This Mexican Wedding Cake, with cream cheese frosting and walnuts, will delight all your friends at any potluck, picnic, or casual dinner party.

Friend-Worthy:

This is a friend-worthy cake. It’d be perfect for any casual party, potluck, or barbecue. It’s maybe not fancy enough to be “guest-worthy,” but don’t take that as any reason to think it’s not delicious. It’s flat-out addictive.

Although this is obviously a pineapple cake, it does not taste like pineapple. It’s not a spice cake, but it reminds me of one. Nor is it an apple cake, but it reminds me of one. It’s also not a carrot cake, but it reminds me of one.  

Ingredients:

• Use the entire contents of the pineapple can. Do not drain.
• Apparently, some bakers add a little fat to the batter, to improve mouthfeel. I think the cake is perfect without it. I can’t imagine wanting to improve it.
• Having said that, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to experiment with adding pineapple-compatible spices to this cake, but I haven’t tried that, either.  

Baking:

• You may be able to crush the walnuts by placing them into a freezer bag and going at them with your measuring cup. But however you do it, definitely go at them. You want them no larger than pea-size.
• If some of your eaters don’t like walnuts, hold them back. Then, once the batter’s in the pan, sprinkle them over half the cake, and press them into the batter with a spatula, being careful not to disturb the butter that’s coating the pan. 
• Does your cake pan have to be glass? No. But if it’s not, you might have to adjust the bake time.
• I’ve given you traditional dump-cake instructions. However, I have made this cake in a stand mixer, and I think I got a slightly better crumb. I never exceeded low speed (setting 2 out of 10), and I kept every mixing interval as short as it could be – 20 to 30 seconds. Next time I make this cake, I will probably re-write this recipe, to make that my preferred method.

Frosting:

• If you’d rather apply the frosting to a fully cooled cake, make sure your cream cheese is as soft as it can be. Then, add the butter bit by bit. If the cheese is too cold, or if you add the butter all at once, you may get very small cheese lumps in the batter that will be very difficult to get rid of. Nothing to fret about, honestly, but less than perfect. If you do have this problem, try applying a blow dryer to the outside of the mixing bowl as you’re beating. If you use this frosting method, consider letting the just-from-the-oven cake sit on the rack for about five minutes, and then loosely cover it to trap the better part of the steam rising from it. Leave it this way until completely cool. This will amp up the moisture level of the cake’s crumb – which isn’t necessary but is delightful.
• If you’re whipping your frosting to apply it to a hot cake, you don’t have to worry about cheese lumps. The heat of the cake will partially melt the frosting, which will eliminate any lumps. You’ll wind up with a beautiful, smooth, professional-looking presentation, and the frosting will be dense but soft.

Leftovers:

This cake leftovers so fabulously that it is one of the best make-ahead cakes I know. Needs to be refrigerated, because of the cream cheese. If the frosting’s too stiff when straight from the fridge, allow it time to come to room temperature, or nuke individual servings for about 30 seconds on 10% power.

Serving Sizes:

You can go as big as three rows, four columns (12 pieces), or maybe as small as four rows, eight columns (32 pieces). I happen to like three rows, eight columns (24 pieces). The 12-piece size is visually generous without being obscene. I think the 24-piece size is actually the perfect size: big enough to be enjoyable, but small enough to seem reasonable. The 32-piece size is so small, it’s more like having a taste of cake, instead of a piece of cake, but that might work in some contexts.

Social Learning:

If you search for “Mexican Wedding Cake” online, don’t be surprised if you find cookie balls covered in powdered sugar instead of this sheet cake. There’s more than one dessert that goes by this name. It’s provenance is perhaps, from what I’ve been able to unearth in my pathetic excuse for investigating, is Southern … at the very least American. Its connection to Mexico is perhaps more about the pineapple? I don’t know. A friend of mine says that his favorite Tex-Mex restaurant serves it. If you know about this history of this cake, I’d love to hear from you.

Mexican Wedding Cake

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: I got this recipe from my friend Tammy, who got it from someone else. I tinkered with it, and also consulted 12 Tomatoes. Thank you, Kesor. Thank you, ⌘+C. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #2 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs. 

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