Friday, March 26, 2010

Extraordinary Chocolate Cake

This is absolutely one of my favorite cakes. I love it, love it, love it. It's so moist and rich. Did I mention I love it?

1 box Devil's food cake mix
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 jar (12 oz) caramel ice cream topping
2-3 Tbsp baking cocoa
1 container (12 oz) Cool Whip, thawed
1/2 package Heath Toffee Bits

Grease a 9 X 13 pan. Prepare and bake cake according to package. Once cake is done, poke about 20 holes into warm cake using the end of a wooden spoon handle (or similar size spoon handle). Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over cake. Let cake cool 10 minutes. Pour caramel topping evenly over cake. Let cake cool completely. In a large bowl, combine Cool Whip with cocoa and mix well. Spread Cool Whip mixture over cooled cake and top with toffee bits. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

No-Bake Quick & Creamy Shortcake

This is a great spring or summer dessert and it's very easy and delicious. (And would be perfect for Easter Sunday!)

1 family size frozen Sara Lee pound cake, thawed
1 (4 serving size) white chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup milk
1 container (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed
1 container (24 oz) frozen sliced strawberries with sugar, thawed

Cut pound cake into approximately 1/2 to 1 inch cubes and set aside. In a medium size bowl, combine pudding mix, milk, and Cool Whip, stir until well blended and creamy. Drain strawberries, reserving juice in a small bowl; cover and refrigerate juice until ready to serve shortcake.

This recipe looks elegant layered in a trifle bowl, but simply adjust the layers based on your dish size/shape. For a trifle bowl, place 1/3 of the pound cake cubes in bottom of the bowl, cover cake cubes with 1/3 of the strawberries, and spread 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the strawberries; repeat layers two more times. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Drizzle reserved strawberry juice over individual servings.

Note: My original post called for a 16 oz container of frozen strawberries, but that just didn't seem like enough the last time I made this. So I tried a 24 oz container and I think it worked better.