Pig Pickin' Cake Recipe: Vintage Southern Favorite🍍🍊

Pig Pickin' Cake is a southern recipe that's a favorite for taking to barbecues, 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!

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Tips
• Related recipes
• 🍽 Equipment
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

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.

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🍽 Equipment

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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!

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