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Monday, December 13, 2010

Pea Picking Cake

This is an old recipe Momma has always made. I asked her why it’s called Pea Picking Cake and she said because they always made it during pea picking time. So I guess you could call this a good summer time cake. Actually it’s good anytime! 

 Memories......
Picking peas was sometimes a family affair. We all picked a couple of bushels each time, early in the morning and then everyone sat around on the porch and shelled peas with Granny's old oscillating fan blowing on us.
When enough peas were shelled, either Granny or Momma put a big pot on to cook for lunch and we had peas, fried corn bread, fresh sliced tomatoes, and of course a big glass of ice tea and usually fried chicken and potato salad.
Either Momma or Granny would blanch the peas and prepare them for the freezer as they were shelled. By the end of the day they usually had somewhere between 20 to 30 quart bags.
When the peas were shelled and the hulls were cleaned up is when the pea picking cake came on the scene! Delicious! :)

Pea Picking Cake

1 box Duncan Hines Butter Cake Mix
1 cup less 2 tablespoons Crisco vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 - 11 ounce can mandarin oranges include juice

Beat all ingredients for cake together for 4 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees in 3 layers for 20 to 25 min. Cool completely.

Icing:
1-3 ¾ oz Jello instant vanilla pudding
1-15 ½ oz. can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, include juice
1 9 oz. container cool whip

Mix all ingredients and frost layers. Store in refrigerator, if you have any left!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

being from the deep South, I have always loved this perfect summertime cake but never really thought of the origin of the name. Makes sense being a pea picking time (summer) cake as it is a cool and soothing cake for summer.
thanks for the recipe!