Neither Key Lime Pie Nor Strawberry Shortcake: This Famous Florida Dessert Has A Retro Twist

The Florida sun isn't the only thing keeping the Sunshine State hot. Temperatures have been flaring since strawberry shortcake was anointed the state's official dessert in 2022, nudging Key lime pie – the state's official pie since 2006 – over to share the centerstage. But if you're not feeling either one, there's another dessert that puts a retro twist on Florida's famous pie: Florida fluff.  Bright, airy, and fluffy — it's perfectly suited for the 27th state. 

The dreamy, chilled creation known as Florida fluff includes the sweet likes of vanilla pudding, sweetened condensed milk, toasted shredded coconut, and marshmallows along with puffy echoes of Key lime pie in the form of lime, graham crackers, and whipped cream. It's finished with lime zest and a sprinkling of rich, finely-crumbled graham crackers. But even though Florida fluff is inspired by the beloved Key West treat, it's really more of a fluff salad. 

Bold, colorful, fun, and festive, fluff salad is audaciously in-your-face. With roots tied to both the rise of home refrigerators in the 1930s and the availability of convenience products like instant gelatin, fluff salad first gained traction in the 1950s as a quick-and-easy party food. It reached peak popularity in the '70s with the iconic Watergate salad which, along with Florida fluff, is just one of the mid-century dessert's seemingly endless variations. 

Though ingredients for fluff salad vary greatly, the bases usually rely on something thick and creamy. "Yum Yum salad," also known as orange fluff salad, starts with a tub of Cool Whip, while other variations like the Florida fluff use pudding, gelatin, yogurt, cream cheese, condensed milk, cottage cheese, or some combination of them all. They also usually include some sort of canned fruit along with marshmallows, and textural elements like nuts or candy. 

From Ambrosia fruit salad to strawberry, Christmas cranberry, and creamy Hawaiian fruit salad, these congealed desserts offer endless opportunities for sweet nostalgia. But, if you've still got a craving, you may want to try some of the other vintage desserts everyone loved in the 1950s – including baked Alaska, pineapple upside down cake, and banana cream pie.