Eclair Cake

This was one of my husband's grandma's specialities.  She made it annually for Easter dessert, so he starts getting jones-y for it about this time of year.  And I confess to jonesing for it myself lately. 

It's one of those back-of-the-box recipes that there are a million variations of on the interwebs, which form two of its obvious virtues...it's fast and easy to shop for and make, and it works for whatever flavor combinations you want.  You can use as many low-fat, sugar-free components as you like or as few.  You can go the vanilla pudding/chocolate frosting route, or play with flavor combinations like lemon-strawberry, double chocolate death, coconut-pecan, butterscotch-vanilla or pistachio-cream cheese. 

If you are the type of person who enjoys making buttercream frosting from scratch, go for it!  If you make pudding from scratch, go for it!  If you make graham crackers from scratch, get some help!  Btw, I think making a pudding out of this pie filling recipe but using 3 cups of milk instead of water and 1/3 cup strong espresso instead of lemon juice/zest would make O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G eclair cake.

And what made this recipe worth blogging about was the realization that you CAN FREEZE THIS!!!!  You could thaw it to serve, or serve frozen like ice cream cake.  Oh jah.  Perfection.


Nin's Eclair Cake
Makes 12-ish servings

2 3 oz. boxes French Vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk
8 oz. tub Cool Whip
1 14 oz. box graham crackers
1 16 oz. can chocolate frosting

In a very large bowl, whisk half the milk into the pudding powder.  Fold in half the Cool Whip.  Whisk in remaining milk, and fold in remaining Cool Whip.

Lay 1/3 of the graham crackers in the bottom of a 13x9 pan.  Spread 1/2 the pudding mixture on top.  Top with another 1/3 of graham crackers, remaining pudding, then remaining graham crackers.  Put the pan in the fridge for 5 minutes.

Stir frosting to increase spreadability.  Spread frosting over top of eclair cake.  Cover and fridge/freeze at least a day before serving. Pin It