Sex in a pan. It’s an easy to make, light and fluffy dessert. However, lets be honest here, the name is ridiculous. Using the name in a conversation never comes off well. Eg. Oh wow, this Sex in a Pan is delicious. Can I have some more Sex in a Pan, please? Call me juvenile, I just can’t take it seriously. Rumor is that when the recipe was first printed there was a typo and Six was turned to Sex, but I never found any information to back this up. Whatever, I know what you are thinking. Shut it and get on with the dessert. Right. So back to the Sex…which is in a pan.
Despite this dessert’s terrible name, I have actually been making this recipe for quite some time. My recipe has no particular origin, except that it has been filed in my Mom’s recipe box since I can remember on an old piece of lined paper. For me, the appeal for making the dessert comes from the simple ingredients and how quickly it can be assembled. The only real baking required is for the base and even that’s essentially a butter crust with nuts. Easy peasy.
There is even a little fun involved when making the layers. Well, that is if you are like me and enjoy blending and stirring or this case shaking your ingredients together. I know, it’s not the most prestigious culinary tool in the kitchen, but my Jell-O pudding shaker is great! Obviously, it only serves one purpose and that is to create pudding from instant packages, but I love it just the same. I walk around my kitchen shaking it up and down and sometimes I even throw some dance moves in with it – if you are lucky ;) However, I must confess, there have been some instances. Yeah, once, twice, three times, I got a little too involved in the shaking and lost my grip, which promptly resulted in me spilling pudding everywhere. I am a tad clumsy, just in case you were wondering.
In the end, this is just a great recipe. It is one of the dessert that makes you stalk your refrigerator. You will be continually pulling out the pan, cutting little slivers out thinking that just a little more won’t hurt and then suddenly the whole thing is gone. Yeah, it’s that good.
Sex In A Pan
Crust 2 cups flour 1 1/2 cups pecans or walnuts, crushed 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cut into 8 pieces 1/2 cup margarine Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Crush nuts the in a food processor. Then add the remaining ingredients into the crushed nuts. Pulse the mixture in the food processor until well combined.
Spread the mixture into a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Let the crust cool completely.
Topping 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (regular or low fat) 2 cups cool whip, divided (regular or low fat) 1 cup icing sugar 2 cup milk 1 small package of instant chocolate pudding 1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
Combine the softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup cool whip and icing sugar together in a food processor or with a mixer until creamy. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over the cooled crust.
Prepare the instant pudding with the milk according to the directions provided on the box. Once the pudding is fully combined, pour over the cream cheese layer and refrigerate for 20 minutes to allow the pudding to completely set.
When the pudding has set, spread the remaining cool whip over the chocolate pudding layer. Use the chocolate square (1 ounce) to create chocolate shavings and sprinkle over the cool whip layer.
Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours, then cut into squares.
Enjoy!! Note: You can add more cool whip to the top layer. It is completely at your discretion, just keep the required 1/2 cup of cool whip the same when mixing the cream cheese layer. No extra cool whip should be added to this portion of the recipe.
A-hem.
Gotta agree on the name. How would I ever serve it to my kids? Or my in-laws??? LOL
Ha! I know! It is a terrible terrible name. Jenn’s grandmother refers to this dish as ‘Fluff’ cake. So I would just make a new name for it!
When I was in high school I used to beg my mom to make this for me – except we heard it called “Better Than Sex Cake”, which, for propriety’s sake, we changed to “Better Than Opera Cake” (since I loved opera). Silly, I know, but the cake was ALWAYS good!! Yours looks amazing!
Well, I like the name. Sex is a part of life; that is how we got here anyway! :) The cake looks yummy. I plan to make this one day, but with homemade whipped cream. YUM!
This is sooooooooooooo similar to the Better Than Sex Cake my Mom has been making since I was knee high. Except ours has a liquer in each layer and the base is a graham cracker and butter base. Hmmm, so delicious though. This evokes special memories for me as my Mom always made it at Christmas. Classy I know.
Wow, this ‘Better than Sex Cake’ is sounding fantastic! Elizabeth, what kind of liquor do you use on the layers? It sounds like a nice addition.
Memoria – let me know once you make the cake, I would love to hear how it turned out!
yum! ii don’t think i’ve ever heard of this cake, but it looks GOOD! def will have to try it out!
We used to make this all time when I was living on campus at a Christian university. If we served to company we called it Mississippi Mud Cake.
Those bars certainly look really good!
We call it Better than Recess….kid friendly to the max!! :) I love this recipe!
ha! I believe this cake was served to me when I was young by the same parent’s friends who would let me play on their waterbed – because they would mess up the sheets later anyway. My poor mother.
I beg to differ — there’s nothing better than sex, but that cake does look pretty good. :)
Okay, how does *Better than ‘Six’ Cake” make any sense?? lol Whatever the name, it sure is yummy. I’ve been eating it since I was a kid. Yum-O!
Love it! What a brilliant name!!
Let me know what you think of it!
What is icing sugar?
Is that powdered sugar/confectioners sugar?
Thanks,
E
Hi Erika, absolutely, icing sugar is confectioners sugar, sorry for the confusion. If you need anything else, just let us know.
I have made this cake for many years as well only with a graham cracker crust and no liquer, the official name of it on the Jello web site is Striped Delight. So simple and SO incredibly good. I always make TWO, one to share and one to keep! Yes, its that good… (and easy)
I find the name of your recipe quite original. It caputes the attention for sure!
By the way, your dessert sounds truly delicious!
wonderful looking…looks so delicate yet rich!
We love this recipe too. My mom made it for us growing up, and I know she did not call it that, lol. I’ve even changed the name when I blogged about it.
I was told the name was “Robert Redford in a Pan”. I’m sure that dates me, but yes we have made and enjoyed this for years. Mmmmmm!
Haha gotta love those desserts that you keep eating “tiny” pieces of until they finally disappear! This looks great–with or without the name!
I love this site. Always a lively discussion, fantastic news and great content. Please keep it up.
This looks delicious, but before I make it I need clarification on the crust recipe. It says 1/2 cup butter cut into 8 pieces and then it says 1/2 cup margarine. Is the margarine used in addition to the 1/2 cup butter or is it just an optional substitute? If it is required, is it okay to use butter in place of the margarine, so there would be 1 cup butter (2 sticks)? Should the butter be melted before putting in the food processor with the nuts or just softened to room temperature? I’m making this for a dinner party and don’t want to screw it up.
~Thanks
I use a thin layer of mud cake rather than the nut base…. and to make it really sex in a pan i top with chocolate gnache and the the whiped cream and chocolate shavings (you ca use any kind of cake just press it into the pan if its a light cake)
25 years ago my husband’s aunt made this recipe the first night i met them..she was a wonderful cook and this was so good i never forgot it..and here I am andwent searching for the recipe!!..this really is better than sex!!.