Coconut Cream Instant Pudding Is The Secret Weapon In Your Next Poke Cake

Poke cakes have long been an easy, crowd-pleasing dessert. You can make this sweet treat even easier by utilizing instant pudding to give flavor and a moist, creamy texture to your cakes. Tasting Table recipe developer Jessica Morone implements this technique in her pineapple coconut poke cake recipe. Coconut cream instant pudding is Morone's secret weapon to easily create a depth of flavor in her cakes. Instead of having to use a multitude of ingredients to get the flavor, the pudding packet provides quick and easy sweetness and coconut flavor. Morone said, "I like the flavor [of this pudding] a lot better, and it's a lot easier than having to add ingredients to something like vanilla pudding to get the right coconut flavor."

To use a flavored pudding pack in your poke cake, start by combining the pudding mix with milk. Use caution when working with pudding to ensure your mixture doesn't become gelatinous before you pour it into your cake. You'll want the pudding mix to stay in a liquid form so your cake can properly absorb it. Flavored pudding packets don't necessarily gain full pudding thickness when added to poke cakes, but Morone explains that some of the mixture may create a thin pudding layer on top that adds a new texture to the cake. Beyond coconut, you can use different pudding packets in a variety of poke cakes for endless flavor combinations.

As mentioned, you can apply this instant pudding hack to any poke cake, and you can even follow the same instructions as in Morone's recipe. When brainstorming flavors to combine, you can't go wrong using classic combinations, like chocolate cake and vanilla pudding mix. The result is a decadent, marble-inspired cake with the perfect balance of rich chocolate and fragrant vanilla. Or, you can give a strawberry poke cake a fresh burst of flavor by using lemon pudding mix, giving your cake the perfect balance of sweet and tart.

You can also get creative and utilize more unconventional flavor pairings for a dessert that's bound to be memorable for all. Use pistachio pudding mix in a sophisticated citrus cake for a mature flavor take on a classic poke cake. Or, go for a more modern flavor profile by combining matcha cake with a white chocolate pudding mix. There's no limit to the different flavor combinations you can try, making this hack as versatile as it is delicious.