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+++Enter At Your Own Risk+++ At the gentle nudging (I said gentle y'all) of a few friends, I have started these blogs in order to share my culinary goings-on and daily misadventures through my own brand of humor (ok, sarcasm). I just write about stuff! At 50, I have learned that living has gotten in the way of life - and I am going to blaze my own personal trail to fun (hopefully)! If it is feminine, great. If it is not, so much the better! Hopefully fun that does not land me in jail............

Thursday, May 24, 2012

No Icing Chocolate Cake - AKA - Chocolate Love in a Box!!!

I have been making this cake since I learned the recipe from a General's wife in Darmstadt W. Germany back in 1986-1987.  This cake, as easy as it is, will make you look like a baking rock-star at gatherings.
This is the ONLY chocolate cake I will eat HAPPILY without icing. I am an icing maniac – but with the almost ‘cheesecake’ marbling and the chocolate chips – it is great without messy icing. This makes it very portable for family gatherings – picnics and etc.

No Icing Chocolate Cake

Cream Cheese Addition:
  • 1 (8+- ounce) pkg cream cheese of your choice – SOFTENED at room temperature maybe an hour or 2
  • 1 egg beaten
  • ¼ c granulated sugar
  • ¼ - ½ tsp vanilla

Cake Portion:
  • 1 box Betty Crocker (Pudding in the mix) Devil’s Food Cake Mix
  • (Make sure you have the ingredients you must use with the mix – i.e. eggs, oil, etc)

The Love:
  • 1 (12+- ounce) package chocolate chips (regular size or mini) – semi sweet – any brand. I have never used the whole package. Usually half a package – but hey, it is YOUR cake!

Equipment:
  • Hand mixer (unless you are crazy enough to whip this up by hand power)
  • 1 mixing bowl large enough to handle the Cake Portion
  • 1 bowl large enough to hand the Cream Cheese addition
  • 1 scraper for scraping bowl sides
  • 1 knife to run through the batter/cheese to give the ‘marbled’ effect.
  • Cake pan of your choice
Cream Cheese Portion in 1st bowl:
  • Using the hand mixer, cream the cream cheese brick.
  • Add the sugar and cream that in.
  • Add the egg and beat that in.
  • Add the vanilla and beat that in.
  • Set aside.

Cake Portion in 2nd bowl:
  • Prepare the cake mix per the recipe on the box.
  • Pour batter into the cake pan of your choice
Finish:
  • After pouring the batter into the pan, I tap the pan on the counter to help settle the batter in it.
  • I sprinkle however many chocolate chips I feel like – on the top of the batter at this point.
  • Take the spatula and place 6-8 large dollops of the cream cheese mixture around the top of batter in various spots.
  • Drop more chips on TOP of the cream cheese dollops.
  • Run the knife/flat spatula up and down the batter to create the marbled effect.

Bake per directions on box.

Suggestions:
  • Set out the cream cheese a couple of hours ahead of when you want to make this recipe. Adjust time according to how hot/cold your environment is. And do NOT use a microwave to try to speed the process. I say THIS from EXPERIENCE….
  • Mix up the cream cheese/cheese cake portion first so the cake with its leavening components is not sitting waiting in the pan.
  • Scrape bowls periodically during mixing.
  • Shiny metal pans are the first choice for baking cakes.
  • Dark non-stick cake pans may require you to reduce heat by 25F because they absorb heat and brown faster.
  • I use the largest cake pan the box calls for. I have never tried this recipe for cupcakes or tiers.
  • Bake in center of oven.
  • I absolutely use the longest baking time called for on the box for the size cake pan I am using.
  • Cake is done with a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.
  • Cool cakes on a wire rack away from drafts.
  • Due to cream cheese mixture, I refrigerate the cake if I am going to be keeping it for several days, but it will work at any event without cooling. 

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