Pig Pickin Cake – This delicious cake will serve you well all year long.
This cake recipe has been around forever. I started a recipe binder when I was in my twenties, this recipe was in it. Hand written with the name of the person I got it from in the upper right hand corner of the page. I’m sure this cake has other names but I’m kind of partial to this one. I was reading a little bit about where the name came from. In the south pig roasts are called “pig pickins. Neighbours and friends would get together, roast a pig and pick the meat off of it. This cake was a favorite at those events and became know as Pig Pickin Cake. Makes sense right?
Traditionally this cake was made into layers. I prefer to make cakes in a 13×9 inch baking pan. They’re so much easier to serve that way. This delicious cake couldn’t have been easier to make. I think it took me a whole ten minutes to throw the cake together to bake it. The topping was just as easy.
It’s very moist and absolutely delicious! The combination of mandarin oranges and pineapple is wonderful. This cake is refrigerated because of the Cool Whip in the topping which makes it the perfect Summer dessert! Think about this delicious cake when your thinking about desserts to make this Summer and Winter for holidays and family gathers. Let’s gather the ingredients and make this wonderful cake together.
Cake Ingredients:
- One boxed yellow cake mix
- 15 ounce can Mandarin Oranges
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
Cake Topping Ingredients:
- One 16 ounce container of Cool Whip
- One small package of vanilla instant pudding
- One Twenty ounce can crushed pineapple, drained
Add the mandarin oranges along with the juice from the can to the batter in the bowl. Beat with a mixer until they are incorporated.
After the cake has cooled completely make the frosting. To make the frosting:
Frost the cooled cake and refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve it. This cake recipe is going to serve you well anytime of the year , for any occasion, trust me your going to love it!
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Pig Pickin Cake
Ingredients
- 1 yellow cake mix boxed
- 1 15 ounce can Mandarin oranges undrained
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cup oil
Topping
- 1 16 ounce container Cool Whip
- 1 small package vanilla instant pudding
- 20 oz can crushed pineapple drained
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.
- In a large bowl combine the boxed yellow cake mix, eggs and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the mandarin oranges along with the juice from the can.. Beat until incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the greased 13x9 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until tests done with a toothpick.
- Cool the cake completely.
Frosting
- Combine the drained pineapple and instant vanilla pudding in a large bowl, mix until well Incorporated. ( If it's to thick add a little of the drained pineapple juice) Add the container of Cool Whip, mix until well combined. Frost cooled cake and refrigerate.
Notes
Make sure that the cake is completely cooled before you frost it.
Nutrition
Yum to all the cakes. Thank you.
Made this cake for lunch with friends today and everyone loved it. When I bought ingredients needed I bought the 11 oz. mandarin oranges instead of 15 oz. but the cake was still very good. And part of the fun of serving the cake was telling everyone its name and why it’s called Pig Picken Cake. Thanks for the recipe.
The recipe doesn`t specify but with the small vanilla instant pudding…. do we actually make it into pudding and not just dump the powder into the crushed pineapple??
Hi Diane the vanilla pudding is used in the topping of the cake not the cake batter. Look in the recipe directions under “topping”. Hope you get to make it, it’s a delicious cake!
I have the same question Bunny as Diane. By the way I love your site. So many good recipes! I know the pudding is listed in the frosting directions but that still doesn’t answer the question Diane asked and me also. For the frosting do we make the pudding up before we add it to the pineapple;; or do you just add to the powder form of the pudding to the pineapple. Want to make this but am unsure. Please let me know.
you dump the powder pudding in w/ cool whip!
Tammy you must have gotten recipes mixed up. This is made with a cake mix and there;s no baking powder in the recipe.
Just made 2 for Thanksgiving, but my kids just HAD to finish one off the night before. Many thanks for the recipe. Please don’t add me to any email lists, just wanted to say thank you, and good luck.
Your so welcome Lon! Happy Thanksgiving! (I don’t add people to the email list, that’s purely voluntary sweetie.)
I didn’t have any crushed pineapple so I used pineapple tidbits. I chopped them up in a bowl and the cake turned out just perfect. My husband said he liked it too! Winner!!
Fantastic Cathy, thank you for taking the time to come back and comment!
Great cake, one of my favorites. But instead of using vanilla pudding i use coconut. Its the best. Orange, pineapple and coconut all together.
Oh I bet that’s good too Sandy, thank you for letting us know!
I didn’t see where it said what size cool whip to use, but another recipe said 16 oz…love this recipe, and actually make it into 2 8″ single layer cakes instead of 9 x 13…one to keep and one to give away.
Well there you go Tina, great idea! Perfect to have your cake and give one as a gift, wonderful!
Surely the 3/4 cup of oil is wrong – my cake came out heavy and fell flat.
If you weren’t happy with it at 3/4 cup I’d suggest looking up the recipe and comparing it to others online to see what the oil amount is and use that.
Second time I mafe this. Second cake is cooling now…both baking had to be extended cake was not done and had to cook a bit longer. gets pretty brown but not burnt. Tasted 2nd cake just now..had to use sunflower oil…would not recommed it…kinda rastes like sunflower seeds..great cake thougj. super complimented on my 1st one.
Thank you Kate!
My recipe calls for 1/2 cup vegetable oil.
The weight of cake mixes has changed. Most are now 15.25 oz. What size is used in your recipe?
K Chapman just use the cake mix in the store that will make a 13×9 inch cake.
I have made this cake a number of times now and it is absolutely perfect. Thank you for a great recipe.