Easy Pumpkin Cream Trifle

This recipe has an error in it. You are supposed to put the pumpkin in the pudding. That is why several have not had enough filling. The pumpkin does not go in the cake mix. If done correctly this is a five star.

This is FABULOUS!! I have made it for two parties so far and everyone loved it! I did not use toffee but used walnuts and pecans and caramel instead--very good. I also did not mix the whipped cream and pudding together so I could have three layers instead of two. It is a great trifle recipe for the holidays!

I did not make this exact recipe, but the one with butterscotch pudding and gingerbread cake from quickcooking.com. Oh my god! It was the best new recipe I made at Thanksgiving! There was another Pumpkin trifle, like this one, that I will try, too. I'm sure this one is just as delicious! I wanted to lick the bowl clean and didn't want to give up leftovers.

FANTASTIC! made a few changes based on some reviews though...i also put caramel on top of the cake. also mixed a tiny bit of pumpkin in with the cheesecake pudding to give it a little color since i added a 3rd layer of plain cool whip. fantastic!!! one more change i made was i made the cake in 2 round pans so i could just lay the layers in instead of cubing the cake, it turned out great!

My Husband and I made this for Christmas Eve desert; easy to make and very good. If we were to make this again, we would go easy on the nuts and add some type of caramel/butterscotch sauce after the cake layer. Made the day before!

The PERFECT fall dessert! This is SO delicious! I just made it for a gathering of friends, then my husband took it to his fall work party, RAVE reviews both times!! It's the perfect combination of pumpkin and creaminess! I added a pkg. of cream cheese to the cheesecake pudding and cool whip, otherwise, followed exactly. Will DEFINITELY make this again and again!!

Mmm so good! One of the best things I've ever made. I combined this recipe with another one I found on the Taste of Home website. I used this cake recipe exactly. Then I made and mixed together a package of butterscotch pudding and cheesecake pudding (vanilla pudding would be tasty too). I added a layer of cool whip and then crushed up gingersnaps. Repeat the layers and you've just made heaven in a trifle dish!

Yummy!!! Great fall dessert! The only addition I made was to drizzle caramel (Smuckers ice cream topping) over the pecan/toffee bit layer! Thank you for a hit dessert!

This turned out way better than it sounded. I made some pumpkin muffins I didn't care for that much. I was heading to a football party so I thought I would try to salvage the muffins and turn them into something else. I found this recipe. There was none left by the end of the game. I did follow the advice of others. I had 3 layers including a cream cheese and cool whip mix, a vanilla pudding/pumpkin puree mix and pumpkin muffins torn in bite-sized pieces. I bought sugar coated pecans and crushed for the topping.

Made this for a bake off and won 1st place. I did add pumpkin (about 1/2 a cup to the cream cheese mixture) and a little pumpkin pie spice. I also left the cool whip as a separate layer (just to make it look prettier.) Really good and really easy. P.S. the cake is delicious by itself.

Loved this recipe - could not find cheesecake pudding where I live, so I used vanilla pudding, butterscotch pudding, 1/2 block of creamcheese and 1 cup of pumpkin instead. I also did not add the whip cream so I would have three layers. I did a trial and it was a huge hit at my childs school. I will now use this recipe for Thanksgiving. Love it!!

It was great and looked beautiful in my Pampered Chef trifle dish. A big hit! I did take the suggestions of adding cream cheese, caramel and I omited the toffee since my store didn't have it. I also used carrot cake mix which turned out wonderful and you could not tell that it was carrot cake. WARNING! Read instructions before beginning. This seems obvious but I started baking the cake and then realized I was supposed to add pumpkin, etc to mix. Hopefully most people read instuctions before beginning a recipe unlike me!

It was absolutley wonderful and I won 1st place at my office dessert contest.

I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit. I could not find "cheesecake flavoured pudding" so I took some of the other reviewers suggestions and used butterscotch pudding with a pkg of cream cheese. I layered the whipped topping on it's own and used crushed up skor chocolate bars for the toffee. I also drizzled smuckers caramel sauce on top of the cake and drizzled it on the top of the trifle with pecans and it came out great.

