Banana Pudding Poke Cake

From www.thecountrycook.net

This is made without slices of bananas, however, you could certainly add those on there if you like. My husband and I decided we would just add some freshly sliced bananas right on top of our individual pieces of cake which turned out to be a delicious idea.   If I had put them on the cake while I was making it, they would have turned brown within a day. It also makes the cake really pretty if you serve the individual slices with a bit of sliced banana and a Nilla Wafer on the side. 

Ingredients:

1  box yellow cake mix

ingredients needed to make cake (eggs, oil & water)

2 (3.4 oz.) packages instant banana pudding

4 cups milk

1 (8 oz.) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed

20 vanilla wafers, crushed

 Directions:

Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9x13 cake.

Once cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for just a couple of minutes.

Then, with a wooden spoon handle or some other similarly-sized object, begin poking 

holes in the cake.

 You want the holes to be fairly big so that the pudding has plenty of room to get down  in there. Be sure to poke right down to the bottom of the cake.

 In a bowl,whisk together instant pudding with 4 cups milk. Stir until all the lumps are gone. Let pudding sit for just about 2 minutes so it has just slightly begun to thicken but not fully set, it should still be easily pourable. 

 Pour pudding over cake. Taking care to get it into the holes as much as possible.

 Spread it all out and using the back of the spoon gently push pudding down into the holes.

 Put the pudding into the fridge to set and cool.

Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on whipped topping.

 If you haven't done so already, crush your vanilla wafers.

I just place mine in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

Leave some of the pieces big. It's nice to have a bit of a crunch when you eat the cake.

 Spread crushed wafers onto the top of the cake. 

You can do this part immediately before serving the cake if you like. 

This will ensure the wafers are crunchy when you serve it. 

I think this cake gets more delicious over time.

To me, it's even better the next day so it's a great dessert to make ahead of time.

Serve with freshly sliced bananas. Keep refrigerated.

Read more at http://www.thecountrycook.net/2012/06/banana-pudding-poke-cake.html#0TwwU6kPbRK4ERfo.99