Cherries in the Snow

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An American vintage holiday dessert that deserves to make a comeback is Cherries in the Snow. It's incredibly balanced, making it not too sweet and not too tart. It paints a picture of a beautiful winter wonderland scene and looks exactly like bright red cherries lying on top of fluffy snow.

Recipe Essentials

🍽️ Course: Dessert
⏱️ Cooking Time: No bake
🍴 Servings: 8
🧄 Flavor Profile: Light, creamy, and fruity. Layers of sweet whipped cream and cream cheese meet angel food cake.
🍚 Best Served With: Pairs well with coffee or tea and other vintage-style desserts like ambrosia or trifle.
🧊 Make Ahead?: Yes! Best made 1 day ahead so flavors meld and layers set.

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Cherry pie is one of my favorite desserts! This old-fashioned cherries in the snow recipe is the perfect twist. It combines cherry pie filling with a decadent, sweetened cream cheese layer, giving it the flavor of a creamy cheesecake. I promise that if you make this for your next holiday gathering, you'll have no leftovers to take home.

Peaches-and-cream-stuffed cake and berry cheesecake trifle are also treats made with angel food cake.

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Recipe Essentials
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Variations
How to Make Cherries in the Snow
Recipe Tips
Serving Suggestions
Recipe FAQs
More Delicious Desserts With Cherries
Cherries in the Snow

Why You'll Love This Recipe

It's no-bake: This is a lovely no-bake recipe, saving you time in the kitchen and room in your oven.
It's customizable: There are endless simple substitutions that make this delicious dessert your own.
It's easy to make ahead: Since it needs some time to set in the refrigerator, it's perfect to make a few hours or even a day or so in advance so it's ready when you want to serve it.

Ingredients

This recipe for cherries in the snow includes angel food cake with cherry pie filling and a creamy cream cheese layer. The essential ingredients for these layers are listed below.

Cream cheese: Leave your cream cheese on the counter for about 30 minutes to soften. This will ensure that the filling is smooth and free of lumps.
Angel food cake: Pound cake works here as well. There's no need to make neat pieces, just crumble them up!
Almond extract: This enhances the cherry flavor perfectly. I prefer it over vanilla extract in this recipe.
Cherry pie filling: Any brand of canned cherry pie filling is perfect. You'll need two cans for this dessert.

See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.

Variations

Blueberry pie filling: Swap the cherry filling for blueberry to make a slightly different version.
Cranberry sauce: Turn this into an undeniably holiday dessert by using whole berry cranberry sauce. Homemade cranberry sauce works, too.
Add coconut flakes: Sprinkle coconut flakes on top to resemble snowflakes!
Vanilla wafers: Swap the angel food cake for crushed vanilla wafers for a different texture.

How to Make Cherries in the Snow

Here are the instructions on how to make this delicious dessert. Grab your casserole dish and ensure your cream cheese is soft and ready to go.

Cream cheese and powdered sugar beaten in a bowl.

Step 1: Beat the cream cheese and sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until they are smooth and fluffy.

Pieces of angel food cake, whipped topping and almond extract added to the mixture.

Step 2: Add the whipped topping, almond extract, and cake. Then, beat in the whipped topping and almond extract until smooth. Next, fold in the pieces of angel food cake.

The mixture spread to the bottom of the 9x13 casserole dish.

Step 3: Spread in the casserole dish. Now you can spread the mixture onto the bottom of the 9x13 casserole dish.

Cherry pie filling covering the top of the cream cheese mixture.

Step 4: Add the pie filling. Spread the cherry pie filling to cover the top of the cream cheese mixture. Chill for an hour in the fridge and enjoy!

Recipe Tips

Chill overnight if possible: Technically, you only need to chill this dessert for about an hour. However, I'm a firm believer in as long as possible! It sets up beautifully for the next day.
Refrigeration directions: Store any leftovers tightly covered or in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Fold in the cake gently: Avoid overmixing or mashing the cake when stirring it into the creamy mixture, or it can become gummy.

A similar cherry dessert, layered and no-bake, is this cherry cream cheese pie!

Cherry pie filling on top of a cream cheese mixture.

Serving Suggestions

Enjoy a tasty cookie that you can scoop this dessert on top! I love these easy homemade biscotti and these toffee shortbread cookies.
Prepare some fancy appetizers like goat cheese dip with bacon and pecans, and prosciutto portobello baked eggs to serve before this showstopping treat.
The flavors of this moscato sangria complement the cherry and almond in this recipe.

A wooden spoon scooping up some cherry dessert.

Recipe FAQs

Why is this recipe called "cherries in the snow"?

This recipe is called "cherries in the snow" because the cherry filling on top of the white creamy layer looks like cherries peeking through the snow.

Can I freeze this cherries in the snow dessert?

Of course! Tightly cover it and keep it in the freezer for up to 4 months. It tastes yummy frozen, too!

Can I use homemade cherry pie filling?

Yes, if you have a favorite homemade cherry pie recipe, you can use that here.

A fork taking some cherries in the snow dessert.

More Delicious Desserts With Cherries

Do you like cherry recipes? Here are some recipes you may also like to try.

If you try this recipe and love it please leave a star rating in the recipe card below or even better, drop a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback. Be sure to follow along with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube for more easy recipes!