There’ll be no tandem recipe this week; hopefully this’ll hold you over ’til next week!

Several years ago, my daughter flew to California to visit her father’s parents. When she came back, she brought this recipe with her. I was skeptical – poppy seeds? Really? Meh. – but she was so sure that Fred and I would love it that I finally gave it a try.

Oh my god, you guys. It is SO GOOD. It’s simple to make (most recipes that start with a cake mix – HI AMANDA! – are pretty simple), but SO GOOD. Did I mention that it’s SO GOOD? Because it IS. Fred likes it almost as much as I do, but I swear I could eat the whole thing myself. The crunch of the cinnamon sugar combined with the moist cake is perfect. Also, it’s fairly light and not particularly filling, so watch out – you might find you’ve eaten half the cake and only feel slightly full.

I don’t know where the original recipe came from (a Google search shows the same recipe all over the internet with a zillion different names), but as far as I’m concerned Danielle’s Memaw gets all the credit.

Your ingredients:

Cake mix with pudding in the mix, a 5.1 oz. box of instant pudding mix, 3 eggs, water, oil, poppy seeds, and cinnamon sugar.

First thing, preheat your oven to 350ºF. Then grease a Bundt pan – you can use Crisco if you want, but I just use Baker’s Joy spray. It’s less messy.

Then you “flour” your pan with the cinnamon sugar. I use a mix of 1 T. cinnamon to 8 T. sugar, but you can use more or less cinnamon, depending on your preferences. This part can get messy because you’ve got to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar in the pan and then shake it around to evenly coat the entire inside of the pan. I usually do this over the sink (also, don’t use all your cinnamon sugar – you’re going to need some later on!)

Throw your cake mix, instant pudding, eggs, water, oil, and poppyseeds into a bowl and mix that stuff together. It takes me about three minutes on medium speed to get everything mixed together well. Scrape down your bowl, and then mix for about 30 seconds longer.

Pour the batter evenly into your Bundt pan.

Bake the cake for 20 minutes, then remove it from the oven and sprinkle the top of the batter with your reserved cinnamon sugar. I generally use a small spoon to sprinkle the sugar; you can use a spoon or your fingers or whatever works for you. Just try to sprinkle it evenly so that the entire top (bottom) of the cake is covered.

Continue baking the cake for another 20 – 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. While it’s baking, go snuggle some kittens.

These kittens are The Sopranos. They’re a month old and they are killing me with how damn CUTE they are. Look at that attitude they’re giving me, because I woke them from their nap. Brats.

This is what the cake looks like when it’s done baking.

I let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack. That can be messy (you lose a lot of cinnamon sugar off the top/bottom), so I usually do it over the sink.

The hardest part of this recipe, by far, is waiting for the cake to cool. It takes FOREVER, or so it seems. On the up side, it doesn’t have to be completely cool before you eat it – just as long as it’s not hot enough to burn your mouth, you’re good to go.

SO. GOOD.

The rumor is that you can also make a chocolate version of this cake using chocolate cake mix and instant pudding. I imagine you could do lemon as well – really, the possibilities are endless. I’ve never done anything but yellow cake/ vanilla pudding because I love it so much that I’ve never felt the need to experiment. I think YOU should, though, and report back to me.