Turtle Poke Cake (+Video)

Surprisingly, it’s not too sweet. I know by looking at it, it may look super sweet, but it’s a decadent, perfectly balanced amount of sweet. The chopped pecans also bring the perfect texture to the cake. If you like this poke cake, you will fall in love with my Butterfinger Poke Cake or my Snickers Poke Cake!

Normally, I’m all about using homemade ingredients over the storebought stuff. But, with the recipe, we need the right consistency for the caramel sauce and most of the time the homemade recipes don’t end up being the right texture. The storebought caramel topping is typically thinner than homemade and that’s what we need for this poke cake recipe. We need it to soak easily into the cake, so grab the storebought version.

If you’re searching the grocery aisles and can’t find the bottled caramel sauce, try looking at where they keep the rest of the ice cream ingredients. It’s usually by the hot fudge and sprinkles. Some stores will even keep an end cap or end shelf by the ice cream aisle to house all this kind of stuff.

While I love homemade frosting, if you need to use storebought stuff to save time, you can do that. However, before you add it to the cake, I suggest you use an electric hand mixer to whip it so it’s light and fluffy rather than thick and difficult to spread.

Don’t want a chocolate frosting? Try chocolate ganache, chocolate whipped cream, or chocolate buttercream frosting.

I like to use a fudgy chocolate cake mix, but you can use regular chocolate or even a devil’s food cake chocolate cake mix if desired. I usually go with Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker.

Want to change it up? Try using some chopped up turtle candies or some pretzels for a salty twist. You could even add some mini marshmallows on top.

Even though you need to keep this in the fridge when you aren’t eating it, it is actually best served at room temperature. So, remove it from the fridge a bit before you want to serve it and let it warm up a bit before serving.

When you aren’t serving this cake you need to keep it in the fridge since the caramel topping needs to be refrigerated once you open it. It’ll keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Additionally, you can freeze leftover cake for up to 3 months, if stored properly in a freezer safe airtight container.