Juicy cherries and crushed pineapple are nestled under a smooth and tangy cream cheese topping in this old-fashioned Cherry Salad recipe. Packed with nostalgic flavor and texture, this retro dish has been a family favorite for generations. Plus, it's easy to whip up in a flash, so you can spend less time in the kitchen and more time with your family and friends.
Table of Contents
🥰 Is this cherry Jello salad recipe for you?
- You crave a retro dessert that feels like church potlucks, first crushes, and your aunt's outrageous beehive hairdo.
- You want a no-drama, no-fail recipe that sets up pretty every single time-even when your day doesn't.
- You believe cherries, whipped topping, and vintage sass can fix at least 72% of life's nonsense.
- You need a make-ahead dish that behaves itself in the fridge while you pretend to clean the kitchen.
- You love recipes that look fancy but require about as much effort as sighing dramatically.
Grab the free Cherry Jello Salad cheat sheet and keep all the FAQs, tips, and swaps in one tidy little page. Perfect for holiday chaos, potluck pressure, or those days when your brain packs a suitcase and walks out.
📖 Recipe
Cherry Jello Salad
Print Pin Recipe Rate RecipeIngredients
- 6 ounces cherry Jello
- 2 cups boiling water
- 20 ounces crushed pineapple, don't drain.
- 21 ounces cherry pie filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup pecans, chopped & toasted
Instructions
- Combine the Jello and boiling water in a large bowl.
- Stir until the gelatin dissolves completely.
- Add the pineapple and cherry pie filling.
- Pour into an 8x10 casserole dish and chill for 4 hours or until set.
Topping
- Soften the cream cheese and whisk in the sugar.
- Stir in the sour cream and vanilla.
- Spread over the chilled and set cherry mixture.
- Sprinkle with the pecans. Garnish with maraschino cherries if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.
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🧾 Ingredients you'll need for this vintage Jello salad recipe
Just the usual stuff from almost any vintage church cookbook: pantry ingredients that are probably already waiting for you in your kitchen.
- Cherry Jello - the crimson powder that stains everything but holds this dish together.
- Boiling water - scalding hot, like your last nerve during holiday meal prep.
- Crushed pineapple - sweet, messy, and always voted best supporting actor.
- Cherry pie filling - thick, glossy, and showing up like it owns the place.
- Cream cheese - adds richness, like having your wealthy uncle show up at your high school graduation with a check.
- Sour cream - kind of like that one cousin - keeps the whole thing from being too sweet.
- Sugar - because we're not pretending this is health food.
- Vanilla - brings the old-fashioned comforting goodness.
- Pecans - without them it would just be Jello.
🔪 How to make layered cherry Jello salad with cream cheese
This comes together in a few easy steps: dump, chill, slather, and pretend it was difficult when people rave. Keep scrolling-your domestic goddess moment is loading.
- Dump the Jello into a bowl and hit it with boiling water. Stir in the pineapple and cherry pie filling. Honestly, it won't be very appetizing at this point - be patient.
- Pour that ruby chaos into a baking dish, cover it, and shove it in the fridge for four hours so it can ponder its life choices and firm up.
- Beat the sugar into the cream cheese until it's smoother than a Southern man apologizing with flowers. Add sour cream and vanilla because we believe in richness around here.
- Spread that cream cheese goodness over the chilled cherry layer like you're frosting over family secrets. Finish with pecans tossed on top with the confidence of a woman who knows she's right.
👩🍳 Your questions about this retro cherry dessert
Here are the answers to your FAQs. Have other questions? Download the kitchen cheat sheet or ask me in the comments!
That's the best part-it can be both! Some families love it as a not-too-sweet dessert. However, cherry salad is also a popular Southern side dish, served right along with your main meal, like cinnamon apples and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.
Yep. Keep in mind that the cherry Jello mixture has to set in the refrigerator for about four hours. Then, you'll add the topping. You can do this a day in advance if you need to.
Cold cream cheese is the culprit. Make sure it's softened properly and whisk it until smooth before adding the sour cream. Treat her gently and she behaves.
📚 More vintage recipes that *look like* dessert
If this cherry Jello salad has brought back memories wait 'til you see these similar *salads*. Cherry Junkyard Salad strolls in first, sweet, chaotic, and looking like she was mixed in the dark by someone with questionable judgment.
Snickers Salad follows right behind, pretending to be a "side dish" even though she's literally a bowl of candy bars in Cool Whip with some apples thrown in for show. Then there's Creamsicle Salad, the citrusy daydream who floats around like she's too delicate for this world (she's not).
And finally, Pineapple Fluff, the golden child who brings Cool Whip confidence and zero shame to every potluck. Together, they're the dessert-salad Mean Girls: dramatic, iconic, and absolutely determined to be the first bowl scraped clean.
At the end of the day, this cherry Jello salad isn't just a recipe - it's a little edible time machine, scooping you straight back to every holiday kitchen you ever loved. I always think of this as a Christmas dish because that's when Mom usually served it, but honestly? It's just as delicious on the 4th of July, the 2nd Wednesday of the month, or the day you finally got all the laundry put away and decided you deserved something sweet for surviving. No matter when it hits the table, it shows up like an old friend with good gossip and better intentions.
So go on, make it, share it, hoard it - your secret's safe with me. 🍒Whatever your celebration cherry salad is there for you. 😃
If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sherlyn says
This was SOOO good! It's just my husband and me, and we polished it off without a problem! I make a blueberry salad that's like this one.
Barrie says
Thank you for sharing this recipe
Amie says
My family loved this!