Friday, January 26, 2007
This little piggy went.. well, you know.
| Wrapping up a week of pork, it seems only appropriate to end with a delicious pork-inspired dessert. Now it's not a pork pie (although those can be good too). While not as obscure as a corned ham, a classic dessert that can usually be found around roasted pigs in North Carolina is the Pig Pickin' Cake. Sadly, when you start searching the internet for recipes you find a dozen or so different names for this cake. Half of them probably came from someone incorrectly hearing the name of the cake: pea picking cake, pig lickin cake, pig cake. I've read all sorts of reasons for these names, too: it's made during pea picking season, or you love it so much you devour it like a pig. I've also seen names that actually reference ingredients in the cake: mandarin orange cake, cool whip cake. These may have been names for the cake prior to being called "pig pickin cake." I also found a rather odd name: pickling pig cake. At first you'd think that was an odd name. Who pickles pigs? Well, funny you should ask. Corned Ham is very close to being pickled pig. And in fact pickled pigs feet is a semi popular food in the south. I won't touch them, but I know of someone who goes for a pig foot on occasion. The name, pig pickin cake, comes from the fact that they appear at pig pickin events in NC. If you don't know what a pig pickin is, you've obviously led a sheltered life. Think whole pig, slow roasted, and served split open on its back. Sort of the southern version of a luau. Perhaps its the sweetness or the fact that the cake is usually served cool/cold playing off of the barbecue pork that makes it so popular. Either way its a very refreshing taste, and pretty easy to make. Now there also seems to be about as many variations on the preperation as there are names. The basics of the recipe is to make a box yellow cake according to directions on the box, but you also add a can of mandarin oranges including the juice. Makes a 3 layer cake. The icing is a container of Cool whip, a big can of crushed pineapple and juice and a package of vanilla pudding mix. It should look something like this:  And with this tasty dessert, we come to the end of Pork Week here at Krystal Adventure. We'll return to square steamy goodness the beginning of next week, with some new additions to the Krystal Kollection, and some interesting taste tests. Until then, go out, find something delicious, and eat it!  |
Labels: Recipe
