I was never interested in science at school, not even a little bit. No experiments, no bunsen burners, no chemical reactions….nothing got my interest. Until recently, while browsing recipes of my beloved Bakerella I stumbled across a baking experiment that really caught my attention. Take 1 packet/boxed cake mix + a cup of sprite /(packet of pudding mix x 4 eggs) + a splash of milk = absolute deliciousness. You have got to be kidding!

In all seriousness this simple experiment has turned out to be a much loved (and frequently requested) indulgence in our house. I have adapted the recipe ever so slightly, (as I seem have a tendency to do from time to time ;)) if you would like to see the original version click here.

The addition of sprite makes the cake so light and although the cake is sweet, (as most cakes tend to be, its the reason we love them so dearly right?)  its not over powering and you would never guess the secret to this light as air treat is soda?!  Well I certainly wouldn’t anyway.

The pudding mix makes it so wonderfully moist, even more so the following day (if it lasts that long). I would recommend serving this cake cold (from the fridge) and if you happen have any left to store in the fridge.

This “recipe” is so versatile you can really use any flavour pudding mix you like. So far we have tried the following –

Vanilla (and chocolate which is sadly not photographed……yet) –

Banana Cream  –

and our current favourite Butterscotch (which seems to exude an extra electric spark of deliciousness from your taste buds when teamed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a very careful drizzling of  both chocolate and caramel topping)-

Try it for yourself and let me know what your results are. Here is what I used –

Ingredients –

1 box of vanilla cake mix
1 cup sprite
1 packet of instant pudding*
4 eggs (1 whole and 3 x egg whites)
1/4 cup milk (I use skim)

To serve –

Jam
Cream (or dream whip*)
Icing sugar for dusting over the top

Method –

Preheat oven to 175’C  (350’F)

In a large bowl place cake mix, pudding mix, 1 whole egg, 3 egg whites, sprite and milk.

Whisk on low speed until ingredients are just combined then increase speed to medium high and beat for 2 mins.

Pour batter into your cake pans and bake (at 175’C /350’F) for about 30 mins or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

Allow your cake to cool completely (if your like me and at times struggle with patience, go ahead and put your cakes in the fridge/freezer to hurry things along).

Spread one side of each cake half with jam.

Then spread one pre-jammed cake half with cream, and carefully adorn the dreamy whipped wonder with the remaining cake layer. Dust the top with icing sugar and sit back and enjoy

While sitting back to enjoy the wonderful result of this delicious experiment you wonder where you may be had they included this sort of experiment in science class when you were at school……then realise you were so caught up in your day dream you didn’t really get to savour your cake. Go on have another slice, after all you need to make sure your results are conclusive 😉

* If my sweet Australian friends, you would like to try this recipe with Jello instant pudding and dream whip but are unable to get your hands on some check out usafoods.com.au. They have a great variety of pudding flavours and dream whip readily available. I buy from them frequently and find the prices and shipping costs to be very reasonable. They have always provided great service which is why I go back time and time again 🙂