Southern Strawberry Punch Bowl Cake

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A pie is a baked dish prepared with a casing of a pastry and filled with sweet or savoury ingredients. Summer is the best season to enjoy citrusy refreshing sweet pies. Here I have an easy recipe of a pie you can enjoy with your family on a sunny day. The crust is made with graham crackers so you can avoid the headache of preparing a pastry. The filling is a lovely combination of cream cheese, lemon pudding and lemonade concentrate. You may also add a pinch of grated lemon zest to give that extra zing to the dessert. It is perfect to end barbecue parties, picnics or house parties. You can even enjoy this dessert during afternoon tea.  It is luscious, creamy and delicious. This dessert is light yet it has that buttery crust to balance the texture and flavours well with the cream cheese filling.

In case you do not want to make them in a pie crust, you can also serve a deconstructed version of this dessert in glass bowls. All you need to do is to serve the baked graham cracker crumbs at the bottom and top with the cream filling. Serve with some whipped topping and fresh mint sprigs. So versatile !

Ingredients:

1 yellow cake mix

1 (6 oz.) pkg. instant vanilla pudding

1 lg. can crushed pineapple, drained

2 (10 oz.) pkgs. frozen strawberries

2 bananas

1 (16 oz.) carton Cool Whip

How to make it:

Bake cake in two round cake pans and set aside to cool.

Make pudding and set in refrigerator to get cold.

Cut one layer of cake in small chunks; put in punch bowl. Spread half of pudding on top; then add half of pineapple and one package strawberries.

Slice one banana on top; half of Cool Whip, spreading to cover completely. Repeat with the other layer the same – ending with Cool Whip.

Let set in refrigerator overnight.