Project: Recipe Cleanout - Chocolate Cake with Pudding Frosting

My daughter requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting for her birthday.  Baking this cake was somewhat of an adventure despite the fact that I’ve probably baked close to one hundred cakes previously.  Both of my daughters were in the kitchen helping measure this or adding that, and after we put the pans in the oven and were cleaning up, I grabbed the sugar canister to put it back in the cabinet and  thought, “Sugar...  I don’t recall asking anyone to measure out sugar.  Shoot.”  So, the half-baked cakes came out of the oven to cool, were tossed in the trash, and we started over.  I decided it was good lesson for my daughters to learn -  the importance of carefully reading and double-checking a recipe.

This is the first recipe from my binder that is part of my Recipe Cleanout project.  This is a cake recipe that I’ve had on file for years but have never gotten around to making until now.  It receives very high ratings on Hershey’s website so I had high hopes. The only adjustment I made for the cake batter was to use coffee in place of the water.  (Coffee enhances the chocolate flavor in recipes in case you weren’t aware.)   Then, instead of their frosting  I decided to pair it with a delicious but simple frosting recipe that I've been making for eons.  I used chocolate pudding for this recipe, but it’s great with other flavors (like vanilla and Oreo) as well!

 

True to my Project: Recipe Cleanout commitment, I’m letting you know that this is not the best ever chocolate cake as the multitude of 5 star reviews would lead you to believe.  It looked beautiful out of the oven and it’s super moist, but the flavor of the cake by itself is just sort of “meh”.  The frosting is what made it delicious overall (and I’m wondering if their frosting too is the reason for the great reviews.)

Since the cake was a bit of a let down I won't be posting the recipe here.  The recipe for the super simple and versatile pudding frosting I will share though!  It's the perfect frosting for cake or brownies, as a dip for animal or graham crackers, and as a layer in pudding pies or trifles!

Easy Pudding Frosting

1 - 3.9oz box instant pudding mix

1c milk

1 - 8oz tub whipped topping, thawed

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together pudding mix and milk by hand for two minutes.  Allow pudding to set and thicken for 5 minutes.  Whisk in whipped topping.

Makes enough frosting for a 2-layer cake.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

(Cake recipe reviewed here was slightly adapted from Hershey's . Pudding frosting recipe is my own.)