This Mandarin Orange Cake is a real treat and couldn’t be easier to make. With the addition of some simple ingredients, you can elevate a boxed cake mix to something special. And the best part is you might have all the ingredients in your pantry! With the tropical flavors of orange and pineapple, this cake is perfectly refreshing in the summer or can give you a tropical taste during the middle of winter.
Making the cake portion of the Mandarin Orange Cake is quite easy. Just dump the cake mix, oil and sugar in a large bowl. After that, lightly beat your eggs in a separate bowl and then add to the large bowl. If you think of it, room temperature eggs work best. Try to leave them out on the counter the day before you plan to bake. If you forget, it’s ok, you can still use them right out of the fridge. Next add the mandarin oranges. I wasn’t able to find an 11 ounce can like the recipe called for, so I weighed out 11 ounces of the orange pieces AND the juice and saved the rest to garnish the cake. Once all the elements are in the big bowl, just stir to mix. Hand mixing here is best as it’s very unlikely that you’d over mix the batter if you’re doing it by hand. Just mix the batter until it becomes smooth and there are no longer any dry bits of cake mix.
For the frosting, just beat together the pudding and pineapple for about 2 minutes. Use a stand or hand mixer for this as you really want to get the two ingredients mixed together fully. Then fold in the defrosted Cool Whip gently. To fold it all together, just stir with a whisk or rubber spatula gently with big, sweeping motions until it’s all one color. To make sure your Cool Whip is defrosted, put it in your fridge the night before you plan on baking.
I hope you enjoy this fun Mandarin Orange Cake. If you give it a try, let me know what you think in the comments and please share a picture of your creation with me on Instagram (@BDHBakes).
