Have you ever thought about poking holes into a freshly baked cake? Not just for the sake of it, but for a fun and whimsical take on the traditional filling, also known as poke cake. Poke cake is just like any other traditional cake, only holes are poked into it, then drenched with sweet filling that seeps into each hole to add loads more flavor to the dessert. When you cut the cake, you’ll notice patterns undulating throughout your dessert, a cute spin on a classic filling.
There are a number of delicious fillings to choose from when making a poke cake – chocolate, fruity, tart, spicy, or even creamy. Poke cake fillings may also hold a variety of textures that may range from milky to smooth and velvety, just as long as it’s watered-down enough to fill in the holes. They may also be frosted or left bare if you prefer less sugar. Either way you cut it, poke cakes enables you to have more fun with your dessert. It doesn’t matter how deep or how large you burrow into a poke cake, as long as it pleases the palate. Here is a quick and easy strawberry poke cake to start off with to try if you’re in the mood.
What You’ll Need
- 1 15.25 ounce box cake mix
- 1 3.4 ounce box of vanilla instant pudding
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
- 3/4 cups of milk
- 1 3 ounce box of strawberry flavored Jello-O
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 1/2 cup of cold water
What To Do
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 9×13 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. With an electric or manual mixer, stir together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and milk until mixture is smooth and creamy. Then pour into the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes until golden.
4. Once cake is cooled, with a serving fork or straw, poke holes evenly all over.
5. Mix Jell-O and boiling water in a medium bowl, stirring until Jello-O is dissolved. Then mix in cold water, stir again and pour mixture evenly over cake, making sure to fill in the holes. Cover with plastic wrap and set in refrigerator for 3 hours. This will enable the Jello-O mixture to firm.
6. For the whipped topping, pour the heavy cream into a medium-sized mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
7. Take cooled cake out of the refrigerator, and slather with whipped cream, top with sliced strawberries. Slice and serve.
Yields 12 servings.
If you want to incorporate more flavor into your cake, then try the poke cake method. Not only does it employ a beautiful coloring and taste, making it is literally a piece of cake.
