Pig Pickin’ Cake is loaded with mandarin oranges and topped with a fluffy pineapple coconut frosting. This cake is also known as a mandarin orange cake. This moist and delicious one-layer sheet cake is the perfect cake for potlucks, picnics, barbecues, and holiday celebrations.
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Pig Out Cake
Jan Meeks generously donated this recipe. She says that you will eat so much of this cake, that you’ll make a pig out of yourself. This fruity cake is perfect for summer! It is cool and refreshing, you are going to love the fluffy pineapple frosting.
Whenever I have taken this cake to a potluck, the pan always comes back clean. This wonderful cake is now one of my favorite cakes, and it may turn out to be one of yours.
Southern Pig Pickin’ Cake is really so good you are going to want to pig out when eating it, what could be better than sharing good times with friends when you can enjoy a pig picking cake?
Pig Pickin Cake History
When I first heard about this kind of cake, I did some “googling” and discovered an interesting story about the origin of pig pickin’ cake.
In the southern states, such as Georgia and North Carolina, barbecue pork roasts are called pig pickings. These cakes are served at pig roasts. What happens is an entire a whole pig is roasted over a barbecue and then everyone picks off the meat. While this cake is served at pig roasts, it is great for any southern barbecue, or any time you want a traditional southern dessert.
These barbecues are special events, and everyone brings their favorite potluck dishes and desserts. This particular cake became a favorite dessert at these events and became known as Pig Pickin’ Cake.
Recipe Ingredients
Here’s a list of what you need:
- Boxed cake mix – yellow cake, my favorite is the Duncan Hines Butter recipe
- Large eggs
- Butter
- Vegetable oil
- Canned mandarin oranges, drain and save the juice for something else
- All-purpose flour
- Canned crushed pineapple, drain the juice and save for something else
- Instant pudding mix – vanilla
- Powdered sugar
- Cool Whip
- Flaked coconutt
How to Make Pig Pickin Cake
- Combine cake mix, eggs, butter, oil, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Then add in the mandarin orange segments into the cake batter and blend with an electric mixer on low speed.
- Pour batter into a 9 X 13-inch prepared cake pan,
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes to 25 minutes. The cake may not appear done but should be brown on top.
- Cool the cake completely.
- Mix the pineapple (do not drain), pudding mix, and powdered sugar together really well. Let the mixture sit until it starts to thicken.
- Add whipped topping and coconut to the mixture and stir to combine.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake.
More Names for this Cake
In Tennessee during the time of hog-killing and sausage and ham making, the cake got the name of Pea Pick’n Cake. Farmers would all pitch in and help each other out with the chore of picking peas at each other’s farms, and the ladies would provide a covered dish meal including dessert.
The cake recipe made its way into newspapers and women’s magazines, so when the 1980′s rolled around, this was already a very popular cake. It has been given many different names, including:
- Pig Lick’n Cake
- Celestial Snow Cake
- Florida Sunshine Cake
- Orange Pineapple Cake
- Mandarin Magic Cake
It seems that Pig Pickin Cake is this same cake and that its roots are in the south.
Baking With Cake Mixes
Cake mixes are so convenient, and if you add top-quality ingredients to them, your cakes will taste 100% homemade. A cake mix is best regarded as a base for making all different kinds of cake.
There’s no need to make a Pig Pickin Cake from scratch. Using a cake mix helps to ensure the cake will have the right texture and moistness.
Like the convenience of cake mixes?
Here are a few more recipes for cakes using cake mix:
- Ambrosia Cake
- Angel Food Cake with Pineapple
- Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake
- Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Golden Pound Cake
- Sock It To Me Cake
Favorite Fruity Desserts
- Banana Split Cake
- Cherry Coffee Cake
- Fruit of the Forest Pie
- Kool Aid Pie
- Millionaire Pie
- Old Fashioned Apple Pie
- Rhubarb Custard Pie
Check out more of my easy cake recipes and the best family dessert recipes here on CopyKat!
Pig Pickin Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 15.25-ounce box yellow cake mix
- 4 eggs
- 4 ounces butter
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 11-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained
Frosting
- 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple do not drain
- 1 3.4-ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 16 ounces Cool Whip whipped topping
- 1 cup flaked coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large bowl, combine the yellow cake mix, eggs, butter, flour, vegetable oil, and drained mandarin oranges.
- Pour the cake batter into a 9×13-inch baking pan, and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. The cake may not appear done but should be brown on top. Let cool, and cover with frosting.
- To make the frosting: Thoroughly combine the pineapple, instant pudding, and powdered sugar, and set aside until it begins to thicken. Mix in the whipped topping and coconut. Frosting must be refrigerated.
Notes
- Be sure to refrigerate this cake, when you are not serving the cake.
- This simple cake can be made in a layered cake if desired. No matter if you serve this delicious cake as a two-layer cake or as a sheet cake, this pig cake is bound to be one of your favorite recipes. I personally prefer this as the pig picking sheet cake, because you can get more servings out of the cake than a two-layer cake.
Barbara Donovan
We call this Cotton Pickin’ Cake and would love an alternative to the Cool Whip…can’t eat it.
Terry M
You can use whipped heavy cream that has been lightly sweetened with some powdered sugar that’s been blended into the dry pudding. Whip the cream until it begins to thicken, then sprinkle in the pudding/sugar as you finish whipping the cream to sturdy peaks. How much sugar you add is up to you and how sweet you’d like your cake topping/frosting to be, I use about 1/4-1/3 cup but you can add as much as a full cup for sweeter frosting. Fold in the WELL DRAINED pineapple. Failing to drain the juice will cause the frosting to separate. When adding sweetened coconut in addition to the pineapple, I skip the added sugar. Real whipped cream is so much more delicious than frozen “whipped topping”, and not really that much extra effort.
Toni | Boulder Locavore
I can’t wait to give this a try! Looks delish!
Jennifer Farley
This sounds so delicious and easy to prepare!
Suzan ruiz
It does state 1/2 cup of margarine.
Suzan ruiz
1/2 cup margarine
Diane
This recipe is confusing!! which ones are the cake ingredients and which ones are the icing ingredients??
Shirley
I liked this cake, it was great!
Dawn
What size baking dish and what size mandain oranges? Thank you! ;o)