Darn Good Chocolate Cake ( Cake Mix Cake)
This recipe is adapted from "The Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. It was originally a bundt cake with chocolate chips, but I prefer the look of layer cakes (so much more homey looking) so I switched the cake pan size AND I left out the chocolate chips (because there's nothing worse than ruining the velvety texture of a layer cake than by adding hard chocolate chips to it). This is a dense, moist layer cake. I cut each layer in half so I get 4 layers and slather them with "perfect chocolate frosting" (recipe #86768). The end result is a fudgy chocolate layer cake with tons of frosting (and yes, it is going to be sweet). It is KEY to cut the layers in half. It ends up being a much moister cake this way because the frosting kind of melts into the cake layers forming a kind of fudgy filling in between the thin cake layers. I hope you enjoy it :)
INGREDIENTS
Nutrition- 1(18 1/4 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
- 1(4 ounce) box instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1cup sour cream
- 1⁄2cup water
- 1⁄2cup vegetable oil
- 4large eggs
- chocolate frosting (" Perfect" Chocolate Frosting is preferred, but store bought or your own recipe is acceptable)
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans.
- Dust with flour and tap out the excess; set pans aside.
- Place the cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, water, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl.
- Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.
- Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- On medium low speed, continue to blend for 2-3 minutes more.
- The batter will be very thick and should look well combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and smooth it out.
- Bake for 27-32 minutes (since I switched pans, I started checking the cakes at 25 minutes-- it was like gooey chocolate pudding-- then 3 minutes later it was perfect.
- Another couple of minutes and I think it would have been dry, so keep an eye on your cakes.
- Allow to cool in the pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
- Now is the time to start preparing your frosting.
- Run a knife along the edges on the cakes pans and carefully remove cake by inverting it; allow to cool for 20 minutes more on the wire rack right side up.
- When the cake layers are completely cool, cut layers in half (save a domed layer for the top-- it makes your cakes look homemade) and frost.