Classic Ambrosia Salad is a sweet, tangy crowd-pleasing dessert, featuring a combination of mini marshmallows, fruit, and whipped cream!
Ambrosia Salad has been around for a long time, and for good reason—it’s incredibly light, delicious, and easy to make, which means it’s a giant hit at every family meal! A simple mix of mandarin oranges, pineapple, maraschino cherries, shredded coconut, and mini marshmallows mixed with a sweet and creamy dressing, this is one salad that’s sure to disappear quickly!
Food of the Gods
Ambrosia means food of the gods, and with one bite, you’ll understand why! The variety of fruit and pops of marshmallows give this dish a great texture, and the sweet, tangy dressing marries all of the flavors so well. Ambrosia salad is an easy and wonderful make-ahead dish, so it’s great for serving at potlucks or at big family meals. If your kids are anything like mine, you’ll need to watch the mini marshmallows so they don’t disappear before mixing this salad!
The combination of fruit and marshmallows is a total dream, so mix up Cranberry Fluff or Blueberry Fluff and give the family another delicious way to celebrate family dinners.
Other Recipes to Serve with Ambrosia Salad
- The only other salad that’s as classic as Ambrosia Salad is the amazingly creamy pistachio Watergate Salad! One bite and you’ll see how this delicious salad, with these delicious flavors, has withstood the test of time!
- A Hawaiian Stone Sour is a sweet refreshing way for grown-ups to enjoy warm-weather potlucks and family gatherings!
Ingredients
For the Dressing: When it comes to making the dressing, you have two options: You can whip up a batch of homemade whipped cream using heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, or you can purchase a tub of Cool Whip. Go with the option that works best for you. You will also need sour cream to mix into the whipped topping.
Fruit: For this salad, you will need canned mandarin oranges, pineapple tidbits, maraschino cherries, and sweetened shredded coconut. Be sure to drain the canned or jarred fruit before using.
Marshmallows: For this dish, pick up mini marshmallows. You can choose regular white mini marshmallows or the extra fun, fruity, rainbow-colored marshmallows.
How to Make Ambrosia Salad
STEP ONE: Using a medium bowl with beaters or a stand mixer, whip together the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form.
STEP TWO: Stir in the sour cream until evenly mixed.
STEP THREE: Add the mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, pineapple, coconut, and mini marshmallows to a separate large bowl and mix.
STEP FOUR: Spoon the whipped cream mixture over the fruit and fold everything together until well mixed. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Tips for Success
- If you can, purchase the canned fruit in its juices rather than syrup. The fruit needs to be well drained to avoid a soupy Ambrosia Salad, so you can pour the canned/jarred fruit into a colander to drain for about an hour before assembling the salad.
- Do you love the idea of nuts in your salad? Add one cup of chopped walnuts or pecans for another layer of texture and flavor!
- Store Ambrosia Salad tightly covered in the fridge for up to three days.
What are the ingredients for Ambrosia Salad?
Ambrosia salad is most often made like the recipe you see here- with oranges, pineapple, cherries, coconut, marshmallows, and whipped cream. Both canned and fresh pineapple and oranges have been used over time, and that’s certainly an option for this recipe. Traditionally, Ambrosia salad was also made with various fruits, such as sliced bananas, grapes, strawberries, and nuts, like pecans. The dressing ingredients vary by recipe and are made with whipped cream, yogurt, sour cream, mayonnaise, cottage cheese, and cream cheese.
Is Ambrosia Salad a fluff salad?
Just about any salad containing marshmallows and whipped cream falls within the fluff salad category. Ambrosia is perhaps the most famous fluff salad, however, as the fruits in the salad were considered exotic delicacies. As orange growers were able to produce more oranges throughout the year and machines were invented to shred coconut, it became more common to see this salad on people’s tables. The popularity of fluff salads took off from there, with a colorful explosion of recipes containing different fruits and puddings but always containing marshmallows.
Enjoy a Sweet Side Dish or Dessert at Every Get-Together!
- Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad
- Frog Eye Salad
- Cherry Cheesecake Salad
- Caramel Apple Cheesecake Salad
- Cookie Salad
*This post originally posted on 07/23/2018.
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup heavy cream chilled
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
- 4 cups mini marshmallows either regular or fruit-flavored
- 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 11 ounces mandarin oranges well drained
- ¾ cup maraschino cherries stems removed, rinsed, and drained
- 1 cup pineapple tidbits well drained
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract on high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Add the sour cream and fold into the whipped cream until evenly combined.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the mini marshmallows, coconut flakes, oranges, maraschino cherries, and pineapple.
- Pour the sour cream mixture over the salad ingredients and stir until everything is evenly coated in the sour cream mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. Top with more cherries if desired.
