Deb Disclaimer - this cake begins with a cake mix. If you are anti-cake-mix, please feel free to stop reading now. But if you are not ashamed of using a cake mix, then please stay tuned. You could be really glad that you did!
Deb Disclaimer # 2 - I may or may not use the word "uber" a bit too much in speech. A certain friend, known heretofore in this here post as P, pointed this out to me recently. Since he and his family are featuring prominently in this cake and post, I have tried to incorporate the word "uber" in this post for his enjoyment.
Wanna see our Cake # 4? It's kinda purty....
Yes, I could have done the lamb...
Does that look like a lemon cake to you?
So how did I end up here? My friend and coworker, P, the one who "appreciates my use of the word "uber" in speech. Not to be confused with my Sista, P, or the Dutch Apple P from last night. This is a different P. He only joined our team at work about a month ago, but alas he is leaving us due to some family needs. He is actually moving all the way to Ohio. I am sad about this folks. I love this man's wife, S, too, and they have little K, who is only about 9 months old. S used to work for our company as well, and they are quite simply a delightful young family. I was so happy that P had joined our team, because then I would get a chance to see S and K every once in a while.
But alas....that is not to be. It's all good. They are doing the right thing for all the right reasons, and I respect them for that. But that doesn't mean I'm not a wee bit sad about it.
So Monday night. I had decided on lemon cake with homemade lemon curd and a cream cheese frosting. I hadn't decided on how I would decorate it, and I wasn't uber excited about it, but I at least knew it would taste good and be Easterish. (Uber and Easterish are words, right? I thought so. Thank you.)
Enter Tuesday stage right. Scene: work. Small-ish cubicles. Pan the cube farm with "Working 9 to 5" playing in the background before focusing in on Deb's cubicle, Deb's Baking Thursday cubicle, P's cubicle, C's cubicle (an interested observer with an easy laugh and mother of two of Deb's favorite little twin taste testers) and S's cubicle behind Deb's. Fade background music.
Deb: So P, what is your favorite cake flavor? Or your top 3 favorite cake flavors?
P: (pensive, pregnant pause) I don't have a favorite flavor. Cake isn't about the flavor.
Deb: Really? (I'm also wondering now if P is as anti-favorite as my daughter, B, and wondering if this is going to get me anywhere.)
C: He didn't say lemon, did he?
Deb: Nope. No, he didn't. Very true.
P: Lemon is fine. But cake is really about texture...and moisture...the feel on my tongue. The flavor doesn't matter if texture and moisture aren't there. Chocolate chips...
S: Angel food?
P: Angel food is good. It has that whole melting on your tongue sensation thing going on.
S (addressing Deb): There, do angel food.
Deb: I don't have a tube pan. And I don't want to go buy one, because I just don't do tube cakes that much.
S (returning his attention to P): How about nuts?
P: Yes, nuts are good. Nuts are ok. (P pauses, continuing to think.) You know, my dad would make a cake with pudding and sour cream and chocolate chips! It would bake for like 3 hours and it was so yummy!
Deb: 3 hours? Really?
P: Yea, I remember him baking it a real long time, but it was really moist and good.
Exit scene with a gradual fade and musical interlude. Return to Deb's blog narrative.
I quickly decided that P's recall of the cake baking for 3 hours to be an exaggeration of childhood longing for cake or the time he had to wait until the cake was cool enough to eat. But surely I could find a recipe for chocolate chip cake with pudding and sour cream on line, right?
Sure enough! It is a twist on the somewhat classic cake mix pound cake with a box of pudding and 4 eggs. I sent P the link from allrecipes.com and asked P if he thought this looked close to what he remembered. Come to find out, he had done the same search and printed this out to hand to me before I had sent him my email.
Yep, love when great minds think alike!
I was starting to get excited about this! But I needed a twist on it. And this is not only in honor of P before his last day at work but it was also for Easter. What could be more American Easter flavor than chocolate and marshmallow? Anyone seen these before?
But wait. I didn't want to end with just marshmallow glaze. I wanted to toast the marshmallow! Kind of like this...
But wait. I'm getting way ahead of myself. Let's bake this cake first. Preheat your oven to 325.
I never take the picture of our "cast of characters" like is common in food blogs, so I thought, why not do it this time?
And the final character is our bundt pan sprayed with baking spray. (I will tell you that I am a Pam fan. I do a lot of private label for things, but I use Pam for Baking when spraying pans.)
Everything except the chocolate chips goes into the pool (as Guy Fieri likes to say) and is mixed for about 2 minutes until nice and creamy.
I let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turned it out onto a cake plate. I removed the pan to be sure it would release and then I did what I started doing years ago. I put the pan back on the cake to trap the steam while it cools. Now lots of famous people will tell you not to do this - that the steam makes the cake too soggy, but I haven't ever found that to be the case. So I'm just telling you what I do. Ya might try it sometime...see what you think...
