Eagle Brand milk cake Recipes
BTS or Poke Cake
This is the original BTS or Poke Cake Recipe (as I know it). There are a lot of different versions out there, but this is the classic one for me. Chocolate cake, poked to death, soaked in sweetened condensed milk, and topped with copious amounts of Cool Whip, Heath Toffee Bits, and caramel sundae sauce.
I’ve also included a few of my favorite variations at the bottom of the post!
This is the original recipe that began my ongoing love affair with poke cakes and their many, many recipe variations.
Poke Cake is something my Grandma makes every once in a while for family affairs (although usually in trifle form), and I’m always sure to snag a piece. But the funny thing is, other than those occasional run ins with this cake, I never really gave it much thought. I mean, I’ve always loved it. It’s always been delicious, and lovely, and and I could never get enough.
But it never once crossed my mind in all of my years of poke-cake-eating that it could be done differently.
Until last fall.
October-November was sort of a turning point for me in my recipe development methods. Up until then, I had simply been trying to come up with the most creative recipes I could concoct. But around that time, I was slowly shifting towards more traditional recipes with subtle variations and twists.
And I thought… how could I change this recipe?
The obvious place to start was to exchange cake flavors. And because it was Fall time, and because pumpkin paired nicely with the Heath and caramel already in the recipe, I made a Pumpkin Poke Cake. The only difference between that cake and the original was the exchange of pumpkin cake for the chocolate cake. Easy.
And then that cake went crazy viral on Pinterest, Stumble, and Facebook. So I thought… I guess I’d better make another!
With Christmas just around the corner, I decided to make a Chocolate Peppermint Poke Cake. This time I played around with the sweetened condensed milk filling by blending it with a little bit of peppermint creamer. It made the cake a little moister than the original, but I loved it. In fact, I prefer it that way!
That Christmas cake was also the first time I experimented with adding a layer of hot fudge sauce, Oreo pieces, and new toppings. Hands down one of my favorite variations. LOVE IT.
As the months have passed, I’ve continued to experiment with new flavors for different holidays (see Valentine’s Red Velvet, Easter Carrot Cake, and Summer Lemon Cake). I had a lot of fun creating a rainbow colored cake for St. Patrick’s day. And I’ve even made a skinny version!
There are sooooo many ways you can play with this little ol’ recipe. It’s really such a fun one to change up!
And, it seems, the more Poke Cakes I make, the more questions I get about them. I’ve been shocked at how many people know so little about this cake! So in the spirit of sharing and hoping to make everyone as addicted to this recipe as I am, I thought I’d answer a few of the questions I regularly get asked… Just so we’re all on the same page here.
What is a poke cake?
It’s a normal cake (baked from a mix or from scratch) with holes poked in the top (either with a fork or the base of a wooden spoon). Sweetened condensed milk, pudding, or jello is then poured over the holes, which allows the liquid to seep into the cake and make it moist and flavorful. After the cake has chilled for a few hours and the liquid has been absorbed into the cake, it is topped with Cool Whip and other optional toppings (like Heath Bits).
What’s a BTS cake?
It’s basically the same thing. Except, to my understanding, BTS cake refers only to the version in this post: chocolate with Heath Bits and Caramel. BTS stands for “better than sex.” You’ll have to be the judge of that!
