Google "trifle." There are trifle bowls. You can buy them at WalMart for a very reasonable price or go to a specialty store and buy the same bowl for a very unreasonable price. You will find approximately one million trifle recipes. One of my favorites is "boughten" angel food cake, whipped topping, chocolate pudding and fresh strawberries. You can use frozen strawberries, too, but the trifle is not quite as durable because of the melting. Layer the ingredients any way you think looks the prettiest. You can also serve individual trifles if you have enough clear glasses (this really doesn't matter if what you are after is the taste.) And if you like Jello better than pudding, use that, maybe in several different colors. At Christmas time, trifles with red and green Jello can be spectacular.
I learned about trifles from a member of a church I served several years ago. One of my parishioners was from England and she had trifles down pat! froggyintexas

Catholic Church supper, too!

I vaguely recall a recipe called Punch Bowl Cake that sounds like what you describe. If I remember right, it was made much like a trifle.

I just googled Punch Bowl Cake and found lot's of recipes. I now remember making it once years ago, and I think it had angel food cake, vanilla pudding, jello and maybe some fruit. It is made like a trifle, but with the addition of jello. I made it because company was coming, but they cancelled and we had to eat a lot of Punch Bowl Cake! I remember it being good though!

Better yet, google "Jello Punch Bowl Cake". That eliminates the recipes made without jello.