This recipe for Five Cup Fruit Salad was shared by a sweet Southern Plate reader, Cindy Burton, and published in my third cookbook, Sweetness. Cindy shared the story behind the recipe in Sweetness and I’m sharing it here with you, today.
From Cindy Burton: “My mother in law was hands down the sweetest of sweet little old ladies. When I first met her in 1987, she came waddling through the hallway with the prettiest dimpled gun on her face. I knew right then that we would be good friends.
Her name was Ruby Helen Reece Burton and she was the mother of seven children, with my husband being her ‘baby boy’. We used to joke about how both she and Oliver, my father in law, were the babies of their families, and Eldon (my husband) and I were the babies of our families. We would always say we are doing pretty good for a bunch of babies!
Ruby was the queen of making do. She and Oliver were poor throughout their entire fifty six years together, but you wouldn’t be able to tell it by anything Ruby said or did. She never let on like they didn’t have money for anything she wanted; she always found. suitable alternative to whatever it was.
Often, you would see Ruby crocheting hand towels or working on some type of sewing project to make a little extra money. Oh, how she loved to craft and bring smiles to people’s faces!
I could go on and on about how special this woman was to me and my family, but with tears rolling down my face while thinking about her, I will end with this special recipe that she was known for, Five Cup Fruit Salad. Now folks, this is just a basic little fruit salad that I am sure many of you have tasted in some variation, but to our family, it is five layers of love, happiness, joy, family, and faith.
Ruby passed away a few years ago and our family hasn’t been the same since. I still miss her so much and would love to walk into her home and hear that sweet voice say, ‘Howdy Doody Momma Mo!’.”
You’ll need: mini marshmallows*, mandarin oranges, whipped topping, pineapple chunks, and fruit cocktail. You’ll drain all of your fruit for this recipe and you’re just using one cup of each thing pictured so I usually just double it and then use the whole can of each thing and two cups of both marshmallows and whipped topping.
*For the marshmallows, I use kosher or vegan marshmallows so they don’t have pork gelatin in them. Use whatever you prefer.
Ready for the instructions?
Dump everything into a bowl.
Stir.
Done! Look how pretty this is! You can store this in the fridge for up to a week!
It is a fun, fruity, easy as can be treat. I hope you get to try it soon. You can switch out the fruits with other canned fruits or even fresh if you like and some people like to add nuts or coconut as well to make more of an ambrosia type fruit salad. You are limited only by your imagination!
Ingredients
- 1 cup mini marshmallows fruit flavored or plain (I use kosher)
- 1 cup mandarin oranges, drained
- 1 cup whipped topping
- 1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
- 1 cup fruit cocktail, drained
Instructions
- Mix together all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Do you follow me on Instagram? I post lots of fun quote pictures like the one below. You can click here to follow me over there. If you’d like to see all of my quote pictures on one page, you can click here to view every one I’ve made so far on SouthernPlate, there are well over 100! Feel free to download them and share them on your social media, text to friends, or just enjoy yourself. If you do decide to follow me on instagram, just type “follow me” in the comments on any of my posts and I’ll follow you back!
Have a great day!
I call this salad Ambrosia…love it…so light and refreshing
I make this for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My Grandma added chopped nuts, coconut, chopped apples and sliced bananas. We serve whipped cream on the side. I think this might be in my top 3 dishes for those holidays! Yum!!
I so enjoyed the tribute to your sweet mother-in-law! This recipe looks and sounds delicious, I like that it will keep in the refrain for a few days, thank you for sharing.
Sue
Loved the story of the ladies mother in law.
Thank you so much for sharing your love and recipes, family, heritage, and faith. Your recipes often remind me of when I was growing up, my Mother and Aunt prepared so many of them.
We are not from the South, but the Midwest… lots of similarities ( except I like unsweetened tea..ha!)
I found you one day just by checking out food savers on you tube. I am glad I found your site, I have been hooked ever since.
When I was a little girl in the 60’s my mom used to add a can of shrimp. Has anyone heard of that variation?
Yes, my Mom made the salad with sour cream. Sometimes we added coconut too.
My Aunt used to make this but it was the fruits, marshmallows and sour cream. Have you ever heard of it made that way? I’d hate to try it and ruin the whole bowl!
Yes I have made it with sour cream. I preferred it with whipped topping.
Yes, down here in the Gulf Coast of Texas we use sour cream in this salad/dessert. The marshmallows dissolve . So make one day and serve the next.
I use sour cream in place of whipped topping and add coconut.The sour cream balances the sweetness
Love this and variations. My mom made it with a cup each of: bananas, mandarins, diced pineapple, small marshmallows, shredded coconut, sour cream. I don’t usually like sour cream but you don’t notice it bc of the way things mix together.
Sounds delicious! How blessed we were to have mothers who made special dishes for us <3
You will like it with sour cream. I add diced pears, diced peaches, mandarin oranges, fruit cocktail. I cut up marschino cherries, fresh blueberries. I save the juices from the fruit in a container. I may add some juice the next day if the salad is stiff. Instead of adding more sour cream.
The sour cream is a richer, more balanced taste. I prefer it. I find it’s better the longer it sits so I make it the night before.
What a sweet story! Such precious memories and a sweet dessert. 🙂