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).
Do you like easy cake recipes like these? Try Better than Sex Cake, Strawberry Poke Cake, or Rhubarb Dump Cake.
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
The base of this cake is made with only two ingredients which are yellow cake mix and canned crushed pineapple.
My Aunt usually makes this cake for us and brings it to the lake cabin. People will be asking you to bring this cake soon wherever you go!
The frosting is so good you will want to eat it right out of the bowl and not even add it to the top of the cake (I've done that before).
Ingredients Needed
Just by swapping out a few ingredients, this cake can be made lower in calories or more point friendly for Weight Watchers. Look for sugar-free or reduced sugar items at the grocery store.
- Yellow 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.
- Crushed pineapple (do not drain)
- Container cool whip lite (12 oz is ok)
- Instant vanilla pudding mix - 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 sugar-free instant pudding boxes are either 1 oz or 1.4 oz. at all if using sugar-free pudding.
- Mandarin oranges, drained (look for cans in the store that say reduced sugar)
How to make Sunshine Cake
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Step 2: Add dried cake mix to a mixing bowl. Add the can of crushed pineapple (including the juice) to the mixing bowl and stir until evenly distributed.
Step 3: Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Step 4: To make the frosting combine the dry pudding mix with the cool whip and gently fold in your drained can of mandarin oranges. Spread it on to the cooled cake.
🌟 Recipe Tips
Sometimes I just make the frosting for this recipe and eat it out of the bowl, it is so good.
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.
While the cake is baking in the oven prepare the frosting and let it chill in the fridge to set.
Recipe FAQs
This cake is best served cool. The frosting which is instant pudding mix, cool whip, and milk set better in the fridge as well. Do not serve this cake warm!
Bake the cake and let it cool. Wrap it up tightly and store it in the fridge. Make the frosting and wrap that tightly as well. The next day when you are ready to serve it all you have to do is frost the cake.
Yes, Jello makes a ton of sugar-free flavors. Sugar-free pudding comes in 1oz boxes and uses up 2 cups of milk.
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.
More Dessert Recipes to Try
If you tried this Sunshine Cake or any other recipe on my website, please please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below. I love hearing from you! Follow along on Tiktok @jennarecipediaries
PrintSunshine Cake
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 35 min
- Total Time: 45 min
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Easy
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
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).
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 oz) box yellow cake mixÂ
- 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)Â
- 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 9x13 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
My WW Personal Points: 7 Click here to see in recipe builder (will have to log in)Â
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
Lisa says
This cake is awesome. Mine turned out perfectly. I love that it doesn’t have a lot of ingredients. I followed the directions exactly except the oranges I didn’t have any. So moist and yummy.
The only thing I did different was I had pineapple chuncks instead of crushed pineapple. I poured the juice in the Caleb mix and put the chunks in blender and pulsed a d the. Added to cake. I’ll Will make again and try with oranges in the topping.
Maria says
Can I substutute pineapp,e for tinned peaches???
Norma Brewer says
I made this today per the instructions stated and it did NOT turn out like the picture at all. The cake was flat and hard also. Won't make this again.
Holly says
Where is everyone getting egg whites from? I don't see that in the directions at all, Just dump the cake mix in with the pineapple. Do not actually prepare the cake mix according to the box.
Am I reading the same thing everyone else is?
I too though, am curious about the size of the pudding??
Jenna says
I'm really sorry to hear that. I updated the recipe just last month because the egg whites are not need. All you need is a whole can of pineapple tidbits. Don't drain juices. The cake comes out really moist and shouldn't be hard.
Heather says
I made this following the recipe exactly and it was a complete flop
The cake was way too dense and therefore got
Really hard ... did I miss something. I keep reading in the comments
About egg whites? Nowhere does it say egg whites or eggs!
The cake looks delicious so I know I must
Have missed something. Help!
Donna says
I was a bit confused by the recipe since clearly there is oranges in the frosting. Thanks for those who corrected the recipe. I was wondering if I could use egg beaters in place of the egg whites?
Clare Moretina says
Added pineapple undrained into mix along with apple sauce. Added about a third cup of milk to pudding, leftover pineapple and chopped up Mandarin oranges then mixed in ff coolwhip for frosting. Yum!
Jan Natonski says
I made this today.. I used a combinaed the recipe and one of the hints. I used the 3 eggs instead of egg whites, used the apple sauce foto replace the oil, and used half of the mandarin oranges and pineapple and half the juice in the batter. The othe half went in the coolwhip frosting.. Along with the small box of SF vanilla pudding. To save some calories I used Libbey's crushed pineapple made with Splenda. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Thanks for the recipe and for the hints. Oh, at the preheated 350 oven, it was done in 28 min. Which was the lower end of the baking time on the bad. I'm glad I started there!
Ann says
The recipe calls for a 5 oz. SF vanilla pudding, but a small box is 1 oz. and a large box is 1.5 oz. Small or large, anyone?