Free use image by Pexels
It's been an age since I did a Sunday Dinner post. I've been concentrating on my literary projects, and I am horrible at taking breaks. I did take a couple breaks to research making my own cake, cookie, and pudding mixes, but that's a post for another time!
My son's 30th birthday was May 8th. Physically, I was feeling much better this year than the year he was born. I wasn't conscious when he was born, and I certainly didn't make a cake.
My son doesn't like people making a fuss over his birthday, so I didn't put candles on the cake, and I didn't traumatize him by singing. My singing causes birds to drop dead and airplanes to fall from the sky, so there was none of that.
This year, I did make a cake. The cake was a modification of the following recipe for Watergate Cake.
1 box white cake mix
1 small pistachio instant pudding
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon water
4 eggs
Beat ingredients together and pour into 9x13 baking pan, greased. Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped nuts on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Topping--combine:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water
Poke holes in cake and pour topping over. Put back in oven for 5 minutes.
I am unsure why it's called Watergate Cake. Maybe President Nixon enjoyed a slice while listening to the infamous tapes.
I didn't have pistachio pudding mix, so I opted to make a poke cake with Jello instead. I used a box of vanilla pudding mix instead of pistachio, I used 3/4 cups of melted butter instead of oil, and I added four tablespoons of dry milk to the water. The result was a very smooth, rich, tasty batter.
I let the cake cool for a couple of hours and then poked holes in it with a fork at approximately 1/2 inch intervals. I didn't measure, so who knows? Then I mixed a small box of pomegranate blueberry Jello into 1 cup of boiling water, stirred until the Jello was dissolved, added a cup of cold water, stirred a little more, and poured it over the cake. We had to let this sit for another couple of hours.
I didn't frost the cake. My son isn't big on frosting. I'm the sort of person who likes a little cake with my frosting. In any case, the Jello makes the cake very sweet, so the frosting would probably be a step too far. I would use whipped cream or whipped topping rather than regular frosting.
I am going to try the Watergate cake at some point. It sounds really tasty! However, the recipe is very adaptable. Use what you have on hand and make it your own!
~Your Ornery Old Aunt Cie~
Win free vanilla + $100 worth of good stuff from Watkins
The Inevitable Legalese and Other Blah-Blah
Content copyright 2020 by Cara Hartley
Please do not repost
Reblogging is acceptable on platforms that allow it.
Sharing a link to the post is acceptable.
Quoting portions of the post for educational or review purposes is acceptable if proper credit is given.
This post is cross-posted to:
Sharing with these blog hops:
Busy Monday
Come as you Are Party (my mental health blog. Tends to be sweary and ranty.)
Grammy's Grid
Hearth and Soul
Inspire Me Monday
Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party
Senior Salon
Share the Kindness
What's for Dinner?
Poke cakes are a new concept to me.
ReplyDeleteSadly I often prefer the icing to the cake.
And other than Christmas cakes (and we stil have some of ours left) haven't made or eaten cake in a looooong time.
I found out about poke cakes a couple of years ago. Like you, I'm a fiend for icing. My son doesn't care for it.
Delete