It's National Chocolate Cake Day, oh My! RECIPE: Darn Good Chocolate Cake!

This morning on Facebook, one of my friends posted that today is "National Chocolate Cake Day"!

Who knew? Certainly not me or I would have had it marked on my calendar in bright red ink!

You can bet your bottom dollar it is on my calendar now!

You know what this means don't you?

It means we all have reason to bake a chocolate cake! Yipee!!

I love any holiday so of course I had to participate and bake a chocolate cake!

I made one "Darn Good Chocolate Cake!" The recipe comes from "The Cake Mix Doctor" by Anne Byrn. What? You don't have this recipe book? Well, you'd better saddle up your horse and get yourself to town and buy a copy! It is fantastic.

What, don't tell me you don't have a horse? If that is the case, get your little self on over to Amazon.com and get it ordered. You can have it delivered right to your door.

Darn Good Chocolate Cake

(modified by me because I just can't leave well enough alone!)

1 pkg. plain devil's food cake mix (make sure it doesn't have pudding in the mix)

1 pkg. (3.9 oz) chocolate instant pudding mix

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 oil

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, but I use dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 35o degrees. Spray a bundt pan with Pam or something like that.
2. Place all items EXCEPT chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute on slow speed, then beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Scrap the sides of the bowl and beat for another minute.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Feel free to taste it as this point with your finger! Yum!
4. Pour it into your pan and bake for 45 minutes or until done. Do the touch test and see if it springs back when you press on it.
5. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes or so and then invert it onto a pretty cake plate. Let it cool completely.
6. At this point it is completely edible. Delicious simply sprinkled with powdered sugar. Or if you want to jazz it up a bit, I like to take 1/2 can of ready-made cream cheese frosting and 1/2 can of chocolate frosting, slightly melt them them separately in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Stir them up, they should be runny, but not too runny. Actually, barely runny is what I would call it. Then drizzle the cream cheese frosting on the cake and then the chocolate frosting. If the frosting starts running off the cake, you microwaved it too long. Too, bad! It takes practice getting it to the right consistency. After you frost it, put it in the refrigerator to set the frosting.
7. When it is time to serve it, grab a big old glass of milk or cup of coffee and enjoy! YUMMMMMMMMM!