My Monday Munchies - Grandma Long's Famous Never Fail Chocolate Cake!

My Dad's Mom was a chocoholic! For birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving - any holiday or sometimes just because - my Dad gave her a box of Russell Stover Dark Chocolates! She would share. Sometimes we each received half a piece, but usually a whole piece of Grandma's candy.

Both of my grandmothers cooked the most delicious meals. Each had their specialties. Grandma Skelton has the best chicken and dumplings recipe and a yummy sheet cake (among other things too numerous to list!) Grandma Long made us amazing spaghetti and meatballs and my favorite chocolate cake - she loved chocolate and would only serve the best, richest chocolate cake! She made the cake for birthdays. We all loved it.

After she passed away, my Aunt Shirley (my mom's sister) started making the cake for birthdays. Then, after I graduated from college and got married, my mom let me copy the recipe into my recipe book. I started making it for birthdays too.

What I have discovered is that this is the most flexible cake recipe I have ever made. You can make it whatever you want!  I have no idea where she got the recipe. It was written on a card, in her handwriting. I do not know if she created it or copied it from somewhere else. But it is amazing!

The Basic Recipe

Ingredients:
1 boxed cake mix
2 small instant puddings
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 package (2 cups) chocolate chips

Grease a bundt pan with Crisco or a floured baking spray.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all ingredients, pour into greased pan.
Bake for 1 hour. Check with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it is done.
Let it cool for 5 minutes and remove to cooling rack, or right to the serving plate!
Store covered to maintain the moisture

What Flavor Do You Want?

Notice - I did not list flavors of anything. Why? You can do whatever you want. You can make this cake any flavor you like and it will come out great! (As long as you pick good flavor combos). Here are a few I have tried.

Grandma's Standard:
fudge or chocolate cake
2 chocolate puddings
semi-sweet chips

My Favorite - Super Dark Chocolate:
devil's food cake
2 fudge or dark chocolate puddings
dark chocolate chips

My Mom's Favorite - Chocolate Covered Strawberry:

strawberry cake
2 vanilla puddings
dark or semi-sweet chips (I tried white chocolate chips, but they sank and created a crust on the top when you dumped the cake out. They did not taste very good either.)





*This version makes great presentation if you drizzle the top with melted chocolate chips and cover the serving plate and hole in the cake with chocolate covered strawberries!

My Aunt Shirley's Holiday Experiment:
chocolate cake
2 chocolate puddings
crushed peppermint instead of chocolate chips
(she said they sank and stuck to her pan and made it hard to clean, but it was yummy!)
*A second option would be to add a few drops of peppermint oil and keep the chocolate chips. I have crushed peppermints and mixed them with whipped cream as a topping and it worked out well for flavor too.

Can It Be Any More Flexible?

Yes!

This cake makes great cupcakes and mini-cakes too. The cooking time needs to be shortened. I made flower shaped cakes for my sister's wedding. They were small single serve cakes, a little bigger than a cup cake. They needed about 30 minutes. Be sure to test with a toothpick!

Now It Gets Really Fun!

I have been playing around with this cake for years. I decided I wanted to really test it out. Here is my recipe for my most recent experiment.:

1 yellow cake mix
1 vanilla pudding
1 banana pudding
1 cup pureed banana and strawberries (I used 1 ripe banana, like you would use for banana bread and a handful of frozen strawberries.)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
dark chocolate chips (I did not have quite 2 cups, but close.)

I knew the consistency the batter needed to be, so I added the cup of fruit and the oil, then added the water a little at a time until the consistency was just right. What I discovered is that the fruit replaced the water. You can do any fruit you want! Just consider the water, fruit, and oil as wet ingredients and they need to add up to 2 cups.

Puree the fruit.

Mix all the ingredients.

Pour in greased pan.

Bake for an hour.

And you get this!

How to Serve the Cake

My favorite way to serve the cake is with homemade whipped cream! Cool whip and ice cream are also excellent choices. If you want to frost it, I recommend a whipped frosting. This is what I have done for birthdays when the kids want a decorated cake.

Under that Kirby, there is a chocolate cake!

I have done a butter cream on it and it tastes fine, but the cake is so rich and beautiful on it's own it really does not need frosting. This is one of the biggest benefits for me. As you can tell - my cake decorating skills are greatly lacking. A cake that looks beautiful and tastes great without frosting is perfect for me!





Why Never Fail?

Well, it is just that! I have over cooked it and it still came out moist and rich! I have cooked it in pans of different shapes and sizes. I have made mini-cakes, cup cakes, layer cakes, a Care-Bear cake, and the usual bundt cake. It is equally good in each pan. If you want a soft, moist, richly flavored cake that takes little work - this is the cake for you! What other cake batter transfers so well to a cupcake? My experience is that they come out dry and crumbly. Not this one!

Also - the brand/price of the cake mix and pudding don't seem to matter. I have used the more expensive "pudding in the mix" cakes and the cheaper off brand cakes. Same with puddings. I even used a "cook and serve" pudding rather than instant (because that is all I had) and it worked fine.

You can make this cake for less than $5 and less than 10 minutes prep time.

Make it the day of or a few days in advance. I have been eating on one cake for 3 days and it is still just as soft and moist as on day one!

My Challenge to You

Make this cake. Use one of the variations I listed, or create your own. If you create your own variation - share it in the comments and let me know how it worked out. I am always looking for new varieties. I have a bag of cinnamon chips in the pantry - I wonder what they would taste good with?