Everyone needs at least one easy, crowd-pleasing dessert in their arsenal that can whipped up in no time. I made this cake a few weeks back when my husband’s brother was coming over for dinner. It wasn’t anything fancy – a low key dinner and sweatpants – but I’m not one to need an occasion to make dessert. I always send him home with plenty of leftovers, and after sharing this cake with a friend of ours, he was told to pass on the message that I “can definitely make that again.” My brother-in-law specifically requested this cake  for a birthday dinner for my in-laws this weekend. Like I said, it’s crowd-pleasing. 
I also mean it when I say you can whip this up in no time. How quickly, you ask? Well, imagine you return from your half-marathon training at 3 p.m., and your husband informs you that he told his brother we’d be there at 4:30 to help make dinner. Oh, and for whatever reason, every grocery store you’d been to had been out of the gluten-free chocolate cake mix, so it still needed to be located and purchased. Sigh. 

Luckily, said husband went to one more grocery store, procured the cake mix, and took care of at least getting it in the oven while I hopped in the shower. But to tell the truth, following the directions on the box of cake mix is the “hardest” part of the recipe. It really is that easy.

Note: This version is gluten-free; however, you can make this with any cake mix/pudding combo your heart desires.  

 

You’ll need: 

• 1 box of cake mix and the required ingredients (eggs, butter/oil, etc.)
• 2 3.4 oz boxes of instant pudding
• 4 cups of milk

Optional and amazing (but not pictured) additions:

• 1 tub whipped topping
• Crushed Oreos (in this case, gluten-free Joe-Joes from Trader Joe’s)

Preheat your oven and prepare the cake mix according to the directions on the box. If you’re familiar with GF cake mixes, you’ll know that the box of mix is smaller, and this particular mix does not offer directions for a 13 x 9 inch pan. Use one anyway. Mine is ready to come out after 30 minutes, and the thinner, denser layer becomes almost fudge-like when you add the next layers. 

About 2 minutes (or slightly less) before your timer goes off, mix your pudding mix and milk. You don’t want it to have time to set up all the way, and it needs to stay a bit liquidy for the next steps. 

As soon as your cake come out of the oven, use the non-eating end of whatever kitchen utensil  you have (I used the end of a cheese knife) to poke holes all over the cake about an inch apart. This is where the pudding will fall in, so make sure they’re big enough to let the pudding fill.

Once you’ve finished poking the holes, pour the pudding over the warm cake. Use a rubber spatula to evenly spread the pudding layer and press the pudding into the holes a bit. 

Then, just pop the cake in the fridge for about 1 hour to let everything set up and meld together. (We obviously did not have that full hour this time, but I finished the next steps at my brother-in-law’s. For the record, we were there by 4:40.)

After the pudding has set, you can leave it as is, but I like to add a layer of whipped cream and crushed Oreos. I’ve also just added the crushed Oreos right on top of the pudding. Because why not?

 
It was delicious, super simple, and a hit, as usual. Gotta love those recipes you can keep in your back pocket for a quick fix! 

Why gluten free? My mother-in-law and brother-in-law both have Celiac. My husband and I lived with my brother-in-law for a few years before we bought our house last summer, and many times, it just didn’t make sense to make a meal we couldn’t all share together. Plus, I couldn’t make a birthday cake the birthday girl couldn’t eat! Every recipe posted to Real Life Sparkle (thus far) has also been made gluten free more than once, and is equally delicious either way. Feel free to ask me about the swaps to make it work!