Cherry Cheesecake Lush Dessert combines the flavors of cherry cheesecake with the creaminess of lush! The perfect one pan dessert recipe for the holidays and all year round!
So can we talk about something for a minute? Something that’s been on my mind for a while now….because it’s basically consuming ALL OF MY TIME? (Ok, not all of it, but definitely way too much…) Yep, can we talk for a minute about Facebook?
Now, I know I’m not the only one. Who scrolls through their feed and clicks on one thing, and then another, and suddenly finds themselves on a complete stranger’s page because Facebook somehow led them there….? Tell me I’m not the only one. Who doesn’t even realize that a full hour has passed and I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing except finding out random information about random people!?!? Agghhhh! Maybe I need help.
Because, to be honest, I never saw it going this way. I never saw myself as someone who would get caught up in scrolling my feed, looking for something interesting, becoming overly curious about what people are up to. But alas, here I am. And clearly it’s the last place I have time to be!
Because Christmas is rapidly approaching, so I should be baking Christmas cookies and other such things. And I never feel any better after spending a night on Facebook. EVER! But you know what does make me feel better? This Cherry Cheesecake Lush. Because cheesecake! And cherries! And creamy delicious goodness! In every single bite. Yep, you really can’t go wrong when it comes to Cherry Cheesecake Lush.
Cherry Cheesecake Lush Dessert
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 stick butter 1/2 cup, melted
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 16 ounce container whipped topping
- 2 small boxes cheesecake flavored pudding
- 3 cups milk
- 1 can cherry pie filling
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans for the top
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs, finely chopped pecans, and melted butter.
- Press firmly into the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. This crust can either be baked or no-bake. *For a baked crust, bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, then refrigerate until cooled to room temperature. *For a no-bake crust, simply refrigerate at least 1 hour until firm.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 1/2 cups whipped topping.
- Mix until smooth; spread evenly over cooled crust.
- Combine cheesecake pudding mix, milk, and 1 cup whipped topping and mix until smooth.
- Spread evenly over cream cheese layer in pan.
- Top with 1 can cherry pie filling, remaining whipped topping, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.
- Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Mary says
Love this recipe. Will make it when I have a large group.
Janet Menchyk says
I made it but it needed more waffers, it was way to running to press into a pan, and no whip cream left for top, needs 2 tubs or larger then 16 oz. Its for tomorrow so I haven’t tried it yet but does look and sound good. Just needs more ingreidents.
Maxine says
I had the same problem. How many more did you use?
Kathy says
Try using graham crackers instead of wafers. Have made this dessert for years and always used graham cracker. Used 2 16 oz bowls cool whip or 1 very large bowl
Trish says
I also put it in the freezer much better half frozen
Cindylou says
Can you substitute vanilla pudding for cheese cake pudding?
Jo says
Would it keep alright if i made it a day ahead?
Cathy Trochelman says
Yes, as long as you keep this covered and refrigerated, it will stay good for a day in advance.
Liza says
I used the whole 11oz box.
Tracie says
Hi it’s Xmas eve and I goofed
I bought walnuts instead of pecans.
Do you think that will make a huge difference?
Cheryl Husmann says
Did you use 1 Stick of butter? or 1 cup like some of the ladies are talking?
Wendy E Poff says
Be sure to use hard stick butter. Margarine or whipped will not set. 8 oz. Cool whip is by weight. If you measure out 1 1/2cups it will be enough.
Joyce says
It is not enough and I measured for all the steps. I could only spread half of the top and it was too thin. Requires 2 tubs.
Pam says
Then you did something wrong. I used two 8 oz containers and I had more than enough.
Penny says
I followed the recipe exactly, with 2 8 oz tubs of cool whip. I had 3/4 of a tub left for the top. It turned out amazing.
Cathy Trochelman says
Thanks, Penny!
Elaine Hart says
How long do you keep in the fridge ?
Elaine Hart says
How long do you keep in the fridge ?
