In the past seven years, I have written a number of columns that stemmed from my life goal of being the “cool aunt.”
This week’s is another in that installment, after I asked our family group chat if anyone had any dessert requests for Easter, and my sister responded with one from my niece for an “Easter-themed cake with pink frosting and with bunny and egg sprinkles.”
Actually, that was an easy one, but I also wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to completely overload the rest of the family on a sugar rush to end all sugar rushes, so I was super happy when I found this week’s recipe, which looks like it’s overly sweet but is actually a fabulous cake that is moist and full of flavor. Plus, if you don’t consider yourself much of a baker, you’re in luck: this is just elevated box mixes.
This comes from Morgan Reed on the website “Cooktop Cove.” You can find the original post at https://cooktopcove.com/2024/03/18/hands-doesn-this-is-the-only-cake-my-hubby-will-eat-for-easter/. I didn’t change anything in the ingredients for this one. It was just too simple.
Colorful Poke Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix plus the ingredients on the box
- a variety of colors of food coloring
- 2 3.4- ounce boxes vanilla instant pudding
- 4 cups milk
- 8 ounces whipped topping thawed
- sprinkles for decorating
Instructions
- Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside. Preheat the oven to the temperature instructed on the cake mix.
- Start by mixing up the cake mix, according to the instructions on the box.
- Decide how many colors you want to have in your cake, and pour even amounts of the cake batter into that many bowls.
- Using the food coloring, dye each bowl to your desired shade.
- Plop the colored batters into the prepared baking pan by the spoonful, distributing them randomly to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Once all the batter is in the pan, gently swirl the batter with a knife to integrate the colors a bit more. (Be careful not to do it so much that they mix into a solid, yucky shade.)
- Bake the cake for the amount of time specified on the box, and remove it from the oven when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, and then, using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes all over the top of the cake, placing them about one inch apart.
- In a bowl, whisk the pudding mix and milk together, and continue whisking until it just starts to thicken.
- Pour the pudding on top of the cake, spreading it out evenly and letting it run down into the holes you created. (Some of it will stay on top, and that’s OK.)
- Put the cake in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
- Before serving, spread the entire container of whipped topping on top of the cake, and decorate with any sprinkles you would like to use. (I also colored my whipped topping with food coloring.)
- Refrigerate any leftovers.
The cool thing about this recipe is you can make it for any holiday or occasion you want. I went with pastel colors for my version, but I could easily see using a few shades of green for St. Patrick’s Day or red, white and blue for July.
The pudding in this was such a great addition. It took the cake from being a normal box cake to something a bit more special, and I really liked the lightness of the whipped topping instead of thick buttercream.
And this ended up being both adult and 7-year-old approved after our Easter lunch, which cemented me as both the family dessert maker and the cool aunt, all in the same day.
One day, her imagination is going to completely outpace my abilities, but at this point, I’ll be happy to have my colorful cake and eat it, too.
This piece first appeared in print April 24, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
