Bake-a-thon 2011: Double Chocolate Cake with Hot Fudge Sauce

It has been a busy few weeks, and so I finally got around to my next installment in my Bake-a-thon.

We had friends over for dinner on Sunday, and I figured that the perfect topper to our dinner would be a scrumptious chocolate cake (seriously you can't go wrong with chocolate cake).

I got this recipe for Double Chocolate Cake with Homemade Hot Fudge from Jamie Cooks it Up!

It was very easy to make (seriously didn't take long), and smelled so yummy.  I made the hot fudge sauce after dinner (right before I served the cake) and it only took a few minutes.

The cake was heavenly.  Everyone wanted seconds, and I had it for breakfast, lunch and dessert the next day.  The best part of the cake has to be the homemade hot fudge.  If it hadn't seemed so obscene I would have just eaten the hot fudge straight.

I'm curious to see if using sweetened condensed milk would improve the recipe for the hot fudge.  But even the recipe below was AMAZING, no improvements needed.

If you have a party to go to, a bake sale, or need a great baked gift for someone this cake is great.

My only change would be the chocolate chips.  The chocolate chips didn't melt, just hardened and some of them burned.  I spent a great while picking off burned chocolate chips before serving.  I would suggest either mixing the chocolate chips into the batter, or at least tapping them down into the top of the batter (just gently).  Leaving them off altogether would be just fine as well.

Double Chocolate Cake with Homemade Hot Fudge

Time: 20 min. hands on + 50 minutes baking

Yield: 12 servings

CAKE:

1 devils food cake mix

1 small package instant chocolate pudding

1/3 C flour

1/3 C oil

1 1/2 C water

1 t vanilla

1/3 C sour cream

4 eggs

1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 C milk chocolate chips 

             ***Note: Use regular sized chocolate chips here. The large ones will make a big mess!***

HOMEMADE HOT FUDGE:

2 T unsweetened cocoa powder

2 T cornstarch

1 C sugar

1 12 oz can evaporated milk

2 T butter

1 t vanilla

dash of salt

Cake Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, or in your stand mixer add the cake mix, pudding and 1/3 C flour. Stir it all around to combine.

2. Add all other cake ingredients (but the chocolate chips). Mix on low for about 1 minute. Then mix on medium speed until the batter is nice and smooth. This should take about 2 minutes. 

3. Spray a bundt pan generously with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the pan.

4. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cake batter.

5. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. (For convection ovens bake at 325 for 40 minutes)

6. Invert your cake onto a cooling rack if you are several hours away from serving. However it is just DOWN RIGHT LUSCIOUS warm from the oven. If you are going to serve it right away, invert it directly onto your serving platter.

HOMEMADE HOT FUDGE 

1. In the bottom of a medium sized sauce pan combine the cocoa, cornstarch and sugar.

2. Pour your can of milk over the top of the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla, pinch of salt and only 1 T of the butter.

3. Stir the concoction up over medium heat. After it comes to a boil cook for 3 more minutes while stirring. The sauce should thicken as it boils.

4. Remove it from the heat and add 1 more T of butter. Stir the butter around until incorporated. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before pouring it on your cake.

Bake-a-thon 2011: Double Chocolate Banana Bread

My first recipe this year was Double Chocolate Banana Bread.  I figured the easy way to start was with something that only require ingredients that I already had on hand (and some, like the bananas, that needed to be used).  I mean, I love banana bread and I love chocolate, so what could be better?

I found a great recipe for Double Chocolate Banana Bread at an awesome recipe site called The Sisters Cafe.

I made some modifications (hey, what fun is it if you can't put your own touch on it), and the bread turned out DELICIOUS!  My kids are enjoying it for the dessert in their packed school lunches, and I get to have some at home while I relax!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
From The Sisters Cafe

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (about 3)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 350. Spray bottom of 8x4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Beat sugar, eggs, and oil in large bowl at medium speed until combined. Beat in banana and vanilla at low speed. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; beat into banana mixture at low speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

3 Spoon batter into pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

 

** My Modifications:

1. Instead of the larger loaf, I made mini loaves.  The recipe can make 3 of them.  You'll need to adjust baking time as the mass is obviously smaller.  Instead of 60-70 minutes at 350 degrees, you'll only need 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees.  This is a great size for snacking, and for little slices to put in your kid's lunch for school.  You can even wrap up the mini loaves for gifts or for bake sales!

2.  I used semi-sweet baking cocoa (from Hershey's) and not the dutch process cocoa Melanie recommends.  Hey, I have to use what is available for sale out here!

3.  I opted for mini-chocolate chips (from Nestle) to go with my mini-loaves. I figured that would give a more even spread of the chips.

Bake-a-thon 2011: The Beginning

So here's the deal....ages ago in my life before kids (MLBK), I used to love to bake.  I've done it since I was a kid, which by no means indicates that I am any good at it.  I decided this year that since I've let my passions and hobbies fall by the wayside since the kidlets came along, that I needed to have a project to reignite the flame.

My project for this year is "Bake-a-thon 2011".  The goal: bake one new recipe (meaning one I've never made before) each week, for a total of 52 new recipes this year.  The rules: recipes have to be ones I've never made before, they can't just be mixes (so just making a Betty Crocker cake doesn't count), but they can contain mixes (so a recipe that calls for a Betty Crocker cake mix as an ingredient still counts).

I plan on sharing the recipes here, along with my own commentary on the results.  If I've found the recipe from a source other than my own box, I'll give you a link to the original page (if one exists).

So Happy Baking!