I have been making various trifles for years and am so excited to have a new yummy trifle recipe which is a party hit. I have found the trick to a trifle is to always work from the outside-in of the bowl. Keep each individual ingredient evenly distributed. Make it look pretty and it looks more scrumptous. Here are the changes I made to this recipe. -crumbled the cake. -Kept the cheesecake pudding, cool whip separate layers. -Made a toffee layer over the cool whip so used 2 cups toffee bits. Serve with a great cup of coffee.

Excellent recipe! Unfortunately, I couldn't get everything in the ingredient list, so I had to do some substitutions. First, I couldn't get cheesecake flavour instant pudding, so I changed it up for a block of softened cream cheese, some milk, some sugar (to taste) and some of my leftover canned pumpkin, all whipped together with a hand blender. It was delicious!! I also couldn't get toffee pieces, so I crushed up some Skor bars instead. I also added some drizzled caramel ice cream topping in the pecan/toffee layers (I think someone here suggested this.) On the top it looked very pretty. One point: the doctored-up cake in this recipe is DELICIOUS. I had some leftover that didn't make it into the trifle, and it's wonderful all on its own.

This recipe was a hit at work. everyone wanted the recipe. i used crushed up skors bars for topping and followed the directions as listed. next time i think i will add some pumpkin to the cheese cake pudding as well

Made this for the first time this Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! I didn't read the directions before and just went ahead and baked a spice cake not realizing I was supposed to add additional ingredients to it. So, I mixed pumpkin, vanilla pudding, 1/2 c. milk, vanilla, and nutmeg. I then mixed together cheesecake pudding, milk, and whipped topping. Put a layer of "chunked" up cake, layer of pumpkin, layer of whipped topping, and repeated. To my surprise it came out wonderful.....out of ALL the desserts we had, this was the one gone first. Will definately make again.

I made this recipe for a "fall" party and it was the dessert to be had by everyone. Honestly so simple easy and so tasty. Thank you so much for the great recipe.

This was such an easy dessert and everyone loved it! Someone commented that it tasted like a pumpkin roll.

This is a great dessert for a Fall potluck. Very easy. I didn't have a trifle bowl so I used a rectangle plastic containter and layered it in two layers. Worked great because you could actually cut it into serving size pieces. The pumpkin spice cake is very good. It turned out light and moist. It's worth making by itself and topping with whipped cream.

My sister made this for Thanksgiving 2008. OUTSTANDING. She got the recipe from her sister-in-law, and her neices and nephews ask for this for their "birthday cake" each year! I think that says a lot about a recipe that children love as much as adults!!

My suggested recipe directions: 1. Prepare spice cake as per box, let cool, cut into squares. 2. Prepare 2 boxes of vanilla pudding & pie mix as per box, let cool. Blend one can of pumpkin pie filling into pudding mix. 3. Layer cake chunks, then pumpkin/pudding mix, then cool whip, then pecans & toffee bits. Repeat until trifle bowl is full.

I made this for last Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. I didn't add as much of the toffee and nuts the recipe called for because I didn't want for it to be crunchy, but I will include it all next time because after it sat in the fridge all night the toffee softened and there was no crunch at all, it just added to the taste. In fact, the whole thing tasted much, much better after it sat over night than the day I made it.

If you don't treat your family and friends to this wonderful dessert treat you are a cruel person!! I took this to a Christmas potluck last night and it went over big! It got many Oooo's and Aaaahs when I walked into the party with this one!! Only person not happy was my lady friend. She wanted some to be left over so she could take it home!! lol! Made it very close to the recipe. I put a cup of pumpkin puree in the cake batter, and I folded some into the pudding/cream mixture for a little color and added flavor. I ran out of the toasted pecan after the 2nd layer, so I topped the cool whip miniature chocolate chips and more of the toffee.

