Mandarin Orange Cake
If you've got yellow cake mix, tinned mandarin oranges in juice and tinned crushed pineapple in juice, you're most of the way to this vegetarian: about 60 minutes of cooking across 7 steps. Below: the ingredients split into pantry staples and a quick shopping list, a built-in serving scaler, and the method in 7 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven. At medium difficulty across 7 steps, it's manageable with a little attention. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (4)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 175 C and grease and flour a 33 by 23 cm baking tin.
- In a large bowl, beat together the yellow cake mix, the mandarin oranges along with their juice, the eggs and the oil on medium speed for about 2 minutes until smooth, lightly breaking up the orange segments.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack before frosting.
- To make the topping, stir the dry vanilla pudding mix into the crushed pineapple and its juice until thickened, then gently fold in the whipped topping until smooth.
- Spread the pineapple topping evenly over the cooled cake.
- Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before slicing, and keep any leftovers refrigerated.
You'll use: Oven
Ingredient substitutions
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
Tips & common questions
How long does Mandarin Orange Cake take to make?
About 60 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 7 steps and 7 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of eggs?
Try ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking). See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Mandarin Orange Cake vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Mandarin Orange Cake is an original recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Manadrin cream cake, September 2009.jpg by vali..., CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.