How to Make a Passion Orange Guava (POG) Cake Using Boxed Cake Mix
One of my all-time favorite things to do when I have some spare time, is whip up a cake from a boxed mix and doctor it up to create something special! I just love to take something ordinary and turn it into something unexpected. Recently a friend asked me to create a cake for a baby shower she was throwing and I thought, hey, I can definitely turn this into a box cake recipe!! The best part? It is still in line with this citrus theme that I refuse to kick!! The end result? A delicious POG Cake!! For those of you unfamiliar, POG stands for Passion Orange Guava and is a delicious combination of sweet and sour fruit flavors! It is a very common beverage here in Hawaii and I have grown to love it while living here! And if life has taught me anything, it's that if I like it... it can probably be made into a cake!! And I was right! A Passion Orange Guava POG Cake fit for any Tropical event!
THE MIX
For this cake I started with a Betty Crocker Super Moist French Vanilla Box Mix as the base. In general I find that this a pretty delicious box cake without a super overwhelming flavor. This really lends well to adding the Passion Orange Guava flavors in and ensuring that they come through.
ALTERATIONS
To start, rather than preparing the cake based on the instructions, I make a few small alterations to ensure a more flavorful and moist cake. These are only suggestions and not required but I have found them to be fairly tried and true methods to making your cake taste homemade or bakery bought!
Add 2 extra eggs.
Substitute the oil for melted butter.
Substitute the water for milk.
ADDITIONS
Now there are tons of flavor additions that you can make to a box cake. But for this particular one I really wanted the cake to have a subtle yet zesty kick, which is why I chose orange!
Zest from one large Cara Cara Navel Orange.
Juice from one large Cara Cara Navel Orange.
2 Teaspoons of Orange Extract.
Mix the additions in to the prepared batter and place into your favorite cake pans. For this cake I used three 6" pans.
Another great tip, is when you are dusting your pans to prevent your cake from sticking, spray them with nonstick oil and then coat them with sugar. This will keep the cakes from sticking to the pan while also creating a delicious and slightly crunchy crust to the outside!
Finally bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes!
And that's it! Your orange cake will be moist, unexpectedly exciting and most importantly, delicious!
THE FROSTING & FILLING
While the orange cake is delicious, the real secret to making this Passion Orange Guava POG Cake pop is in the frosting and filling! Now to frost this cake I made two batches of my Simple Buttercream Frosting Recipe.
I kept the batches separate and used one for the Lilikoi Cream Filling and one for the Guava Frosting itself.
In order to change the original recipe into a guava buttercream I added a 1/4 cup of Hawaiian Sun Guava Jam! (Which can be found HERE if you do not live in Hawaii.)
For the Lilikoi Cream Filling I simply added a half a jar of Hawaiian Sun Lilikoi Jelly to the 2nd batch of buttercream! (The Lilikoi Jelly can also be found HERE if you are not in Hawaii.)
To create a nice filling I pipe a ring of Guava Buttercream on the top outer edges of the two middle layers. I then spoon the Lilikoi Cream filling inside the ring. After stacking the layers on top of each other I place it in the fridge to firm up for about 20 minutes. Lastly I use the remaining frosting to frost the outside creating a "semi-naked" cake.
I chose decorate the top and side with tropical florals to round out this beautiful little cake!
Throw in some of my hand-painted tropical cookies and you are ready for a party!!
Well, there you have it! A deliciously zesty, oh so fruity Passion Orange Guava POG Cake that is perfect for any event. And it all started with simple box of French vanilla cake mix!
Thanks so much everyone and I hope you have an Aloha filled day! For more DIY party ideas head over to our DIY EVENTS section HERE!