While the cake was cooling, I got to thinking about that marshmallow glaze. I couldn't really find a recipe online that excited me, so I decided to start with the same base as Rice Krispy treats. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but it was a starting point. I also have some marshmallow creme on hand, so I got it out in case I needed some of it. (I did.)
I melted 1/4 cup of butter with 1/2 cup of half-n-half in the microwave on low/soften melt power.
I wondered if there would be enough heat to melt the marshmallows, so I threw in 8...
...and stirred. It didn't...
...but that's ok, I put the bowl back in the microwave for another 20 - 30 seconds and voila! We had melted marshmallows. But it was too thin, so I added about 3 cups of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla, a dash of salt and about 2/3 cup of marshmallow cream, until I had a glaze...
...that tasted marshmallow like, and dripped, but not too much... Please note, this is a glaze, so there is a bit of personal preference in play with the desired thickness. Glazes can be a balancing act of milk or half-n-half and powdered sugar, so a light hand with either ingredient is generally a good guideline.
(Please note: This is G's finger - his index finger. Just in case this is not clear from the picture.)
It tasted right. It had the right consistency. But would it toast?
Wait - I haven't told you how we planned to toast the marshmallow glaze yet, have I?! This was almost the funnest part!
Have you ever made creme brulee and then caramelized a sprinkling of sugar on top with one of these kitchen blowtorches?
These are cute and all, but Alton Brown says that they are a waste of time and money. That's right, baby. Good Eats says to visit Home Depot and not Williams Sonoma for all of your kitchen blowtorch needs!
G's blowtorch happens to be packed away, but P knew where his was! So he brought it into the office to let us borrow it! He even included a backup tank, just in case we needed it. How cool is that?!
Now back to our glaze. We needed a test to see if it would toast. I spread some on a cookie...
...and G agreed to be my Blow Torch Man. (Please commend G on not cussing the next time you see him despite his struggle with lighting matches. They just don't make matches these days like they used to...)
It worked! I was excited and hopeful!
We had our cooled cake...
...so I drizzled on the first layer of glaze.
It seemed to be just a tad too thin, so I added a bit more powdered sugar ready for another coating.
I put the cake in the fridge for about a half hour to let the glaze harden before we toasted!!
And look! We didn't want to over toast, so we just sort of highlighted the ridges...because there is no such thing as burning, charred, black marshmallows in Deb's world. Marshmallows need to be warm, and gooey and golden brown, roasted slowly over the coals and not in the fire. Wait, I am getting off topic here. Back to cake...
Just look at those pools of glaze just waiting for a finger to scoop up. Oh yea, baby!
P is right! This really is a yummy, moist, homey comfort cake with a bit of texture from the chocolate chips! Yep, it starts with a cake mix, but if you can get past that, you won't be sorry. As G said, he has never had a bundt cake taste like this before.
S (from the scene above) said that this was his 2nd favorite cake that I've ever made, the Guinness being his most favorite cake from me.
Another friend, S, who I must say sent me the most amazing note today and who I hope will be a guest poster on here sometime because he is quite the Girl Scout Cookie expert, said that he figured out what this cake reminded him of. You know those chocolate cakes that KFC sells? They are good and one of his favorite commercial cakes. But this cake is what one of the KFC chocolate cakes wishes it could be. How sweet is that?
This cake went really fast. I asked S (from our scene above) if I should wait to send the email until P had arrived at work, since this cake was in P's honor. But S simply said "P knows what day it is."
So we cut him a large enough piece to share with his wife and set it on his desk. And someone may or may not have come along after the rest of the cake was gone and stolen a bit from the plate. But I'll never tell.
This couldn't be easier, and would make a great addition to your Easter table. Which takes me to my final story to share to close out this post.
One of my friends who gives great feedback is part of a large family. They get together for every holiday, and Easter is a big one full of family traditions from cabbage rolls to one of those Easter lamb cakes like we see above. After tasting this cake, she wrote to me that this was the most intense chocolate flavored pound cake and super moist, with the chocolate chips giving it an extra explosion of chocolate. She is going to have to try using this for the lamb mold (an EXCELLENT idea!), because nobody really likes the vanilla pound cake they usually bake up for the lamb.
She tried red velvet one time, but it was too soft and somehow...the family didn't like it when they cut the lamb open. Apparently the teen girls in the family offered lots of "gross!" comments, and folks felt like they were eating the sacrificial lamb.
This made me laugh out loud! Anyone else have images of Steel Magnolia's and a red velvet armadillo?
I do love families! I hope you enjoy yours this Easter!
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