Yesterday was the annual Pig Pickin at my future in-laws and it was absolutely a celebration of every sort! We celebrated Jeff’s stepdads’ retirement, my future- brother-in-laws graduation from college, Jeff’s birthday and our engagement! I made the traditional cake to serve at a Pig Pickin, “The Pig Pickin Cake”
My 1st Pig Pickin experience:
Hopefully as I continue my blogging adventures, you will get a look into the “Southern Pig Pickin” summer traditions. Pre-blog summer, Jeff and I had gone to over 5 Pig Pickins ( in 3 months!) but had to miss a few on top of that! It’s huge down here. It was really the first thing Jeff and I did together after meeting too! He asked me to go to a pig pickin ( I had no idea what it was) but said yes because I had a crush on him & thought he was adorable. Little did I know, I was going to his parent’s house, meeting his sisters, brothers, neice and nephew, aunts and uncles, and all his family friends the first time we did anything! We didn’t even know if we were “dating”! A family friend jokingly instigated something like ” You two should be dating if you aren’t already (?) ” and we both looked at each other in that super awkward “we don’t know” sorta way. I think we both said at first, “oh no we are just friends”. We kissed at the end of the night, in the rain, outside, (NOT knowing his whole family was spying on us! Yes ( Momma Mo, Preston, Butta Bean & PJ) I said SPYING! ) Thus, it began.
Anyway, usually every year Momma Mo and Preston ( Mo is Jeff) have a pig pickin. For those that don’t know what a Pig Pickin is…. Here is a little history
from about.com :
” A Pig Pickin is a ritual in the South — particularly in the Carolinas and Georgia– whereby a whole pig is roasted over wood coals for hours until done. When the meat falls off the bones, folks just gather round and “pick off the meat”, thus it is called a “pig pickin” , which is in “northern talk” a pig roast. We take our barbeque as seriously as Texans — knowing everything about a “pig pickin” is almost a religion to us, and this cake became synonmous with the event because it was the perfect ending to “a mess” of barbeque, hush puppies, corn sticks, coleslaw and all the fixins. Banana Pudding is also acceptable as the grand finale…” But the true dessert hit, is the Pig Pickin cake originating in the 70’s !
Ingredients
In the past I used the Splenda version of the fruit ( canned pineapple and canned mandarins with splenda) and the sugar free fat free pudding.
This year, I just did the SFFF pudding because I felt like it wouldn’t impact flavor that much but balance a little bit of the sugar ( from the fruit and cake and whip topping etc.). I searched recipes online and basically just gathered what to do from several recipes! Allrecipes.com has the closest version to mine!
Directions:
1. Grease & Flour three, 8 inch cake pans. ( I only have 2 9 inch cake pans and 1 9 inch springform pan. I had to keep in mind when pouring the batter because I wanted to make three thin layers instead of two thick layers (It’s easier frosting 3 thin layers!).
2. Mix together Cake Mix, Oranges, Eggs, and Oil with electric beater on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Pour batter into three pans evenly. 
3. Bake at 350 * F for approx. 30 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks ( or something that can allow air to cool underneath the cake evenly) 
Frosting:
Mix whipped topping, crushed pineapple and pudding mix with beaters on med-low. Set in refrigerator until cake has completely cooled!
4. Frost layers when cakes have completely cooled.
Let there be cake!
