Grandma's Cream Cheese Jell-O Salad {Vintage Family Recipe} (2024)

This is a much-beloved cream cheese Jell-O salad in our family. My grandmother Lois made it year round even though it is a holiday Jell-O salad. I can say with all confidence that this is the salad that endeared me to gelatin-based salads. I know it is easy to mock some of those creative concoctions but everyone who tries this one raves about it. The secret is the layer of cream cheese mixed with gelatin.

The first time I made this, I was a teenager and made it in a cake pan. I put on the table and watched in horror as the red layer slipped off of the other layers. Actually, it split in half as it slid off. It became known as the “parting of the Red Sea incident” and is still mentioned every time I bring this salad (by request, I might add) to a family dinner.

Since I have a very big family, I usually use large boxes of gelatin and use a bundt cake pan as the mold for the cream cheese Jell-o salad (as shown in the photos). I double the amount of cream cheese and 1/2 & 1/2 that the recipe calls for.

Here is a tip I discovered quite by accident while reading a gelatin salad recipe: Use less of the cold liquid that is required when using a mold. This makes the gelatin a bit more firm and it will hold its shape better. Since discovering this secret, I’ve never had trouble with my molded salads again!

I made a video to show how easy it is to make. Here is a link to the recipe: Grandma’s Cream Cheese Jello Salad Recipe 3×5 card