Ambrosia Cake
This light, fruity, coconutty Ambrosia layer cake is perfect for Spring!! White cake layers are filled with a lightly sweet whipped filling full of citrus and coconut.
So, today I am going to tell you about the Most Embarrassing Blog Thing.
I’ve been keeping it from you for awhile. It’s awful, truly.
It’s about my Most Popular Recipe.
Want to know what it is? The recipe that gets the most views, the most pins, ALL THE LOVE??
It’s this recipe for Coconut Refrigerator Cake.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a wonderful cake. I make it often and it’s truly a family favorite.
But, I mean…
Food bloggers like to think that our photography and writing matters. That way, when our blog gets more readers, we can pat ourselves on the back and be all, “Yes, this is because of my superb writing and photography skills, thank you sirs”. But then ugly truths like this exist, that sometimes photos and writing are awful, not even appetizing or funny really, and people don’t care.
Do you want to hear the story of how I found out that this God forsaken cake was one of my most popular of all times?
I’m so glad you asked!
A few years ago, I went to a BlogHer Food conference and was invited to a party for Ziplist, the company that is responsible for the handy recipe box and printing features on my recipes. Keep in mind I was pregnant, it was Summer, and I’d been traveling all day when I arrived at said party.
Maybe not a recipe for success?
When I arrived at the party, we found out that the nice people at Ziplist had printed out the MOST SAVED recipe for each blogger and placed it in various places around the room. Curious, I began scanning the room, excited to see which of my creations my readers loved so much.
And…this photo stared back at me. I wanted to DIE.
Here I am at a party with my peers, some truly talented and super fabulous bloggers….and this photo is plastered all over town with my name on it.
Then I died. Actually, I didn’t die, I just found a hole to hide my sweaty pregnant self in and didn’t come out until I was hungry. So….fiveish minutes.
I keep telling myself I’ll go back and re-do photos and write a better post, but I still haven’t done it. I’d like to say that’s because it reminds me of how far I’ve come, that I want my readers to be able to look through my old photos and see that it’s a process, that we all start somewhere, that no one starts off the BEST AT THINGS, but really…it’s because I am lazy.
Since I’m too lazy to go back and re-do that recipe, I thought I’d create something similar that I think you’ll LOVE.
This cake might officially be my favorite cake of all time. Not even kidding a tiny bit.
I used the same type filling as my Coconut Refrigerator Cake, which is a combination of Cool Whip and Sour Cream (yes I know some of you think Cool Whip is from the Devil, no you may not use freshly whipped cream, not this time).
Because the filling in the coconut cake tends to want to run off the cake, I used less sour cream, making it thicker. I added a bit of powdered sugar, and in addition to coconut, I threw in some mandarin orange slices and crushed pineapple.
If you’ve had Ambrosia Salad before, this is pretty identical, minus the marshmallows, which I chose to top the cake with instead of mixing in the filling.
I opted for a white cake mix here. We are using Cool Whip, so I didn’t see any point in making things difficult so we could call it “from scratch”. Regardless, this cake is AMAZING. Light, refreshing, perfectly sweet and PERFECT for Spring dinners, Easter, or Mother’s Day.
Let the cake sit overnight and the layers will soak up some of the moisture from the filling. SO GOOD!!
If you want to use an additional tub of Cool Whip to frost the outside of the cake, you are welcome to. I liked the exposed layers because you could see the colors of the fruit in the filling.
This is truly a special cake. I hope you love it as much as I do!!
I could have eaten the whole thing. I almost did. Can we just make swimsuit season not be a thing anymore? Sigh.
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix, plus eggs, oil and water needed to prepare
- 8 oz Cool Whip, thawed
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 8 oz can crushed pineapple, well drained
- 15 oz can mandarin orange slices, drained
- 2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
- 2 cups mini marshmallows (I used the fruit flavored pastel ones)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and set aside.
- Prepare cake batter as directed on box. Pour evenly into prepared pans and bake until tops are browned and spring back when lightly touched in the center. Remove cakes and let cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove and allow cakes to finish cooling completely on wire rack.
- Once cakes are cooled, prepare filling: In a large bowl, combine Cool Whip, sour cream, and powdered sugar. Fold in oranges, pineapple and coconut until combined.
- Split cakes horizontally. Fill each layer generously with ambrosia filling and top with the next cake, cut side down. For best results, let cake chill overnight before serving. Top with marshmallows before serving.
You are seriously going to LOVE this cake!! Enjoy!
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Ha. I love this story!! Personally I don’t think that your coconut cake looks bad at all, I’ve got some seriously hideous photos on my blog. Plus, OMG it’s coconut cake, and it’s amazing. That is all. Oh wait, no it’s not all. Ambrosia cake. I’m in love with those fruity marshmallows. The end.
My old photos make me want to crawl in a hole too. I want to shovel this cake in my face.
Just happened to buy a horizontal cake slicer the other day. Now I know what I’m going to use it on first! Looks scrumptious!!
I LOVE ambrosia… m mom used to make it all the time when I was little… I can’t wait to try this! thank you
I love love love this post! You have no idea how encouraging it is to hear your honest and hilarious story. I have only just started blogging and often become discouraged by all the beautiful blogs I follow and how far I have to go. Its so fun to hear that not all can you improve over time but sometimes these ‘not as polished’ posts can do the best :)
I have only been blogging a few years, but I have restructured a few posts if they have become popular, but nothing else. I like to look back and think about how far I’ve come. It’s interesting too that sometimes the posts I think will be popular aren’t.
It’s been years since I have had ambrosia salad, I’ll have to try this cake out soon, it looks delicious! I hope it will be you’re most viewed post one day!
This looks amazing! I want to try it right now!
OMG; hand me a fork so that I can dig right in. Your cake looks Amazing. Like my hubby says; who cares what it looks like as long as it tastes good.
I like your recipe so much better as I have to leave my cake in the refrigerator for a total of 3 days before a person can even think about cutting into it. I will be saving and making your recipe for sure.
Thank You.
Have a wonderful and enjoyable day
Thanks for sharing your story! Beautiful cake, both of them! :)
I was cracking up at your story – some of my most popular posts have heinous pictures too. Embarrassing! THIS cake is nothing to be embarrassed about though. So gorgeous! My kids would be all over those pretty pastel marshmallows.
How gorgeous is this cake?!!! LOVE!!
Loved your story!! I love seeing photos bloggers did in their baby blogger days! It gives me hope!
This is my kind of cake! I love ambrosia salad!
I love love love ambrosia salad, it is a family favourite. This cake is just amazing! I can’t wait to try it!!!
Cracks me up. When I looked up my most popular recipes, one was so hideous that I omitted it from an “all time” round up I was doing even though it was the most popular! Hideous.
Love that you’re trying to one-up yourself in hopes that this will be the new favorite. I just love the mini marshmallows…and coconut cake is my fav, so I’m lovin it.
Every blogger has a recipe that they love to hate – mine is my baked blueberry lemon donuts. Seriously, why won’t they die already?!
But my guilty-must-have summer picnic treat is ambrosia. In a cake now? You just get the secrets of my heart. Or something. :)
This cake is so beautiful. Thank you!
I made this as cupcakes and they were delicious! I did sub plain greek yogurt for the sour cream and it worked well! :) Thank you so much for the fantastic recipe. It was perfect for my work potluck since it’s so easy but looks extravagant.
What a fun cake! I love my mom’s ambrosia salad and think I should use that to make this!
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