Marilyn says
This is the problem I am having. Thank goodness I have another tub of cool whip!
Jodie dew says
This recipe got shared on my fb wall and 2 things
1. Omg i love this and I am headed to the store right now to get all the
2. You r sooooo absolutely right about finding new and wonderful things from strangers on fb each and every day! So much so that unless I HAVE to get right up I lay in bed every morning for over an hr reading my feed….I check it several.times throughout the day and I spend hours on it when I should be sleeping!
I suffer from severe insomnia….always have. Now that i am retired and live in the country in an area where i dont really know anyone fb is my lifeline with my family and all.my new hundreds of friends lol. I also joined 2 christmas groups where it is Christmas 365 dys of the year!! My perfect destressor!!
Zella Taylor says
I have retired and moved to a nice neighborhood. I.But these neighbor’s they do not want to talk to any one.I have my f.b.friends .so glad I can get on here.Talk to my F. B.Family
Linda says
Thats what I was thinking, and it turned out good????
Will Hopkins says
If your neighbors don’t talk to anyone then I wouldn’t consider that “a nice neighborhood”
kim says
did you end up making this…if so, was it easy to do and yummy..thanks Kim
Heather says
How about pretzels for my non nut lovers?
Lynnell Bradfield says
I’m using pretzels in place of wafers, but absolutely can substitute f/pecans
Gramma Rose says
I am going to use Graham Cracker pie crusts….
Cathy Trochelman says
That would work well! Or just more vanilla wafers 🙂
Robin says
Made it. Loved it. Have requests to make it again. Used chocolate Graham crust and sprinkled some on top to finish instead of the nuts.
Cathy Trochelman says
Chocolate crust sounds delicious! Thanks for the feedback!
Beth says
Kind of a little like Black Forest with the chocolate crumbs. Sounds yummy too!
Vicki says
Did you crush them or just lay in the bottom?
Lois says
I wonder if other puddings could be used, like vanilla or banana flavored puddings?
B. Mcgee says
Not banana but definitely vanilla. try it.
Pamela Hoebeke says
This is awesome. And so easy
Judy Robertson says
You can also buy 2 pie shells ( graham crackers) in place of the pan….
Lynsey says
When you used 2 graham cracker crust did you put any butter , nuts, or sugar in it to make it like a crust described? Thanks!
Pamela Hoebeke says
This is awesome and so easy
Linda says
I’m new to your blog and probably old enough to be your Mom. I love to cook and am always on the lookout for new recipes. I found a number of your recipes I’m dying to try. I found your comments about Facebook reflect my thoughts exactly. I just do not have the time for it. I’m probably one of the last holdouts in my group of friends and family who is not on Facebook. Thanks for your comments. They support my stand and mean a lot coming from someone of a different generation.
Jan says
I don’t like gossip, therefore I chose not to have Facebook. But this yummy mouth watering dessert, would be talked about continually!
Maria N Alvarado says
Hello friends. Facebook is not all about just gossip. It has many, many interesting stuff to look at. Hugs.
Bettye says
I’ve been on Fb, for years, I, too hate gossip, yet I haven’t had that experience since I joined Fb. I have found many loving friends,great new recipes, that I’ve tried. Will make this recipe,can hardly wait!!!! *******
Jan says
I only comment on FB a couple of times a year, but read daily postings from friends/family. Message my twin sister though. I wouldn’t call what I do as gossip, especially if you exchange recipes and such. We talked about a bread machine today, just not good gossip!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
This looks absolutely fantastic!
Stephanie says
This looks downright dangerous! Holy yum!
Ginny McMeans says
Love the can of Lucky Leaf Cherry Pie Filling which has no high fructose corn syrup! My family will devour this!
annie says
where do you buy the cherry topping i live in southern calif
Sharon @What the Fork says
I have to say I really admire this recipe that you came up with! Give me a fork, please!
Erin @ The Speckled Palate says
I’m totally with you on FB and getting sucked in and losing all kinds of time. I’m totally with you on this dessert, too. It looks like perfection, whether it’s for the holidays or the rest of the year. Well done!