Notes
- Rinsing and drying the cherries before using them will keep the salad from turning pink from any juices that may leak out.
- Be sure to drain the fruit really well if you’re making this salad more than 1 hour ahead of time. You can put all the fruit in a colander and let it sit to drain and dry for about 1 hour (if you want to wait that long). This will keep the salad from getting soupy while it sits.
Shirley Brunson says
I made it today, let it set for several hours. Did not change anything., a Hugh Hit. My family loved it.
Eileen says
Just thought I used fruit cocktail instead of other fruit and used everything else. It’s an old way of doing it and comes out great
Annie Torres says
I tried your salad and it was a hit! It was gone in 20 minutes, and I am so glad I took the first serving otherwise I missed my share !! Thank you
Aleta Zeiler says
This turned out so well. Thank you!
Maya says
Made this as a yogurt parfair for a thanksgiving dessert. Tastes lovely!
Joey H. says
Needed an ambrosia recipe for a ‘70s party and this was perfect. I appreciate you offering both the homemade whipped cream and Cool Whip alternatives. Because of the party theme, I obviously went with Cool Whip. 😁 I’m disabled and not much of a cook, and I loved how easy this was. Excellent tip on draining the fruit for an hour! I also halved the cherries just to spread a little more joy around.
Donald says
Can I make it without the sour cream.?
Jennifer Kimmel says
Hey Donald! You can leave out the sour cream but it does make it a little creamier and a tad less sweet. Let me know if you try it.
Kenneth Freeman says
I make it all the time without sour cream
Ajhu Patel says
Wow, it was so yummy and easy to make! Thank you for the recipe.
Margie says
You cant use colored.marshmallows your salad will turn gray you can only use white marshmallows
Aut says
I have only used colored marshmallows and it never changes the color of the salad and tastes yummy.
Susan says
Do you use a full tub of cool whip or a cup and a half which is what a pint of whipping cream would make?
Jennifer Kimmel says
Hey Susan! I would use a full tub of cool whip.
Jerry says
Great and easy recipe to follow, this is a real nice cool desert and not all filling after dinner desert.
Aubrey Cota says
Thank you, Jerry!
IFortuna says
Hubby wants me to make this salad. You can buy fresh California Mandarin oranges at the grocers these days. The are juicy and not tart or acidic or too sweet. They are great for this salad, coleslaw and most fruit salads. Thanks for this recipe!
Aubrey Cota says
Thanks!
Pattie Hayward says
I have never made this with whipping cream. Made this for my granddaughters first birthday party, and what a hit it was. Thank you for your advice of the homemade whipping cream, so much better.
Aubrey Cota says
Pattie, I’m so glad to hear it turned out so well for you! Thank you.
Miranda says
I made this at Thanksgiving; it was so delicious and easy to make! Thank you for the recipe.
Aubrey Cota says
Thank you, Miranda! I’m so glad to see it was a hit.
Rosemary Valdez says
I don’t remember using Heavy Cream? Cool Whip, Mixed Fruit, Pineapple chunks/tidbits, sour cream, Cheeries, nd something else??
Do you know of this recipe?
Please HELP!!!
Aubrey Cota says
You can refer to the ingredients list of this recipe to find out all that should be included.
Miranda says
The heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla combined are the ingredients to make a homemade version of Cool Whip. If you’re using a tub of Cool Whip, you would simply leave out the first two steps of mixing those three ingredients and just start at the part after it says to mix until you get a Cool Whip consistency!!
Patricia Zehr says
So much better with home made whipped cream than Cool Whip. It’s so easy to make, and only takes a few min.
Beverly L says
I use chopped pecans like my grandmother did
Susan says
Do you use a full tub of cool whip or a cup and a half which is what a pint of whipping cream would make?
Paul says
Bananas, grapes, , grenadine (added to whipped cream before incorporating into salad.)
Vita says
The recipe just before this one is the one you want.
Cool Whip, sour cream, mandarin oranges, nuts, maraschino cherries, mini marshmallows, shredded coconut, crushed pineapple or tidbits (drained).
Joli says
Cool Whip, sour cream, maraschino cherries, pineapple tidbits, mandarin oranges, mini marshmallows, and shredded sweetened coconut flakes. The fruits are from a can yet drained.
Mary L Fake says
Very good and easy recipe! Turns out well every time.
Dianna says
this is a very complicated recipe indeed. Instead of sour cream and vanilla flavoring just use pudding or vanilla yogurt and instead of the heavy cream and powder sugar just use whip cream. once a recipe become this complicated it’s time to just head to your local deli and buy it premade they are just as delicious and will probably even be cheaper in the end