Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Pig Cake. Yes, I said Pig Cake.

Last week for our potluck dinner with the support group, I told several families to just come to the event and not to worry about making anything.  The chances were great that we would have enough food, but I still wanted to have another dish ready to bring just in case.  I was already bringing the Scalloped Corn (bread) that is a phenomenal hit (even to a few of you out in blog land - so glad you all tried the recipe!)  I thought it might be nice to make a dessert, an easy dessert.
Cast of Characters for Pig Cake, except I forgot to put the vanilla in the photo. 
Pretend it's there, OK?

So I searched online for potluck desserts and actually found quite a few interesting things, but I was pickier than I realized and didn't want anything that I had found.

So I went to my Go To Foodie.

Pioneer Woman.


The yellow cake mix, butter, eggs and mandarin orange juice.  
Look at all of that yellow and orange.

As I looked through her dessert recipes, the very first line in the Pig Cake post was "I’m in sort of a potluck mood lately."  Uhhh, Sold!

I chose to make Pioneer Woman's Pig Cake recipe and it was the perfect choice.

It was different - mandarin oranges in the cake and pineapple in the topping.
It was easy.
It baked up nicely.
The topping wasn't fussy - mix and pour on top.  Spread out.
It traveled well.
It tasted really good.


Finished cake with the topping

There was about 1/4 of the pan left at the end of potluck.

One of the potluck goers offered up a trade.

Four squares of his homemade fudge for the remaining cake.

The fudge was really good and the cake was baked in a one use pan, so there was nothing to return.

I hope he didn't eat the cake in one sitting because I traded.




The cake pictured here is from the second batch that I made.  This one I divided into two 8x8 pans so I could give one of them away.  One of the other attendees mentioned the cake to me a few times since the potluck.  She totally loved it.  I decided to make her one.  She's going to love it.  Hopefully I'll get it to her Thursday.



There are only a few things that I make from prepackaged ingredients as I usually prefer made from scratch, but I think this is really quite good.   I will proudly add this to my potluck repertoire. 

Pioneer Woman has this recipe available for download, so head on over there to print it off.  It's at the very end of the post.

Have a great day!
Kristin

7 comments:

Marg said...

No offense, but Cool Whip is pretty much hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup. Cake mixes are filled with artificial coloring and preservatives. Yes, sugar is a sweetener, just as corn syrup is, but it doesn't have to be as pervasive in our cooking. I found a container of sour cream that actually had corn syrup in it! Real whipped cream may not be very healthy either, but we don't use it every day...corn syrup is hidden in most prepared foods.

Cyndy Bush said...

Holy Yum! That looks delicious.

Caution/Lisa said...

It doesn't matter to me what ingredients are in the cake; I'm going to make it tomorrow :)

Debby@Just Breathe said...

It sounds delicious. I know if you like it, it has to be good.

j said...

I made something like this once, like you, for a special occasion. It was quite good!

Did I tell you that I made scalloped cornbread? Oh Kristin, it was SOOO good.

Mrs4444 said...

Yummmmm....I love The Pioneer Woman!

Have you seen my Chicken Spaghetti recipe? I've been in the mood for that lately and just might make it for the big game tomorrow! GO PACK!

Joye said...

Nom nom nom!!! So yummy. I haven't had Pig Cake in a long time. I'll have to make one soon!