Orange Creamsicle Cake is an easy cake recipe that’s perfect for the summer. Orange and vanilla flavors in a tasty and moist poke cake- yum! Poke cakes have always been one of my favorite dessert hacks to make cool delicious cakes that always seem to be a hit during these warmer months. It’s one of the best cold desserts you can bring to your next picnic, barbecue, or potluck!

 

When it comes to these poke cake recipes, this Orange Dreamsicle Cake has definitely been one of our favorite summer desserts. Ok, maybe it ties for first place along with our No Bake Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake. They are both easy to make, and packed with flavor! Between the orange jello poked through the cake and that tasty vanilla pudding frosting, there’s plenty of deliciousness here to keep you coming back for seconds or thirds. Give it a try and we’re certain this Easy Orange Cake recipe will be one of your new favorite cake recipes!

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Using a few handy pre-made ingredients like cake mix, Jello, and instant pudding mix cuts down on time while not cutting down on flavor.
• Making this like a poke cake with that instant pudding frosting is certain to keep this cake moist and delicious!
• Orange and vanilla is a classic flavor combo that almost everyone seems to love. We’re certain you and any guests you have over for parties or get-togethers will love this recipe!

Ingredients

This Orange Creamsicle Poke Cake is so easy to make thanks to a handful of classic poke cake ingredients. Using a few pre-made ingredients helps cut down on prep time while keeping the finished dessert tasty! Here’s what you’ll need to make this light and refreshing cake:

• White Cake Mix – We like using this Betty Crocker cake mix for this recipe but any other brand like Duncan Hines cake mix should work too.
• Eggs
• Vegetable Oil
• Orange Juice – We’re going to use orange juice instead of water in cake mix for a bit of extra orange flavor in our Creamsicle Cake.
• Orange Jello Mix
• Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
• Milk
• Vanilla Extract – Just to amp up the flavor of our vanilla pudding mix.
• Cool Whip – Or any other frozen whipped topping. Just make sure you’ve let it thaw before use.

As an optional garnish, you can also cut some orange slices and grate some orange zest.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Orange Creamsicle Cake

Our recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cake is pretty easy to make! Considering we’re using boxed cake mix, Jell-O mix, and instant pudding mix, it shouldn’t be that difficult to put together. To make our Orange Cake, here’s what you need to do:

1. Prepare boxed cake mix using eggs, oil, and orange juice. Pour into non-stick sprayed 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
2. Poke multiple holes all the way through cooled cake. Prepare Jell-O mix by mixing with boiling water and cold water. Pour over entire cake, cover, and set in fridge for 2 hours.
3. Beat together vanilla pudding mix, milk, and vanilla extract before folding together with Cool Whip. Frost cake with pudding mixture, cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours before serving.

Substitutions

Just ran out of an ingredient or two? Here are a few substitutions that you can use to make this recipe.

• Oil – Any sort of neutral/flavorless oil will work for this recipe. If you don’t have any vegetable oil, see if you have any canola oil or grapeseed oil sitting around- they’re your best bet for neutral oils.
• Orange Juice – We added orange juice to this recipe as a tasty addition that’ll bump up those orange flavors. If you don’t have any on hand, just use some water- you’ll be fine!
• Cool Whip – It’s okay if you don’t have any Cool Whip or frozen whipped topping on hand- it just makes things more convenient. Grab some heavy whipping cream, add a little powdered sugar and/or vanilla extract, and whip it up for a Cool Whip substitute.

Variations

We think our Orange Creamsicle Cake tastes pretty amazing as-is but here’s a couple ideas if you want to mix things up.

• Non-Dairy – Funnily enough, going non-dairy might help amp up the vanilla flavors in this cake. A lot of non-dairy milk options will add in a little extra vanilla flavor for taste so give them a try! There are even a few non-dairy whipping creams you can find, so you might be able to make this a totally dairy-free cake.
• Coconut – Lots of people love this combo of coconut, orange, and vanilla flavors! Try using some coconut milk or maybe using some flaked sweetened coconut in the cake and/or frosting to add in some coconut flavor.

Storage / Freezing

Storage: Since this is a cold and refreshing cake, you’re going to want to keep it in the fridge as much as possible. Kept in the fridge your Creamsicle Poke Cake will last a good 4-5 days.

Freezing: You could also freeze your Creamsicle Cake if you’d like! Freeze it all together or cut into individual portions before covering and freezing. It will taste best if you enjoy it within 1-2 months.

Other Orange Creamsicle Desserts

Looking for other light and refreshing Orange desserts? Try these:

Other Poke Cake Recipes

Here are some other poke cake recipes that I have shared. I hope you try them too: