Citrus Cream Cake

I was assigned birthday cake for the last family birthday party and as it was for Jeff I figured it should probably be something that he would actually eat. He doesn't do chocolate (I'm not sure how he's related to the Hansen's) so it needed to be something not chocolate but more exciting than just a white cake with vanilla frosting...although he likes that as well.

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. Because I was in a hurry and using things I had in my storage I used Cool Whip for the topping but for sure the next time I will use real whipping cream and have written the recipe to indicate that. Call me a dairy snob but I really like real cream better. Other than that it was really good and a definite do again not to mention easy and quick.

The original recipe showed a layer cake; I did it in a jelly roll pan for more servings but the layers were prettier. Next time, right?


Citrus Cream Cake
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 box yellow cake mix 
1 small pkg instant lemon pudding
1 1/3 cups sour cream, divided
3 eggs
1/4 c. oil
3/4 c. water
2 T. grated orange peel
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 small tub Cool Whip or small carton whipping cream whipped
1 lg can mandarin oranges, drained

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray pans with PAM and set aside. Place cake mix, pudding, 1 cup of the sour cream, eggs, oil, water and orange peel in a large bowl. Beat with mixer on low 1 min and on med for 2 min. Pour evenly into prepared pans. The batter is super thick so make sure you have leveled it out well. It doesn't really spread out in the oven.

2. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

3. Beat remaining 1/3 c sour cream and powdered sugar in large bowl with wire wisk until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping or whipped cream. Set aside.

 4. If doing layers place first layer on serving plate, top with half the cream and half of the oranges. Repent with second layer. If doing it in one layer just spread the cream and top with oranges...try to keep your kids from eating them before they even hit the cake. :)