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We’re getting ready for Valentine’s Day by celebrating with a whole week of Valentine’s themed parfait recipes! That means every recipe we’re sharing this week will be served in a glass, which is pretty much my favorite way to serve anything – like french fries and pretzel sticks!
I adore parfaits for a few reasons.
1. they are served in glasses. Yes, this is totally obvious, but to me this means less of a mess.
2. they are already made into individual servings.
3. they are made up of layers upon layers of deliciousness.
And our first recipe for Valentine’s Parfait Week is just that – it’s all about the layers!
Layered Strawberry Jello Cups Recipe
If your Valentine is a fan of jello, I think they will be impressed if you make these layered strawberry jello cups! Or can you imagine the look on your kids faces if you were to surprise them with these jello cups?!
Usually I am all about chocolate on Valentine’s Day (just wait, a chocolate parfait will be coming) but jello is just so fun. Does it weird you out that you can mold it into any shape? That’s what I really like about jello!
In terms of Valentine’s Day treats, this one isn’t going to ruin your diet or send your kids into a chocolate induced sugar frenzy. Plus, it’s a great dessert for our non-chocolate loving friends, which is bizarre, how can you not like chocolate?!
Ingredients
- 5 boxes of strawberry jello mix, 3 oz each
- water
- cool whip
- strawberries
Total Time Required
Because each layer needs to set before you can add the next, this recipe takes a minimum of 11 hours, however that is based on estimating how long each layer will take to set. I found that it was easiest to make this recipe over the course of 2 days, just be sure to cover the cups in plastic wrap if they will be sitting in the fridge overnight.
You can easily switch out the strawberry jello for raspberry, mixed berry, or watermelon.. pick your Sweetie’s favorite!
WHAT SIZE GLASSES SHOULD I USE TO MAKE CHAMPAGNE JELLO CUPS?
The glasses I used are mongo BIG, 15 oz! That’s a whole lot of jello in one cup. You could definitely use smaller glasses, like these 5 oz ones I used in this white chocolate raspberry dessert mousse recipe, that way you’ll have more glasses to go around!
Valentine’s Day isn’t complete without mini oreo cheesecakes, maraschino cherry cookies, and peanut butter whipped cream.
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Strawberry Jello Cups
Ingredients
- 5 boxes Strawberry Jello mix, 3 oz each
- Water
- 2 cups Cool Whip, plus more for topping (about 2 containers)
- Strawberries, to top each parfait
Instructions
Layer 1:
- Combine 1 cup boiling water in a bowl with a packet of strawberry jello mix. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Add in one cup of cold water and stir. Evenly divide this mixture among the cups you’ll be using. Refrigerate until set, 1-2 hours.
Layer 2:
- Combine 1 cup boiling water in a bowl with a packet of strawberry jello mix. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Add in one cup of cold water and stir. Add in 1 cup of cool whip, and stir until mixed. Evenly divide this mixture among the cups you’ll be using, layering on top of the previous jello layer. Separation may occur, causing a lighter and darker layer. Refrigerate until set, 1-2 hours.
Layer 3:
- Combine 1 cup boiling water in a bowl with a packet of strawberry jello mix. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Add in one cup of cold water and stir. Evenly divide this mixture among the cups you’ll be using. Refrigerate until set, 1-2 hours.
Layer 4:
- Combine 1 cup boiling water in a bowl with a packet of strawberry jello mix. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Add in one cup of cold water and stir. Add in 1 cup of cool whip, and stir until mixed. Evenly divide this mixture among the cups you’ll be using, layering on top of the previous jello layer. Separation may occur, causing a lighter and darker layer. Refrigerate until set, 1-2 hours.
Layer 5:
- Combine 1 cup boiling water in a bowl with a packet of strawberry jello mix. Stir until the mixture is dissolved. Add in one cup of cold water and stir. Evenly divide this mixture among the cups you’ll be using. Refrigerate until set, 1-2 hours.
- Before serving top each parfait with cool whip and a strawberry.
Can these be made in clear plastic cups so they could be used for a classroom party? Or does it need to be glass?
You can definitely use plastic cups!
Cute! I’m going to do them blue and white for a Frozen themed party. We’re doing these instead of cake or cupcakes, and we’ll add some blueberries and a snowflake decoration. Thank you!
Love everything about these! Great job, a lot of effort went into make these beauties.
LOVE this idea – making them today for our family party tomorrow!! I can’t wait to try this for different holidays – thinking St Patty’s green, pastel for Easter, red/white/blue, etc!!!! And I love the “boozey” idea :)
I made these for my elderly neighbors.. they were a big hit, they LOVED them! A TIP… the extra plain jello I just left in the glass measuring cup that I made it in and placed it in the refrigerator. When I was ready for the next layer of plain jello I just microwaved the cup until the jello softened, throughly stired it and then added it to the glasses. It jelled again with no problem. I’m not sure if this would work with the layer with the cool whip included. Thank you for this great idea!
Awesome tip Cheryl!!
Could this be made in a bundt pan and then turned out? Or is it better in individual cups?
Hi Betty! Great question, a bundt pan could be super fun but I am not sure if it would work!
Actually it would work. I have made what is called rainbow ribbon. As you can guess, it has many different colors, and instead of cool whip I used vanilla icecreme. I placed it in a bundt pan. and it was fine. He liked it so much it was a birthday favorite.
So pretty! So time consuming! My m-i-l used to make a ribbon jello with different flavors and and layers of cream cheese and cool whip mixed together. So pretty, tasty, and time consuming. I tried it once. Mine didn’t look like hers. Thank you. I pinned it.
Hi, I was just wondering how many cups you were able to make with that amount of ingredients?
whatever happened to the jello that did this all on its own?
Hi! How many little cups did this recipe make?
I used large cups, but if you had smaller dixie type cups, it would make a lot.