Delicious and easy. Followed the directions exactly, except that I used all the pudding/whip cream mix in between the layers then topped it with plan whipped cream. Shared the recipe with my tennis team who gobbled it up!

This was a huge hit. I did add the caramel over the cake as per some other's suggestions, and also made my own whipped cream and did it as a separate layer. Wonderful!!!!!

Made this many times for holiday get-togethers in the fall- always a HIT!

Oh my goodness!! I loved this dessert. I made one for the house, a little different than the recipe, and one for work. Everyone loved it!! I think I can gain a few pounds from this!!

Followed this recipe just as written except for subbing one box of pumpkin spice pudding. I found that I only needed to bake my cake for 35 minutes and it was nice and moist. I also found that 4 Skor bars equal a perfect cup crushed for the toffee bits. I also made homemade whipped cream to put on top of the trifle as 1 container of Cool Whip wasn't enough for me. =) This is delicious!!! Make it the day before to let the flavors meld together...it is absolutely fabulous!!

I broke a diet for this one after a small taste... YUMMMMMMMMM! I did the cream cheese in the cream filling, and I used a carrot cake instead of a spice cake because that's what I had in my pantry. It was sooooooo good.

This was awesome! Use caramel inbetween the layers

I made it just as described and it was amazing! It does taste better the second day though.

made this for thanksgiving this past year. got very nice compliments on it from family. i did not use the cheesecake pudding. used vanilla as other reviewers suggested. nice alternative to "traditional" pies at thanksgiving. once again, this was a hit. i only use 2 eggs in the cake since i'm going to crumble it up. this year i added the remaining pumpkin to the pudding/cool whip mixture & it was very good!

This is amazing!! Ive made it the past two Christmases and went back online to find the recipe again just now. Definitely would recommend for any holiday treat or any occassion!

Amazing dessert. Was a big hit. Followed the recipe exactly. Might try again with banana pudding instead of cheesecake pudding.

I made this for Thanksgiving. The only adaptation I did was the add a little swirl of caramel on top, and to make the pudding and whipped cream layers seperate. Everyone loved it - I had to leave the leftovers there for my brother!

I made this for a group of friends and it went over really well. Lots of compliments and questions about what was in it. I added 8oz. cream cheese that I had blended with 1/2 c. sugar, to the pudding mix. I don't know if the extra effort was worth it, but either way this is a great recipe for fall!

i made this dessert for thanksgiving and it was OK. I thought I would not make this again. We ate it again the next day and it was great. Some people wrote in and said it was better the next day and it is certainly true. Not so good the first day.

Very tasty!! We made this for 60 people & served it in halloween martini glasses...it went over great!!

so good and even better the next day. didnt use the nuts and just put the toffee on each layer. already wishing i had the stuff to make another one

Made this for a dinner at my parents' house with some old family friends and everyone LOVED it. There were several other desserts, but everyone passed them up once they tried this trifle. If you're not a big nut fan, I'd suggest just putting them on the top. I love pecans, but my little sis isn't a fan and picked them out of hers. Great, great recipe!!

This was by far the best desert i have gotten from this site. i did add cream cheese to the pudding mixture. thank you for sharing the wonderful recipe!

I made this for a Thanksgiving get -together. It was excellent but we all agreed that we would double the cream in the future!

I have tried this recipe, the cake is amazing, moist and full of yumminess! But as others have noted there is not enough creamy topping. After reading the review that states "the recipe is incorrect,the pumpkin should be added to the pudding, not to the cake", I will try it again and use the new directions. I think I may even put pumpkin in the cake AND in the pudding topping :)

This is a winner. Based on comments from others, I made minor changes. First, I left out the nuts since I never know who is allergic or doesn't care for them in food. I was extra generous with the toffee bits. Second, I kept the whipped topping separate from the pudding for an extra layer. Finally, I added about 1/2 can of pumpkin filling to the pudding mixture for extra color and to use the entire can in the recipe. Very pretty and delicious addition to the holiday pies on our buffet. Many compliments on this one!

