Pig Pickin' Cake

I can't say I've ever been to a Pig Pickin', but I've always liked the idea of a Pig Pickin' Cake. It's a Southern dessert made with yellow cake mix, mandarin oranges, and a pineapple and whipped cream frosting. Its lightness partners well with the heavier fare served at a hog roast or barbecue, otherwise known as a "Pig Pickin'. The "pickin'" refers to the meat that is pulled off the roast. Maybe one day I'll spot this cake in its native element here in North Carolina, but rather than wait I just made one on a random Monday evening.

Pig Pickin' Cake is popular here in North Carolina, but it was never a traditional dessert at a Texas style barbecue. More often than not you'd see Texas Sheet Cake, German Chocolate Cake or Red Velvet. And there would be brownies, always brownies. And perhaps Peach Cobbler or if you were lucky, Millionaire Pie. But I never saw a Pig Pickin' Cake and kept meaning to try one.

I think one reason it took me so long to try this cake was that we don't love the texture of mandarin oranges. But guess what? It was a non-issue with this cake because the little mandarins practically dissolve while baking and while you do get flecks of orange, you don't get the texture of big mandarin chunks.

Jump to Recipe

Ingredients in Pig Pickin' Cake

To make this North Carolina favorite, you'll need a few convenience items. I used Baker's Corner brand yellow cake mix from Aldi, white chocolate flavored instant pudding, Wesson oil, a 15 oz can of mandarin oranges, crushed pineapple, Cool Whip, eggs and vanilla extract.

• Yellow Cake Mix
• Mandarin Oranges
• Eggs
• Vegetable Oil
• Vanilla
• Instant Pudding Mix
• Whipped Topping
• Crushed Pineapples

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

This cake is very simple, especially if you have a stand mixer.

Hint: This cake is very easy to frost thanks to the pudding mix. Chilling the frosting for an hour does thicken it somewhat, but even if you don't chill for a full hour it should go on smoothly. Also, don't forget to hold back some of the mandarins before baking so you'll have some for garnish. I forgot and had to use a cherry.

Substitutions and Variations

My Pig Pickin' Cake recipe is a pretty basic one, but there are variations on the traditional North Carolina style dessert.

• Orange Oil or Orange Extract - For more of a citrus flavor, you can add ¼ teaspoon of orange oil or 1 teaspoon of orange extract to the batter. With the extra citrus it's often referred to as Sunshine Cake. Some of the Sunshine versions use lemon flavored pudding mix instead of vanilla.
• Pecans - Pecans or other nuts can be added in with the mandarins. The nut variation is often called Celestial Snow Cake.
• White Chocolate Pudding Mix - If you can find it, you can substitute white chocolate pudding for the vanilla pudding mix. The frosting will be a light in color like my cake. White chocolate and pineapple is always a good combo.

Those are a few little variations. As for substitutions, I recommend following the recipe as written the first time, but you can certainly try different brands of cake mix. Perhaps start with one that is still 15.25 oz, since so many of them are now down to 13.25 oz. I think the 13.25 oz boxes will still work, but I've only tested with the Aldi cake mix in the 15.25 oz box.

Equipment

A stand mixer is very helpful here, but a handheld mixer is just fine too. I don't recommend mixing with just a spoon because you want to break up those mandarins. Or at least I do. And you'll need 8-inch cake pans rather than 9-inch since the amount of cake mix per box has shrunk. Other than that, Pig Pickin' Cake doesn't require much equipment. The frosting is just mixed together with a spoon of scraper.

Storage

Clear out some room in the refrigerator. Pig Pickin' Cake needs to be refrigerated until serving time, at which point you can leave it out for about 2 hours -- maybe even a little longer depending on the temperature of the environment. This is why whipped topping is used rather than cream. The whipped topping will stay put on a cake that has to sit out at a barbecue.

Recipe