How to Make a Grilled Cheese Cake

To make this oversize lookalike, we trimmed a square white cake to look like sandwich bread and filled it with cheese-colored pudding. The finishing touch: strawberry-peach "tomato soup" for dipping! Read on for the how-to.

Photography by Jeff Harris

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch square, 2 1/4-inch-deep cake pan with cooking spray. Prepare the cake mix as directed; pour the batter into the pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool slightly, then invert onto a rack; cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the "soup": Combine the strawberries, peaches, sugar and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the fruit breaks down, about 15 minutes.

Puree the sauce with an immersion blender (or in a blender) until mostly smooth. Transfer to a bowl.

Prepare the pudding as directed; tint it with yellow and red food coloring to resemble melted cheese.

Trim the top of the cake with a large serrated knife to make it level.

Cut the cake in half horizontally.

Preheat the broiler. Put the cake on a foil-lined baking sheet and brush the top with the melted butter. Broil until toasted, about 4 minutes.

Cut the cake in half diagonally. Spread the pudding on the bottom triangles, almost all the way to the edge.