Pretty easy and turned out great. First place in my office bake-off! A few minor tweaks, nothing major. Went light on pecan, replaced a cheesecake pudding with butterscotch pudding + pumpkin and alternated layers, added caramel and a graham cracker layer. A decent bit of prepared ingredients leftover.. could probably fill a mason jar or two with a mini trifle

This is delicious! I made it for a Thanksgiving dinner because it's great for big groups! I got so many compliments and at least 2 people that wanted the recipe breakdown on the spot!

Very delicious! I did not alter the recipe at all and my company loved it!

I made this per a suggestion of an Allrecipes member looking for a recipe for a Christmas pot-luck. Personally, I am not a big fan of boxed puddings and cool whip type products in desserts. However, I have to say though this all worked together for a quick and easy pot-luck idea. I made the cake the day before and assembled it the next. I couldn't find plain toffee and used the chocolate coated Heath toffee bits in the baking aisle and that worked fine. I put it all in a clear dollar store disposable container. I purchased 2 containers of cool whip. I am glad I did because the cream layer only made 2 layers. I ended up using what was left of the one and the whole second container to do the top layer. I probably used a little extra pecans also to garnish the top. I hope they like it at the party. ty

This was excellent. Easy and so yummy. Presented well too. I may make the cake by itself some time just because it was that good.

Very easy to make and delicious. My husband is a very picky eater and absolutly loved this. Said he would eat this throughout the year.

I made this dessert for Thanksgiving this year and not only was it delicious, but makes for a gorgeous presentation layered in a trifle bowl. I made it exactly as written and it was perfect. It gets better and better the longer it is refridgerated. Everyone loved this dessert!

I personally didn't eat this. I made it to bring to a dinner party. It did get high raves. Everyone seemed to love it. My family said is was awesome. I used carrot cake mix instead of spice.

perfect as is! :)

I served this at a Thanksgiving party two years ago, and everyone wanted the recipe. This year the hostess made it because it was the most popular dessert the first time. :) She added her home made toffee crumbles and it was to die for.

This is a delicious recipe. I did however make some changes. Instead of adding the pumpkin to the cake I added the pumpkin to the pudding mixture. I also made the cake a little "dryer" so the layers would hold up under the pudding layers. I also toasted the pecans for the top to give more crunch. I made this for a dinner party hosted by friends and it was a HUGE success. Rave reviews from all and it was requested to be made again for Thanksgiving. Will not disappoint if you make!!

Made this for a Thanksgiving cooking challenge. I won! Since it was a challenge my daughter shamed me into not using all premade ingredients. So I made the gingerbread cake from this site. I made my own whipping cream and I used gingersnaps for decoration. It was delicious. I highly recommend it.

I love this recipe I do change a few things to make it a little healthier but other than that it is great for this time of year for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

I can't really rate this accurate because I changed it up a bit by adding ginger bread for the cake component and it was just OK.

This was a huge hit. We have family memebers who do not like cream cheese so I just substitued whipped topping. Bowl was empty at the end of the evening.

After a uneatable "healthy" ginger pie I made for a family holiday gathering last year I redeemed myself big time with this dish. All ages loved it! I did at 8oz cream cheese to the whip topping layer. This time, I'm going to bake the cake in two round pans and rather than cutting it in squares as the recipe calls for, I'm going to do a round cake layer, then cream layer then toffee bits and so on. This will look be more of a layered cake and cut in slices. I think it will be very pretty. I will post photos and review on how it turns out... bottom line is this is a winner I will be making every year!

I followed about 90% of the recipe. My small changes were: 1) Added a couple spoonfuls of pumpkin puree to the cheesecake mixture to give it color. 2) I added layers of plain cool whip on top of the cheesecake layer. 3) Added caramel syrup to each layer. Soooo delicious!

This recipe was really simple and everyone enjoyed it. I listened to the reviews and added extra pumpkin into the whipped cream later. I also added a little cinnamon. Lastly, I used butterfinger because I couldn't find toffee. The chocolate touch was kind of nice. Next time I may try to half this recipe. I had a lot that couldn't fit into the bowl.

