Strawberry Delight
This strawberry delight recipe will create the best strawberry delight cake around. The homemade crust, sweet strawberry flavor, creamy filling, and whipped topping all complement each other to create the perfect dessert.
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoons butter melted
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs some extra crumbs for garnish if desired
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 10 strawberries sliced (or enough to make a single layer over the graham crackers)
- 16 ounces cream cheese softened (two 8-ounce blocks)
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 cup cold whipping cream chilled
- 3 tablespoons strawberry gelatin used from a 3.4-ounce box
- 8 ounces Cool Whip
Instructions
Crust Layer
- In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, almond extract, and melted butter.
- Press the mixture into an 8×8-inch dish. Flatten the mixture using the bottom of a flat glass. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Strawberry Layer
- Layer the sliced strawberries evenly on top of the frozen crust. Place the dish into the refrigerator while preparing the rest of the dish.
Cream Cheese Layer
- In a large mixing bowl, place the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Using a hand mixer, combine until light and fluffy with no lumps. Set aside.
- In a chilled medium mixing bowl, place the heavy whipping cream. Using a hand mixer on high beat the cream until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.
- Gently add the heavy whipping cream to the cream cheese mixture and fold it together with a rubber spatula. Once combined, spoon half of the cream cheese/whipped cream mixture on top of the strawberries in the dish.
- Set the other half of the mixture aside.
- Place the dish in the refrigerator while preparing the next step.
Strawberry Cheesecake Layer
- In the bowl with the remaining cream cheese/whipping cream mixture, add the 3 tablespoons of dry strawberry gelatin. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the dry strawberry gelatin until combined and solid in color.
- Spoon the mixture on the top of the dish.
Whipped Topping Layer
- Spread the Cool Whip on top of the dish as the last layer.
- Chill at least one hour before serving.
- Garnish with sliced strawberries and graham cracker crumbs if desired.
Notes
It’s highly recommended to make this delicious dessert a day ahead of time and refrigerate it overnight. This will allow it to thicken and makes it easier to cut into slices.
To avoid everything melting while you work, be sure to chill the dish before you start and place it back into the refrigerator between layers where possible.
Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature so that you don’t end up with lumps in your cream cheese filling.