Cookin Canuck says
You are not the only one! Facebook can be such a time suck and I’ve had to really limit my time there. I’d much rather be eating a piece of this cheesecake. 🙂
Michelle Goth says
I’m obsessed with cherries! Lucky Leaf is always my go-to canned filling. Such great flavor! Great dessert recipe!
Michelle says
Sounds yummy but I’m going to use raspberry pie filling as cherrys not my thing.
Cathy Trochelman says
Raspberry would be delicious!
Karol says
Oh my, I didn’t even know they made raspberry pie filling! I will definitely look for it! I am not crazy about cherries, really don’t like them at all, so I am going to try my favorite, Blueberries! Will also try raspberry also if I can find! Or, I wonder if fresh fruit would work? 4th of July is coming up, I could try raspberries and blueberries together, for a great, “Red, white and blue” summer dessert!
Nancy says
I’m going to use Lucky Leaf Pineapple pie filling and top with Toasted Coconut! And maybe even try Strawberry Pie filling.
Ginger M says
Toast some of the coconut 1st and let coll. Use it as a sprinkle topping. I’ve also used Ginger Snaps with fruits that need the extra punch.
Virginia says
Pls advise what kind of whipped topping you are referring to? Thank you.
Cathy Trochelman says
Cool Whip 🙂
Barbara says
Dream Whip, Cool Whip or the store brand for Cool Whip, or fresh whipped cream.
Connie says
Which one is the best to use?
Lynn says
Is 1 CUP butter in crust correct? Seems too much for 1 cup crumbs and 1 cup nuts. Just curious. Sounds delish, I love anything cherry!!
Kristy says
I made it with the cup of butter even though I thought it was a lot. It was too much. It never firmed up. I’ll cut it in half at least next time. But I’ll definitely make it again!
Holly Lehmann says
Thanks for your feedback. Is 1cup vanilla wafers enough for the crust? Since you mentioned that 1cup of butter was too much, I thought about using one cup of Butter to 2cups vanilla wafers. What’s your thought on that. I like my crust a bit more thicker
Mariyn Eason says
one stick of butter is 1/2 cup, not 1 cup.
Cheistine says
I added 1/2 cup more water the wafers
Cheryl Husmann says
Recipe calls for 1 Stick of butter which is 1/2 C
Cheryl Husmann says
Recipe calls for 1 stick not 1 cup
Sabia says
Evidently the recipe has been corrected because the one I printed (Dec 2016) says 1 cup butter, melted. Making it with 1 stick sounds more proportional for the 1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs. Glad I looked up the recipe again and read the comments.
Elizabeth Kaplan says
Is that ” instant” cheesecake pudding mix ?
Cathy Trochelman says
Yes – instant pudding!
Carole Cuppett says
Your recipe does not say instant pudding, so, here I sit with crust ready and bought cook pudding. Guess I will throw it out and try again when I go to the store another day
Marilyn says
I used regular pudding and mixed it until frothy. It worked.
Linda says
What can you substitute for cream cheese flavored pudding we cannot purchase that in Canada
Cathy Trochelman says
Can you get any type of pudding?
Katy says
We don’t have that in our area either and we live in the US.. We can get just about any kind but Cheesecake Flavor. Wal-Mart carried it in the past but they don’t even carry it online anymore. What could be used as a substitute?
Pattie says
I saw the instant cheesecake pudding at Woodmans grocery store.
Tamara says
Food Lion carries it. I had never heard of it before and figured I’d never be able to find it. Luckily, they had it.
Lori says
You can order cheesecake instant pudding on Amazon.com
Mary jo says
What to use insist of cheesecake pudding
Treva says
Use Vanilla instant pudding.
You can also do this with instant banana pudding and I cut up two bananas and put bananas under the pudding. It was great.
B. Mcgee says
vanilla pudding mix.