A little too soggy for our tastes... there were lots of othe recipes at the Thanksgiving day table that got eaten up way faster than this one

WOW is the only word to describe this. I was a little confused by one reviewer that said the pumpkin should be in the filling, but I decided to try it first as it was written and EVERYONE wanted the recipe. I will be making this again and again as it is easy and DELISH!!

Great recipe! I followed the directions as written. The only thing I would do differently would be to cut the recipe in half for my family; we are down to just six for family gatherings and I had about half of a 9x13 cake pan left.

Just ok. The cream cheese pudding and whip cream mixture is way too thick. Next time I'll try adding more milk. Cake was tasty!

Very good! A little too rich. I used the advice of others and added carmel ice cream topping to it and it was a huge hit!

After reading comments before I made this I decided to follow the recipe as is (minus the pecans). We LOVED it!! Ok, I did make one change. Instead of dividing the cheesecake pudding/cool whip mix into thirds, I did 2 layers with it. The top layer was cool whip only. Maybe my trifle dish is bigger so the pudding mix didn’t go as far to use on all 3 layers. Again, WE LOVED THIS!!!

I have made this recipe 4-5 times already since finding it a few months ago & have had to also give out the recipe. We were going to be out of town for thanksgiving & I wanted to make it for some family to enjoy while we were gone but I had to make it a few days in advance. So for this case, I didn't layer it just left it in the dish & as it turned out I forgot to add the pumpkin pie spice. I was told it was the first dessert to go & they didn't notice the missing ingredient. The only thing I would say is that this recipe makes more than what would fit into a typical trifle bowl. So I have either had to deal w/leftover ingredients or use a VERY big bowl. But it's still one of my favorite recipes!

I followed the recipe exactly and it was a big hit with my group of ladies for our monthly get together. Can't wait to serve it at our family gathering. I would give it 5 stars.

So easy and very yummy! I did forget to add the pumpkin spice but it still came out good. I did not have a trifle bowl so I just used a regular glass bowl. I still had some to make another bowl.

This was quite delicious, pretty easy to do, and several people asked me for the recipe.

I made this for a fall holiday party yesterday and EVERYONE raved about it. I did make some changes. After I had difficulty finding the cream cheese pudding, I said, "heck, let's just rock this". Here it goes: I did the butterscotch pudding into the cake mix. I also put the pumpkin puree in the cake mix, as stated in the recipe. For the filling, I used a box of the instant cheese cake in the pudding isle ("just add milk"). I made that and let it set. I then mixed it with a full small container of whipped cream. SO DELICIOUS! I also added some nutmeg. I couldn't find toasted pecans so I cooked some pecans in butter and brown sugar on the stove. That was definitely a must. I also used caramel as others suggested. I layered this baby in a trifle dish and sprinkled some nutmeg on top for extra awesomeness, then whoalah...it was gone. This is the perfect fall dessert!

Followed the recipe to a T (with the exception being that I could only find a cake mix that was 15.25 oz and also I omitted the pecans), and it turned out PERFECTLY. Will definitely make again.

I made this for Christmas dinner just as written. It was outstanding!

It looked pretty and tasted good, but it didn't blow us away. Half my guests didn't even taste it. It's easy to make and tastes decent, but nothing fabulous.

Absolute delish! I couldn't find regular cheesecake pudding, so I used the sugar free. I think next time I may try the sugar free vanilla pudding as well. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

I’ve made this twice once last year and once last year but this year I put the pumpkin in the cream cheese pudding and some in the cake mix as well.

made this using a gingerbread mix,just following the directions on the box to make the cake part. Also drizzled the cake layer with butterscotch/caramel topping to add a little more decadence...I used Jello pumpkin spice pudding mix instead of the vanilla and did not add the oil, eggs, pumpkin puree. Was pretty and seasonal and everyone liked it alot!

