A Duh Moment

I made a cake the other day for a Relief Society dinner and had one of those DUH moments.  The cake is my absolute favorite and I found a great recipe for chocolate frosting to go on it.  It's SUPER yummy but a little hard to make and there are a few important things to know if you're going to make it.

1. If you boil the butter/cocoa/milk mixture too long or too hard the frosting will be hard and yucky.
2. If you fail to keep the cake properly covered after you frost it the frosting will get hard and crack when you cut it.
3. The frosting sets up REALLY fast (that's a good thing because it keeps it from running off the cake altogether) so you can't use sprinkles or anything like that.  Just frost it and leave it alone.

My DUH moment came when I thought I could toss some sprinkles on there.  After all, it was supposed to look like a birthday cake.  I got the sprinkles all ready to go so as soon as I poured on the frosting I could hurry and toss on some sprinkles.  But it didn't work.  Even Superman couldn't have been fast enough to get those sprinkles on the cake.  As I tossed them, they all bounced off the frosting and flew all over the kitchen...okay...not all of them...about 20 of them stuck to the cake.  DUH!  Oh well, it was delicious anyway.  Here's the recipe... It's kind of hard and I'm still working at perfecting it, but when you get it right it's the best chocolate frosting recipe I've found.

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1 cube butter

4 Tbsp. cocoa

1/3 cup evaporated milk

4 cups powdered sugar

Melt butter over LOW heat.  Whisk in cocoa and milk.  Bring mixture JUST to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat at the first sign of bubbles.  Beat in sugar until thick and smooth.  Pour warm frosting over warm cake for best results. (And it tastes the best when the cake is still warm too...yum!)
NOTE:  I haven't tried this recipe with margarine so I don't know how it might turn out. 

Here is the cake recipe

IN THE MOOD FOR CHOCOLATE?

I'm actually not much of a cake fan (although I like Costco's cake... and I have the thighs to prove it!) But not long ago my sister went looking for a bundt cake recipe online and found one that looked like it would be good.  The first time she made it, following the recipe and directions, it ran over the top of her pan and all over into the bottom of the oven, so she had to make some adjustments.  It ended up being the BEST chocolate cake EVER...I'm not sure I can go back to any other cake recipe after this one!  If you have a bundt pan, it's time to wipe off the dust and put it to use!

TOO MUCH CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 package Devil's Food cake mix

1 lrg. chocolate fudge instant pudding

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup oil

1/3 cup milk

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup chocolate chips (I prefer mini chips, but any will do)

Spray bundt pan or grease well.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix all wet ingredients until well blended, but do not overmix.  Combine cake mix and pudding mix in a separate bowl and add chocolate chips (by mixing them with the dry flour-like ingredients you will keep them from sinking to the bottom).  Add dry ingredients all at once and blend just until mixed--DO NOT OVERMIX!  (Overmixing is what will cause the batter to rise over the top of the pan--I can't stress enough to NOT overmix it!)  

Batter will be thick, more like brownie batter than cake batter, and slightly lumpy (partly from the chips)   Spread evenly in the bundt pan.  Bake for 50-55 minutes.  Cake will be done when a toothpick comes out clean (unless you poke the chocolate chips, of course)

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning it out onto a serving plate.  Spread with warm frosting (or if you're using premade frosting, spread it on while the cake is still warm so the frosting will melt slightly and run).

I have decided I like this cake best with this chocolate frosting and I think it tastes the best when the cake is still warm.  It's also good with cream cheese frosting, or you could dust it with powdered sugar.

I have been meaning to try this recipe with different flavors of cake mix and pudding mix...I'm sure there are lots of good combinations!  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to tear myself away from the chocolate one yet!