If you’ve read my blog for very long, you’ll know I love layered desserts. From my Valentine’s Day layered jello cups to my Oreo dirt cake that’s filled with layers of pudding and Oreos – layered desserts are one of my specialities! So it seemed only fitting to make layered St. Patrick’s Day pudding cups that combine the mint flavor of these mint hot chocolate bombs with the festiveness of these Lucky Charms cookies in one easy dessert. Plus, rainbows – who doesn’t love edible rainbows!?! I mean my rainbow donuts are popular for a reason and it’s not just because they’re delicious, people love colorful food, especially for St. Patrick’s Day! One of my favorite things about this recipe though is that while it’s cute, the flavors are good enough that you can serve this for pretty much any age from kids to adults – great for any type of St. Patrick’s Day party!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Fast – other than a few minutes of chilling time for the pudding layers, these layered pudding cups can be made quickly! You can have them done and ready to eat in under 15 minutes, which is unheard of in the dessert world!Festive – the green color combined with the rainbow and gold coin on top really make these the perfect addition to a St. Patrick’s Day dessert table or just as a fun dessert for your family for dinner! Easy – with these being a no-bake dessert, they’re pretty hard to screw up as long as you follow the measurements in the recipe! Just mix, layer, and decorate!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Cool Whip – Be sure to use whipped topping, such as Cool Whip. Do not use canned whipped cream. The whipped topping will hold up between layers, but the canned whipped cream won’t. You can also use your own fresh homemade whipped cream.Airheads Extremes – if you can’t find the long Rainbow Airhead Extremes, you can use the Airhead Extreme bites as well and just garnish with a couple of those. They’ll still give you the rainbow color even if you don’t get the shape. Vanilla extract – you can use vanilla or mint extract depending on what taste you’re looking for. The extract helps counteract the taste of the food coloring. If you’re using tasteless food coloring, you can omit the extract. Heavy Cream – Use heavy cream to mix the vanilla pudding to create a delicious mouse type filling that looks like buttercream and tastes a bit like cheesecake. If you can’t get heavy cream, you can just do whole milk with the vanilla pudding as well, it just won’t be as thick and fluffy. Vanilla pudding mix – you can also try this with cheesecake pudding mix if you’d rather but vanilla pudding mix is my personal preference and easier to find. Sprinkles – any kind of gold sprinkles will work for these, but I like to use the sequin confetti ones like these just to give it more of the look of gold coins.
How to Make St. patrick’s Day Pudding Cups
Ready to see how quickly these layered pudding cups together? I hope you have as much fun making these as I do! Begin making this easy, but delicious dessert by combining the milk and chocolate pudding mix in a bowl or stand mixer. Beat on low speed for about two minutes, until ingredients are well incorporated, then chill until set, about 5 minutes. Next combine the heavy cream and the vanilla pudding mix in a separate bowl and mix on low speed until ingredients are combined, then increase speed and continue to whip until mixture is light and fluffy. I did something similar in my who pudding and it ends up tasting kind of like cheesecake filling! Then beat in the vanilla extract and add green food coloring until you get the color you want. You can either keep it light, more of a minty green color like I did with these Grinch brownies, or go for something darker green. Once you’ve achieved the color you want, let chill for 5 minutes. While the puddings are chilling, place the Oreos in a food processor and pulse until you have coarse Oreo crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor, you could also place them in a gallon size zipper top bag and crumble them with your hands or by rolling a rolling pin over them. Now that we have all of the elements of the pudding cups ready, it’s time to start layering! Start layering the ingredients into the cups by dividing the chocolate pudding evenly into four 8oz cups. Then add a layer of the green pudding to each cup, followed by a layer of Oreo cookie crumbs and top with a layer of whipped topping. Repeat layers one more time, ending with the whipped topping. You should have two layers of each of the main ingredients before adding decorations on top. Cut a rainbow Airhead in half the bend it into a rainbow shape and place on top of the whipped topping. Now add a chocolate gold coin, sprinkles, and more Oreo crumbs to finish it off. Finish decorating all of your pudding cups with rainbows, gold coins, and gold sprinkles. Then place in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. Serve chilled – every single layer is delicious and all combined, it’s one of my favorite St. Patrick’s Day desserts ever!
Expert Tips
Try to keep the pudding and whipped cream layers as even as possible. The crumbled Oreos can be a little thinner of a layer but ideally the pudding and whipped cream would be pretty even for the prettiest layered cups. Refrigerate the pudding cups without the decorations on top if you know you won’t be serving for a while. These can keep in the refrigerator for up to three days so if you want to make them the night before then just decorate right before serving, that’s going to be your best bet! Use a damp paper towel to clean up any smudges or streaks that get on the glass as you put your layers in. This will keep the outside pristine so you can see the pretty layers.
More Easy St. Patrick’s Day treats
If you’re looking for St. Patrick’s Day ideas, you should make sure to check out these ones too!
Lucky Charms Cookies – these delicious rainbow sprinkle cookies have a marshmallow center and a marshmallow topping! Rainbow donuts – a basic vanilla donut gets a colorful spin with this fun rainbow recipe!Mint hot chocolate bombs – hot chocolate bombs filled with Lucky Charms marshmallows, mints, and more! St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes – these fun cupcakes have a rainbow swirl frosting and a great St. Patrick’s Day surprise inside! Andes Mint Cookies – these delicious cookies have an Andes Mint baked inside – great flavor and great green St. Patrick’s Day color!