Janet says
I made this with chocolate pudding and it was amazing! They where fighting over who was scraping the pan
Rose says
I never thought I’d get caught up in surfing FB either! Glad to know I’m not alone. 🙂 This dessert looks SO good! Can’t wait to try it.
tammy says
Oh this looks like the perfect dessert for our “dessert Christmas evening get together”. A question for you, how far in advance would you say would be ok for making this before serving? Would making this saturday night be ok for serving sunday night?
Sharon says
Where do you find Lucky Leaf pie filling. I never heard of this
Suzie says
Going to make this cherry cheesecake lush in place of the old family dessert. Just can’t wait to try it!! Hope to make it many more holidays!!
Rayma says
I am wondering if the amount of butter is incorrect? I used 1 Cup as called or and had to add a second cup of crumbs and the crust was so greasy and did not set up properly. I am thinking maybe 1 STICK, rather than CUP? Any feedback Cathy?
Cheryl Husmann says
Recipe calls for 1 stick not one cup.
Diane says
It’s a stick of butter not a cup
Stacey says
I actually just kept adding cookies and tested the coverage on the bottom of my pan. Once I got the crust to the thickness I liked. Baked up just fine. I used almost a whole small box of wafers.
Was everyone ok with the 3 cups of milk? Seems like a lot. Does the pudding need to set up? I am making it now but thought I would see if anyone can respond.
Deborah says
Making this now..my house smells like home made pecan toffee..yummy!!
Adrian says
I’m making this tomorrow. Does this not need to set at all? It can be served immediately?
Misty Smith says
I don’t know how a cup and a half and a cup and a half equals up to 16 ounces and then you don’t have any left over to put on the top
Honey Poppe says
Dessert is to die for.
The recipe in my newspaper was incorrect. It called for 1cup of butter instead of 1 cube.
I ran out of cool whip but I had more on hand and I also made my own cherry filling from pie cherries I picked.
All in all it’s so very very good!
Thank you.
Brooke says
this looks absolutely amazing!!!! I didn’t read all the way through, so maybe you said this, but where can you buy the filling? i’m going to check out their site as well. Perks for no high fructose corn syrup!!
can’t wait to make this!! love how it doesn’t take tons of ingredients also 🙂
Sandra Breshears says
This looks so good ????????
Cindy says
Who doesn’t love cheesecake? If you are worried about high fructose corn syrup, however, whip your own cream. Cool Whip contains HFCS, among many other questionable ingredients.
Fran says
Mine started out as a mess when I tried to spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust. Problem was that the crust never was hard enough. I was very frustrated about what to do. Never throw away food. So I decided to make individual servings in Mason jars. sprinkled crust on bottom & so forth. Turned out much better. It made 12 servings. I was debating if I should delete the recipe, but my husband gave it a thumbs up. So I’ll keep it, but making them in the jars from now on.
Sizanne says
Cannot have nuts, will graham cracker work?
Jennifer says
Also wondering what to substitute the nuts with..
Lori says
This looks amazing! I am curious, do you know the Carb count and serving size? I’m wondering how I could convert this recipe to lower the carb count.
Tera Wall says
How many cups of milk? Please help in the middle of making it now!
Cheri says
I haven’t made this yet – and am probably too late to help you – but it says 3 cups of milk. 🙂
Cheri says
You are so right about Facebook. And yet, that’s how I found you! You, and this luscious sounding recipe that I can’t wait to try!
Cathy Morris says
Same here. Although I made a larger portion so I accommodated extra vanilla wafers, it still wasn’t enough. I also had no whipped cream left for the top. Serving to guests tonight. I will let yall know what they say.
Charlotte Wates says
Sounds great!!!!!!
