so versatile that it will go well with just about any fruit. You may also substitute mascarpone cheese for the cream cheese as well. Mascarpone cheese is an “Italian cream cheese”. Mascarpone cheese is much richer and creamier, but much more expensive.  If you have the time and prefer, you can substitute the non-dairy whipped topping Cool Whip for real cream whipped topping or you can buy the real whipped cream topping in the aerosol cans.

I have the complete recipe below.

Please leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you, and if you make this, please take a picture and tag #deliciouslysouthern on Instagram.

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