Darn Good Chocolate Cake

Today Bella and I decided to make a cake to celebrate our great summer and the beginning of a new school year.  She picked out this cake from my Cake Doctor cookbook.  These recipes aren't new but are totally fool proof and taste superb.  The book is loaded with pictures and each recipe calls for a cake mix in addition to other special ingredients.  SOOOO easy!  Not really low fat but sure to please.  As I always say...all foods can be consumed in moderation and all foods can fit (even if it means more exercise the next day).  The cake was a big hit!

Ingredients:
1 pkg plain devil's good or dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 pkg chocolate instant pudding mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used fat free)
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup veg oil (applesauce may be a suitable substitute)
1 1/2 cups semisweet choc chips (I used miniature)

Spray your bundt pan and dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour.  Set the pan aside. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350. 

Place the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, warm water, and oil in a large mixing bowl.  Bledn with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 to 3 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips making sure they are well distributed throughout the batter.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula.  Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.  45 to 50 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.  Run a long sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto the rack to cool completely, 20 minutes more.  Or invert it onto a serving platter to slide and serve while still warm.

The only thing I would have done differently was make sure that the flour was more evenly spread on the bottom of the pan.  It clumped a little bit on the cooking spray.

This is Miss Sweet Tooth.  She is definitely her mother's daughter.

Don't mind the piece of cake stuck in her tooth.  Isn't she adorable?

The sour cream and pudding are the key to the moistness.