DOWN A CAROLINA ROAD 

we love our desserts!  

EASY LAYER PUNCH BOWL CAKE 

You get the invite to the annual office Christmas party, church dinner, or Christmas Reunion with the family.   Of course the next invite is  “Can you bring a dish?”    So of course these events fall right into the busiest time of year and you are stretched for every minute of time.  Well I have an easy dessert that you can whip up the night before, let it sit and marinade in the fridge and top it off with cool whip before you head out the door.  It is easy!  I discovered it one Christmas myself when I made a sour cream pound cake that sort of pounded to pieces when I went to turn it out of the Bundt cake pan.   It tasted incredible but fell all apart!  So with a little creativity I was able to salvage the cake and in the process created a dessert that is now a tradition each year around the holidays.  Although, now my cakes will not fall apart and I find myself having to cut them up!  Figures huh?  But the end result is the same – delicious!   Give it a try!

You will need one cooked Duncan Hines butter recipe cake mix.  Cook according to directions.  Or if you really want to make it simple – purchase a round Bundt cake pan size pound cake from the bakery at the grocery store – try it with sour cream pound cake – it is divine!

Then you need . . . to make Cook and Serve Vanilla Jell-O Pudding according to package directions.

  I use carnation canned milk because it makes it even richer!  Once it is thicken, remove it from the burner and sit it to the side.

Cut up the cake and begin to layer it in a punch bowl or shallow glass bowl. 

Then spoon over the mandarin oranges.

Then spoon over the pudding.

Then repeat ending with the cake.  Then pour the juice from the mandarin oranges all over the layered dessert.

This is what it will look like as you layer cake first, oranges, then pudding, then repeat until you end with cake.

Stick in the fridge and cover it well with saran wrap.  Let it sit overnight to marinade or if you need it right now go ahead and spread the cool whip over the dessert.

  Both way it is delicious, and the longer it sits the more the cake soaks up all the juice and pudding.

Variations:  I have also used fruit cocktail, pineapple, and cooked canned apples.  But the oranges are our favorite!  Enjoy!