This recipe for Zuppa Inglese is a no-bake Italian cream rum cake. It is incredibly wonderful and rich.It was something special that my mother made. Use almond flavoring and almond sponge cookies in instead of the rum for a slightly different flavor.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 – 9×13 inch pan |
Ingredients
- 1 (10 ounce) jar maraschino cherries
- 1 teaspoon rum flavored extract
- 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 2 (3 ounce) packages ladyfinger cookies
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon white sugar
- 2 ounces almonds, lightly toasted
Instructions
- In a small bowl, drain cherry juice and add rum; set aside. Prepare vanilla and chocolate puddings in separate bowls, according to package directions. Allow to set up 5 minutes.
- In a 9×13 inch baking dish, place a layer of cookies on the bottom of the dish; cut a few of the cookies in order to create a tight fit, if needed.
- Sprinkle cookie layer with 1/3 of the cherry juice mixture and spoon vanilla pudding over the cookies, spreading to the edge of the pan. Repeat steps with cookies, cherry juice and chocolate pudding. Make final layer with cookies and remaining juice.
- In a medium bowl, whip cream and sugar together until soft peaks form. Top dessert with whipped cream, sprinkle with almonds, and garnish with whole cherries. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 309 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 85 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 280 mg |
| Sugars | 13 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I absolutely love this recipe I have been making it for Christmas Eve for over 6 years. I don’t understand why the other people reviewing this recipe have to comment about “real Zuppa Inglese “doesn’t have cherry juice! Well this one does! and it taste delicious!!! I wouldn’t change a thing!
A total bust. My family grew up eating Zuppa. We had 8 adults for dinner, not one finished their serving. Threw the rest away. Don’t wate your time or ingredients. I put one star only because I had to, I would have put a zero.
I loved this recipe! The only thing I would do different next time is use more ladyfinger cookies. I made this in a trifle bowl and there were not enough cookies for the recipe. It was still delicious and I got raves for it.
This would be a five for me if I didn’t have to adjust the amounts of the ingredients listed. I had to run to the store in the middle of making it, as I didn’t have enough lady fingers. These are the problems I encountered: Make 2 layers, a 9×13 pan is too small for 3 layers. I used 2 (7.05 pkgs) of lady fingers, cut the juice in half, not thirds and did 1 layer of lady fingers, sprinkled 1/2 the juice then the pudding as listed, the remaining layer of lady fingers, the rest of the juice, the remaining pudding and then the whipped cream, toasted the almonds before putting those on and then the cherries. I would have liked to end up with the last layer of lady fingers as it would have been easier to spread the whipped cream but it all worked out and was a hit with the Bunko group and the receipe was requested by many.
I made this for Christmas and WOW it was beautiful and delicious! I made no changes to the recipe and it is a “keeper”. I can only imagine the real Italian version as the previous reviewer shared. Must be over the top, but you cannot go wrong serving this very simple to make and elegant dessert! Thanks for sharing it!
This was a very similar texture to Tiramisu-but with a Spumoni flavor. I had a party and make this and everyone liked it. I couln’t find ladyfinger cookies so I used the anisette sponges and it turned out fine. I did end up using more cherry juice and rum extract though. I was pleasantly surprised.
Authentic Zuppa Inglese has no cherry juice. It is made with Alchermes, a liquor which can only be obtained in Italy. Our family has made Zuppa Inglese for almost 100 years, and the custard is made painstakingly from scratch. There are probably 100 different versions out there, depending upon which region of Italy your family came from, and yours sounds delicious.