This sunshine cake will brighten anyone’s day and it is so easy to make! All you need are 5 simple ingredients. (see picture below).
How to make Sunshine Cake
Do not add anything that the box of cake mix calls for on the back of the box. All you do is add the can of crushed pineapple to the box of cake mix and stir. That is IT.
Bake the cake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. While the cake is baking in the oven prepare the frosting. Combine the dry pudding mix with the cool whip and gently fold in your drained can of mandarin oranges. Sometimes I just make the frosting for this recipe and eat it out of the bowl, it is so good.
Cake Mix
Can I use sugar-free cake mix? Yes, you can. My stomach cannot tolerate sugar-free products and that is why I used the regular cake mix in this recipe. Please use your WW recipe builder to figure out points for sugar-free cake mix.
Instant Pudding
Some people are confused about what size instant pudding box to use. Here’s the difference between the two.
The sugar-free instant pudding boxes are either 1 oz or 1.4 oz.
The regular boxes of instant pudding are 3.4 oz boxes. Each of these use the same amount of milk but milk is NOT needed for this recipe. J The sugar-free has less powder in the box since it is smaller in size.
If you want to use sugar-free use the 1oz size. If you want to use regular pudding use 3.4 oz. Both sizes will work for this. 🙂 The recipe below the points listed are for regular pudding. The points don’t change at all if using sugar-free pudding.
Sunshine Cake
- Yield: 24 1x
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 oz) box yellow cake mix
- 1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
- 1 (8 oz) container cool whip lite (12 oz is ok)
- 1 3.4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix (see notes above)
- 1 (11oz) can of mandarin oranges, drained
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a bowl, mix yellow cake mix and pineapple. Do not drain the pineapple.
- Spray a 9×13 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Pour cake mix you mixed together in step 2 into a pan and bake for approx 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
- While cake is baking, prepare the frosting by mixing together the whipped dessert topping, the package of instant pudding (dry mix only), and the mandarin oranges(drained). Set frosting in a refrigerator to set. Frost when cake has thoroughly cooled.
- Slice the cake into 24 equal servings. Serving size: 1 slice.
Notes
myWW points: Blue 6; Green 6; Purple 6
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 166.6
- Sugar: 19.8g
- Sodium: 228.7
- Fat: 5
- Saturated Fat: 2.9g
- Carbohydrates: 29.9g
- Fiber: .6g
- Protein: 1.6g
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with WW in any way. I am just a member who creates recipes based on their points system. This recipe is based on WW Freestyle program, and SmartPoints are the value system the company bases their foods on. Some recipes will have older points system values listed in them.
Jenna says
The # of servings is listed at the top of the recipe as yields.
Mickey McCanne says
How many servings is this cake?
Jenna says
I mention in the post if you can use a sugar-free cake mix. 🙂
Irma says
Hi there. Would you happen to know if this recipe will work as well with a sugar free cake mix? Thank.
Jenna says
Yes, that is what the recipe calls for. I’ve used both crushed pineapple and mandarin oranges before and both are good.
Shelley says
It sure looks like from the photo that mandarin oranges are in the icing.