Pig Pickin' Cake Recipe: Vintage Southern Favorite🍍🍊

Pig Pickin' Cake is a southern recipe that's a favorite for taking to barbecues (Pig Pickin's), potlucks, and church suppers. Bright mandarin oranges and sweet pineapple combine with boxed butter cake mix (or use this homemade mix) for a dessert that goes together quickly and just couldn't be easier.

Or, try this easy peach dump cake! It's always a favorite!

The biggest difference in Gramma GiGi's recipe (story at the end) and the others that I've seen is that hers contains a splash of spiced rum and uses real whipped cream that's been stabilized instead of whipped topping.

It's made in a 13x9-inch pan so it's easy to grab and go for potlucks and such - it's always one of the first things to disappear.

🥘 Ingredients

Pig Pickin' cake is truly one of the easiest desserts in the world. I love it for potlucks and church events because it always is a big hit.

• Yellow butter cake mix
• Butter
• Mandarin oranges
• Eggs
• Spiced rum (optional)
• Vanilla
• French vanilla instant pudding mix
• Heavy whipping cream
• Confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• Crushed pineapple.

🔪 Instructions

1. Place the butter and cake mix in a bowl.
2. Add the vanilla.
3. Add the eggs.
4. Mix well.
5. Add the oranges and mix.
6. Pour into a prepared pan and bake.
7. Cool and frost with the topping (step by step images below).
8. Chill.
9. Enjoy!

1. Add the pudding mix and powdered sugar to a bowl. Pour in pineapple juice.
2. Mix until smooth. Set aside.
3. Add Confectioner's sugar to chilled heavy cream in a large bowl
4. Whip until fluffy.
5. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture.
6. Add pineapple and spread on top as directed.

💭 Tips

Expert Tip: Make sure the pineapple is drained very well and patted dry with paper towels before folding into the topping otherwise it will get watery.

• ALWAYS use room temperature ingredients unless otherwise noted in the recipe... except whipped cream, of course - that should be ice cold.
• This works really well with a homemade cake mix if you don't want to use boxed.
• You can also use my homemade whipped topping instead of whipped cream. 🙂 It's especially good if you are making it ahead of time or it will be outside in warm weather.
• Bourbon is a nice substitute for the rum.
• Add a teaspoonful of frozen orange juice concentrate to the reserved mandarin orange juice for more orange flavor.
• Substitute white chocolate instant pudding for the vanilla.
• Stir in some sweetened, flaked coconut to the topping.
• You can freeze this cake without the topping.
• You can make this into 2 8-inch layers and fill and frost it with the topping.
• Drizzle some of the pineapple juice over the warm cake to make it extra moist and give it more pineapple flavor.
• This dessert is better the second day.
• PS...there probably won't be any leftovers for the second day.

Related recipes

• White Texas Sheet Cake - if white fudge and brownies had a baby it would be this.
• Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake - layers of moist, fudgy chocolate cake with thick layers of creamy dark chocolate frosting between them -so good you'll wish you had two stomachs.
• Holy Cow Cake is a poke cake soaked in 3 different syrups, sprinkled with Butterfingers, and lavishly topped with whipped cream

🍽 Equipment

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Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!

This cake is so easy - there's no special ingredients at all. However, a covered baking pan makes it SO much easier to take to those potlucks!

What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you'll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness!  Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!

☕ Kaffeeklatsch

When I was a teenager I dated a guy who's great grandmother just absolutely adored me.

Every time I went to see her (even after we'd broken up) she had a Pig Pickin' Cake on the table. She'd smile and cut a big square of it, put it on one of her pretty bone china plates and push it to my side of the table.

She had a soft voice with a thick southeastern accent and she'd alway say she needed to "put some meat on you, honey!". I was pretty picky about what I ate but I absolutely could not resist that plate of goodness.

Apparently I still can't.

I hadn't thought about it in a long time... then a month or so ago my son was eating mandarin oranges and I had a flashback of her sweet smile and that luscious cake and I knew I had to find her recipe for it.

It was written in faded, shaky handwriting on the back of an electric bill envelope and I hadn't made it in probably 20 years or more.

Don't wait too long to make this cake! Invite some friends over for coffee and put this on the table - you'll definitely win the good neighbor award!

Looking for something deliciously different? Try this Boston Cream Pie Poke Cake!

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Gramma GiGi's Pig Pickin' Cake

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This sweet, moist orange cake is topped with a decadently creamy pineapple topping that's totally addictive! Some people call it "sunshine cake". Difficulty level 2/10

Course Dessert - Cake

Cuisine American - Southern

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Chill: 4 hours

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings:16

Calories:214

Author:Marye Audet-White

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Equipment Needed

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

1x2x3x

For the Cake:

• 1 box yellow butter cake mix
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 14 ounces mandarin oranges, 1/2 cup juice reserved
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons spiced rum, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Frosting

• 4 ounce French vanilla instant pudding , dry - just use the powder
• 20 ounces crushed pineapple, juice reserved
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3/4 cup Confectioner's sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 13x9-inch pan - set aside. Remove 2 tablespoons of the mandarin orange liquid and replace with 2 tablespoons of spiced rum (optional).
• Add the cake mix, butter, vanilla and eggs to the bowl of an electric mixer and blend on low for about 1 minute.
• Add the oranges and the reserved juice to the bowl. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
• Spoon into the prepared baking pan. Bake at 350F for 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting

• Blend the instant pudding mix, 1/2 cup Confectioner's, and reserved pineapple juice - set aside.
• Whip the cream with the remaining 1/4 cup Confectioner's sugar until soft peaks form.
• Gently fold into the pudding mixture. Pat any remaining moisture off the pineapple with paper towel - fold into the topping.
• Spoon on the top of the cake. Refrigerate at least 4 hours - overnight is better. Be sure to keep leftovers in the fridge!

Notes

Make sure the pineapple is drained very well and patted dry with paper towels before folding into the topping otherwise it will get watery.

Tips

• ALWAYS use room temperature ingredients unless otherwise noted in the recipe... except whipped cream, of course - that should be ice cold.
• This works really well with a homemade cake mix if you don't want to use boxed.
• You can also use my homemade whipped topping instead of whipped cream. 🙂 It's especially good if you are making the cake ahead of time or it will be outside in warm weather.
• Bourbon is a nice substitute for the rum.
• Add a teaspoonful of frozen orange juice concentrate to the reserved mandarin orange juice for more orange flavor.
• Substitute white chocolate instant pudding for the vanilla.
• Stir in some sweetened, flaked coconut to the topping.
• You can freeze this cake without the topping.
• You can make this cake into 2 8-inch layers and fill and frost it with the topping.
• Drizzle some of the pineapple juice over the warm cake for a moister cake with more pineapple flavor.
• This cake is better the second day.

PS...there probably won't be any leftovers for the second day.

Nutrition

Calories: 214kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 61mg | Sodium: 257mg | Potassium: 41mg | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 280IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 84mg | Iron: 0.9mg

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