Tasty Thursday

Hosted by Trista at the Pumkin Patch.


I can't believe how long it's been since I participated in Tasty Thursday. Shame on me! But today I'm playing along.

I made this last Christmas and it was fabulous.


This is from Kraft food & family magazine, Holiday 2005

CHOCOLATE CANDY CANE CAKE

1 pkg. (2 layer size) chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) Chocolate Instant Pudding
4 eggs
8 oz. Sour Cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
4 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped
18 small candy canes, coaresely crushed (about 1 cup), divided
1 (8 oz.) tub Cool Whip, thawed

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.
Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 2 min. or until well blended.
Stir in chopped chocolate and 2 Tbsp. of the crushed candy canes. Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans.
Bake 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. on wire rack. Loosen cakes from side of pans with spatula or knife. Invert cakes onto rack; gently remover pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
Place 1 of the cakes layers on serving plate. Spread evenly with 1 cup of the Cool Whip. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost cake with remaining Cool Whip. Garnish with additional crushed candy cane, if desired. Cut cake into 18 slices to serve.

Notes - I used the soft candy canes instead of the traditional ones, I thought the regular ones would be too crunchy. These worked out great.
You really need to use 9 inch pans, as the baked cake filled the pans to the top. 8 inch pans would not be big enough for this batter.
My cakes only took 45 minutes to be completely done, so be sure to check them before the 50 minutes is up!