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Pudding mix gets a bad rap. In a world of sophisticated, fancy, and edgy, many shun the pack of pudding mix as an outdated fixture of the past. Yet it would be a shame to be so immediately decisive and coldly binary in our thinking. There are many ways to utilize pudding mix in our desserts, and no, it’s not just a bowl of pudding. Here are five ways to use pudding mix in your baked goods.

Watergate Cake

The Watergate Cake has no cover-up story here, the secrets are all revealed with this easy-to-make cake. A white cake mix is the base of a cake that’s moist from three eggs and oil and lightened with club soda. So where are the pistachios? Pistachio pudding gets added to the cake and the frosting to give it an extra punch of pistachio flavor. Get all of the recipe’s contents spilled by clicking the link here!

Faux Fudge

When you think of classic fudge recipes, you think of ones that use evaporated milk, condensed milk, or marshmallow cream — but not this recipe! Faux Fudge uses classic chocolate pudding (not instant), to make a chocolatey and rich fudge that has a great fudgy chew to it! It’s simple, almost dangerously too simple, you’ll end up making it more than you imagine. Curious to try it out? Click the recipe here!

Piña Colada Icebox Cake

Nothing beats the heat like a frozen treat! It’s even better when you add a tropical twist — enter the Piña Colada Icebox Cake. Pudding is the pivotal ingredient to the filling, the foundation for the essential coconut filling. To the vanilla pudding a mixture of rum extract, coconut extract, coconut milk, cream cheese, and coconut, make for a crazy dreamy concoction. Dare I say this filling is so good that it can be eaten on its own with a spoon? Which you will as you’re assembling the cake. There’s no cake, but your senses will be deceived. Graham crackers are layered with the filling and chill overnight in the refrigerator. The filling’s moistness absorbs into the crackers, making them soft and almost cake-like. Want to make it yourself? Find the recipe here!

Chocolate Pudding Brownies

This retro recipe for Chocolate Pudding Brownies hails from the 1960s, a prime time for pudding mix. Before brownie mix hit the scene, chocolate pudding mix was the base for a shortcut brownie that saved you from having to use cocoa powder or chocolate. The usual cast of dry-ingredient characters make their appearance — baking powder, flour, sugar — and pair up with melted butter, eggs, and chopped nuts for the ultimate chocolatey treat. If you want to try this recipe yourself, follow the recipe here.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Eclair

Pudding isn’t the star, but it plays as the pinnacle backbone for this No-Bake Peanut Butter Eclair Cake. The lush peanut butter filling is stabilized with pudding and cream cheese. Folded in with whipped topping makes for that eclair cream filling we’re all familiar with, just with a salty-sweet peanut butter twist. Layered with graham crackers and topped with melted frosting (yes believe us, this works) makes for a dessert that is a chocolate-peanut butter lover’s dream! For the recipe. Click the link here!