This recipe was easy but I personally didn't think it tasted all that great. I am a pumkin fan but felt like it was too much pumkin

I made this for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and it was awesome! I did do the filling a little different though. There wasnt going to be quite enough for 3 layers and I didnt think it was flavorful enough. I was going to add some sweetened condensed milk but didnt have any so I added some powdered sugar and some heavy cream to make a little more filling. I also followed someone else suggestion to drizzle caramel ice cream topping between layers. OMG...it was out of this world and I got tons of compliments!!

The sizes of the pudding were totally off - you can't buy the size listed (3.4 oz). Maybe this is because of the quantity that automatically comes up so watch that. I could not find cheesecake pudding in anything but "no sugar" so I don't know if it exists. The cake was phenomenal and I would insist you add the pumpkin here rather than in the filling as stated in another review. I made extra filling since I had extra pudding due to the size listings. Roasting the nuts is also a must as it adds a richness to the dessert. It is also very easy to make, pretty, and can be made for a large group - and for any occasion.

Thought it was a little dry but saw previous review about putting pumpkin in pudding so maybe this would make a difference. Otherwise, flavor was delicious!

DH and my sis LOVED this! To me and some other family members, it was okay. The cake seems VERY dense (almost hard) and not sweet at all, but mixed with the sauces and nuts, it was better. Just not my cup of tea. Though DH wants me to make it again.

We really liked parts of this recipe. The spice cake is very good, also loved the addition of the toasted pecans and toffee bits to the trifle. What we didn't like was the artificial taste of the cheesecake pudding layer, and the consistency was kind of strange too - ours had the consistency of unbaked dough. I made a layer of just the cake with the whipped cream, nuts, toffee, and drizzled caramel, and everyone really liked that part, so next time I would just leave out the pudding part entirely.

One of my friends made this recipe for our all girl Thankgsving day gathering.. this was WONDERFUL!!! I am definately going to make this one for the holidays!

This was one of the tastiest desserts I’ve ever made (or had)! The feedback I received from my friends & family who got to indulge was fantastic - everyone liked it. It was not a difficult recipe, but definitely has a lot of steps & the most challenging part for me turned out to be finding the spice cake mix (after 3 different stores, I ended up making my own) and the cheesecake flavor instant pudding (found at the 3rd store only). That aside, I loved it & will definitely be making it again!

Every one absolutely loved this desert! Followed the recipe to a T, made no changes. Was a bit worried that it would be too sweet but it's perfect! Looked gorgeous in my trifle bowl also. Will definitely make this again. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!

I think I might try to add some cream cheese to the pudding mix next time because I like cream cheese. But it was well liked at Christmas!

I did one box of cheesecake pudding and one box of Hershey's white chocolate pudding and instead of the toffee and pecans I used shaved chocolate

This was quick and easy to do. I cheated and used a pumpkin bundt cake mix and I don't think it was as good as probably making the cake itself. I also don't like the fake flavor of cheesecake pudding so I used vanilla and folded in whipped cream cheese. Definitely make ahead to let the flavors "marinate".

huge success. Those that liked pumpkin flavor could not stay away from this.

Excellend recipe! Making it again this year as it was a huge hit amoung family and co-workers. Some ingredients (pumpkin puree) may be hard to find, so try specilaty stores like Whole foods.

Made a double batch, one for 2 different gatherings around Thanksgiving, everyone loved it. I did add a little cream cheese to the pudding & omitted the toffee & walnuts. :)

Big hit at my Bible study - I could not find English toffee bits that did not have a chocolate coating, so I crushed up a bag (30 pieces) of Werther's Original hard candies, which yielded exactly 1 cup. This cake really is delicious all on it's own - would be good with a simple cream cheese frosting.

I did make a few changes only out of necessity. Used what was on hand. Very good , easy to make and pretty too. Changes- I used a actual pumpkin pie, sans the crust. Added a touch of brandy to the whipped cream. Delicious.

Awesome! Wonderful addition to our Thanksgiving dinner!