Caramel apple trifle gives a fall potluck or a holiday dessert table something to set right in the middle: yellow cake, French vanilla pudding and apple pie filling in a clear trifle bowl, with caramel and pecans between the layers and whipped topping on top. One bowl of it covers dessert for the whole group when you’ve told someone you’ll bring it.

Dig your spoon all the way to the bottom and you get soft, moist cake and cold pudding with caramel and apple in the same bite, and the pecans scattered on at the end keep a fresh crunch the ones down in the layers don’t have. I bake the cake from a box of yellow cake mix and use the caramel sundae topping and apple pie filling just as they come, so the cake is the only thing that goes in the oven.

Caramel apple trifle in a footed glass bowl with layers of cake, custard, cream and apples, beside caramel apples with pecans

READ BEFORE YOU START

You’ll want to get the cake in the oven about 4.5 hours before you want to serve. That’s because the cake has to cool completely before you cut it into pieces. If it’s still warm, it tears instead of cutting clean. Then, onceI the bowl is layered, the trifle goes into the fridge for three hours to set.

Caramel apple trifle: cake mix, oil, pudding, pie filling, milk, pecans, caramel, whipped topping, eggs.

Ingredient Notes

I used Hershey’s caramel sundae topping in the recipe. You can find it in the grocery store’s ice cream topping aisle.

I use French vanilla instant pudding mix. Vanilla, cheesecake or white chocolate instant pudding mix works in its place in the same amount. Whatever flavor you pick, check that the box says instant. Cook-and-serve pudding needs heat on the stove to thicken, and here you’re only whisking it into cold milk.

I stick with canned apple pie filling for this trifle and spoon it on straight from the can, the same way it goes into several of my apple desserts. If the apple pieces in your can are large or uneven, snip them into smaller, more even pieces with kitchen scissors before you spoon the filling over the pudding. If you would rather go the homemade route, you can use my apple pie filling recipe.

If you’d rather use chopped walnuts than pecans, it’s an easy swap.

Don’t Miss This Step

Every trifle bowl holds a slightly different amount, and the halfway point of the layering is where you find out whether yours has room for all of it. Line the bottom with about half the cake pieces, and you can press them slightly to form a firm cake base before the caramel, pecans, pudding, the first can of pie filling and half the whipped topping go over them.

Look at the bowl before you start the second layer of cake. The first round should come up to about the middle, so the second round and the finishing topping have the top half of the bowl to fill. If it’s already well past the middle, use less cake and less pudding the second time through, and leave out whatever cake pieces don’t fit. Skip that check and the second round can bring the bowl up to the rim, with no room left for the whipped topping, caramel and pecans that go on just before serving.

Cubed yellow cake pieces layered in the bottom of a clear glass pedestal trifle dish on a white marble counter

Cornbread cut into squares in a glass baking dish, with several cubes pulled out and piled in the center

Caramel apple trifle in a glass bowl with whipped cream, pecans and caramel drizzle, one scoop removed.

Caramel apple trifle in a glass bowl topped with whipped cream, caramel drizzle and chopped pecans, with a green apple nearby

Serving & Storing

When it’s close to serving time, take the trifle out of the fridge and finish the top. Spread the rest of the whipped topping in the center of the apple pie filling, drizzle the three tablespoons of caramel you set aside over it, and sprinkle on the last two tablespoons of pecans. Serve it cold, right out of the fridge, with nothing to warm up.

You can layer it the day before, and if your table also has my pumpkin trifle, that one holds a day ahead in the fridge too, so both are done before the guests arrive. For the caramel apple one, build it all the way through the second can of pie filling, cover the bowl, and leave it in the fridge overnight in place of the three-hour chill. Hold back the last of the whipped topping, the reserved caramel and the topping pecans until just before you serve.

Milk pudding and whipped topping both need to stay cold. USDA’s guidance is to throw out perishable food that’s been sitting out more than two hours, or more than one hour when it’s above 90°F. If you’re taking it to a potluck, keep track of when it came out of the fridge, and get the leftovers back into one inside that window.

Cover any leftovers and keep them in the fridge for up to four days. I don’t recommend freezing it, because the pudding and whipped topping can separate as they thaw and the cake turns soggy, so for a caramel apple dessert that goes in the freezer, make my caramel apple eclair cake instead, which keeps up to a month wrapped tightly.

Recipe Testing: Last Updated Nov 2026

This recipe was originally posted in October 2024, and was last tested on August 2025.

My original used frozen pound cake, and the cake layer was the weak spot. It looked dry next to the pudding and caramel. For the redevelopment I switched to a yellow cake mix, baked and then cubed.

I had Pam, my independent recipe tester, make the trifle twice. She baked the yellow cake mix as two 9-inch rounds to stand in for the two pound cakes and called the cake light, moist and buttery. She snipped the apples in the pie filling with kitchen scissors so the pieces were more even.

After the trifle set overnight, the layers sank down a little. She liked the chopped pecans on top for a fresh crunch. Her verdict is that this recipe was rich but delicious.