Poke Cakes

True to its name, a Poke Cake is a cake that you poke holes in after baking. The holes are then filled with a liquid or filling — like condensed milk, pureed fruit, chocolate cream, or pudding — to infuse extra flavor into every bite. When the cake is cut, the rivulets of filling look like stalactites hanging inside a cave.

Born from the heyday of boxed cake mixes and Jell-O in mid-20th-century America, poke cakes surged in popularity throughout the 1970s thanks to their ease, versatility, and almost guaranteed crowd-pleasing appeal.

Poke cakes popped up in American kitchens, first appearing in a print advertisement intended to increase Jell-O sales. The ad illustrated the quick-and-easy cleverness of combining convenience foods - cake mix, Jell-O, and Dream Whip or Cool Whip ­- to create hip and mod desserts. The original poke cake was white, which provided a blank slate for the colorful Jell-O insets in one or more colors, depending on the desired effect. Poke cokes were often inspired by color schemes as much as flavor combos.

The great thing about these cakes is that they are so easy. There is no end to the flavors and combinations you can create. Don’t limit yourself to the Jell-O cakes your mom made. Simply use a box of cake mix (try mixing and matching flavors with the cake mixes) and fill it with different flavors. A favorite is a variation of a Tres Leches Cake or Three Milk Cake, similar to the cakes you can get as desserts in a Mexican restaurant.

The holey creations never disappeared from home kitchens, but lately they are surfing a fresh wave of popularity. Creativity, too. Instead of sticking with old school rainbows of Jell-O in a rectangular cake, bakers are pouring all sorts of clever fillings over cakes of all shapes. Popular choices include sweetened condensed milk, fudge, pudding, mousse, pastry cream, pureed fruit, and flavored syrup. To express their creativity and customize the look of their cake, they bore into the cake with objects of varying diameter, from the thick handle of a wooden spoon to the tiny prickles of fork tines. Some of these over-the-top combos turn out so ooey and gooey that instead of a sliceable cake, the end product is essentially a dessert casserole that must be scooped out of the dish. That's not a problem.

Recipe for Tres Leches Cake (Three Milk Cake)
Recipe for Tres Leches Cake w/ Summer Fruit
Recipe for Better Than Sex Cake (pineapple & coconut)