Diane says
I haven’t finished my dessert yet so I may change my mind later but I doubt it… I think this is poorly written…. if I may be frank. I had to double my crust recipe – it says 16 oz. of cool whip divided – but per the line directions it says 1 1/2 cups which doesn’t feel like enough. PLEASE list out each individual ingredient as I didn’t see the 3 cups milk and took a chance I was supposed to make the pudding so now I see it right next to the pudding… so confusing and now I have a really loose dessert, I am sure I wasted money and it will have to be thrown away. Not everyone can eat nuts so am alternative would have been nice. Just seems inconsistent… I am still going to carry through after hopefully having the pudding set after my error of not seeing the milk calculations.
Cheryl Husmann says
The 3 cups of milk was on the same line as 2 small boxes cheesecake flavored pudding!
Louise says
The recipe was pretty clear to me! It says 3 cups of milk (listed out underneath the boxes of cheesecake pudding, at least it was at the time I read the recipe). If you didn’t see the 3 cups of milk listed, I’m wondering how much you used that caused it to be so “loose”? As Cathy explained, Cool Whip is sold by weight and not by measuring cups. As far as an alternative for nuts goes, just pick something crunchy that everyone likes and use that. Just use your imagination! :}
Helen says
I used graham cracker crumbs, 1 cup of chopped walnuts and 1 stick butter, and it fell apart as I tried to put on the 1st layer. Very frustrating. I baked the crust as directed, and cooled it sufficiently, and it never firmed up.
Felicia says
I love this dessert, a tweak here & there, but soooooo addicting. Thanks Cathy
marla says
Completely agree with other reviewers. Not enough ingredients for a 9×13 pan…you have to fight for coverage of all layers. But the flavor is great! I’d make it again using an 8×8 or 9×9 pan.
Linda S Smith says
From all the comments I will be using a different recipe for crust from another recipe maybe with the graham crackers!
Dee says
Saw some of you post “cherry is not my thing” I understand, my Mom used 1 Tbsp almond flavoring and folded the flavoring into the can of cherry pie filling for a different flavor that is a little better. Just a suggestion.
Thaddeus Valdez says
This was indeed easy but definitely took more time than the recipe indicated. I agree with the comments here about one 16oz container was not enough. Top layer could’ve used more. Also, one regular 595g can of cherry pie filling (as indicated in the picture) doesn’t seem to be enough. Next time, I’ll buy a two or a larger can. I ‘m sure it’s still going to taste great, though.
Deanna C says
I made this for my sister’s birthday per her request. She seemed to love it. I did double the crust ingredients per other reviews. I also used more cherry pie filling then recipe called for. I will probably make it again if asked but next time maybe add crushed pineapple with cherry pie filling and also sprinkle some toasted coconut on top.I also probably used more cool whip then recipe called for.
Barbara Autrey says
Can I replace the cherry with strawberry in a can. Do not care for cherry. Look good looking forward to trying the recipe.
Cathy Trochelman says
It absolutely can be replaced with another type of pie filling.
Pat says
Can you combine the two cream layers into one, just making it all in one bowl?
Cathy Trochelman says
I would keep the two layers separate because of the pudding mix needing to set 🙂
Carin Johnson says
I am still seriously confused by the whipped topping measurements. 8 oz is a cup so 16 oz equals 2 cups (as shown in the ingredients list) but in the instructions you’re using two and a half cups and then more for the top. So should I use 32 oz of whipped topping?
Cathy Trochelman says
When you spoon the whipped cream out into measuring cups, it all makes sense. 8 oz. of cool whip is a weight measurement, not a volume measurement. 16 oz. comes out to WAY more than 2 cups measured.
Amy says
Is the pudding instant?
Gloria Lorenzana says
Would you write how much to you use of ingredients?? Plssss
Mary says
I really don’t like pecans. Is there any substitutions?
Cathy Trochelman says
Any type of nuts would work well, or feel free to just omit them altogether 🙂
Judy says
Hi Cathy, I’m making your dessert for thanksgiving, what parts can I do ahead because I have to take it with me in the car then put it together when I get there?? Help please!! Excited to make it…????
Carley Smith says
Those of you questioning the amount of butter–the recipe calls for 1 stick of butter. A stick equals 1/2 cup.