Saturday, June 6, 2009

Chocolate Cake - easy and delicious!


This cake (Triple Chocolate Bliss Cake from the Kraft Food and Family Magazine, Holiday 2006 edition) is to die for. And it is super easy to make. It is my "go to" cake when I want something chocolaty, delicious, and elegant. I make it for baby and bridal showers, Christmas parties, Graduation parties, and any other occasion in between. A friend of mine refers to it as "THE cake". It is heavy and moist and tastes like a rich, chocolate pound cake. It requires about 10 minutes of actual work time to make it. That's because you start with a chocolate cake mix, the usual ingredients to make a box cake, and only 2 additional ingredients: sour cream and a box of chocolate instant pudding. The frosting takes an additional 2 ingredients (cool whip and chocolate) and about 3 minutes. You just put the cool whip and chocolate in the microwave and heat until the cool whip is liquid and the chocolate is melted, then stir. I have made it using semi-sweet chocolate chips as well as with milk chocolate. It turns out great either way, so just pick whichever chocolate you prefer. The recipe in the magazine says to use fresh raspberries, but I prefer strawberries. I tried to make the little white star shapes in the frosting (shown in the cover photo of their mag) when I made it the first time. That part did not turn out very well, so I gave up and I have never attempted the white stars again.

One of these days, I am going to try a lemon variation using a lemon cake mix, lemon or vanilla pudding, and white chocolate chips for the frosting. I'll let you know if that one is as good as the chocolate version.

Kraft Food and Family Magazine is a wonderful little magazine that is published 5 times a year. It used to be free, but now if you want it, you have to pay. But it is still free in the online version, which is exactly the same as the paper version. I have been getting this for about 3 years (for free), and I love it! I usually find 4 or 5 new things that I want to try. Go check out their archives.