This Creamy Fruit Salad with Cool Whip is creamy, cold, and sweet with four different kinds of fruit plus cream cheese! It’s like a cheesecake salad with tons of your favorite fruit – the perfect side dish or dessert!

A bowl of creamy, purple-tinted fruit salad sits on a wooden surface. It contains grapes and nuts, mixed with a whipped topping. A spoon is placed in the bowl, and a striped cloth napkin is nearby, with another bowl in the background.

If you love fluff salad then this Creamy Fruit Salad recipe is the one for you. It’s the best kind of fluff – a cheesecake salad with cool whip and lots of different fruit! While we enjoy this for breakfast or a potluck it’s the perfect dessert salad, kind of like ambrosia salad but with different ingredients. I can guarantee it will disappear fast!

Overhead view of ingredients for a fruit salad on a wooden table: mandarin oranges, cream cheese on a cutting board, black grapes in a bowl, red grapes, a bowl of Cool Whip, and pineapple chunks. A green and white striped cloth is at the bottom left.

Ingredient Notes

Cool Whip – use any brand or kind (sugar free, low fat, etc)
Cream cheese – be sure to use block cream cheese (but low fat is fine) and it needs to be room temperature. Since we’re using cream cheese we don’t need pudding mix!
Fruit: For this recipe I used canned mandarin oranges, canned pineapple chunks, grapes, and blueberries (you can use fresh or frozen).

Be sure to see the recipe card below for full ingredients & instructions!

Variations & Substitutions

I prefer whipped topping only because it’s more stable, but you can use fresh whipped cream.
For some extra tang and body, add a bit of sour cream or add protein with greek yogurt.
Canned fruit or fresh can be used
Switch up the flavors by using raspberries or blackberries, kiwi or strawberries or even maraschino cherry.

A glass bowl filled with chopped pineapples, grapes, blueberries, and mandarin segments on a wooden surface. Nearby are empty bowls with traces of fruit, a cluster of grapes, and a wooden spoon. A striped cloth is draped on the table.

How to Make Creamy Fruit Salad

Use a large bowl to mix the cream cheese mixture in. It’s also easiest if the cream cheese is room temperature.
For the canned oranges and pineapple, be sure to drain them really well. You don’t want any extra liquid otherwise your salad will be watery and not creamy.
I recommend thawing the frozen fruit if using. Note that thawed frozen fruit will make the salad more the blue/purple, while fresh blueberries will keep it more white.

Two bowls of creamy, purple dessert with a spoon rest on a rustic wooden surface. A green and white striped cloth is partially visible nearby. The dessert appears to be a mixture of fruits and cream.

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Expert Tips

Canned fruit is usually sweeter since it’s canned in syrup or juices, so if you use fresh fruit your salad may not be as sweet.
One reason I like to use whipped topping for this recipe is because it’s more stable than homemade whipped cream. It just holds up better especially if you don’t plan on serving it right away or if it will be sitting out at a party or potluck. You can use homemade whipped cream, but I would plan to serve it sooner rather than later.