| This is a delicious and very easy to make cake - because, amazingly, it uses store-bought cake mix. Yes, that stuff you find in the box that usually tastes decent, but not great. With the right additions to the basic mix, you can turn out a nice, dense, tasty cake that's not too sweet, and very, very enjoyable.
You no longer have an excuse, with the simplicty of this recipe, to make a simple chocolate cake straight from a box ever, ever again. After all, with just a few more ingredients, and the right toppings, you can turn out something that your average person would never suspect used cake mix - and I know this firsthand, as the people who tried this were suprised to find out.
This was the first cake I've ever made. Period. I've done brownies once or twice from a mix, and a few batches of cookies - always from scratch, but I've never attemped a cake before. Thus, the reason for going for something simple, instead of diving into making one from scratch. It was made for a friend's birthday, and it was my choice, as she was very unwilling to specify what she wanted. So I picked out one that looked good, and this was it.
Being my first cake, I was quite nervous about how well it was going to turn out - but then again, I'm like that when making anything for friends. Well, it was brought over to my friend's place after they had moved in earlier that morning (and we were exhausted), and after filling up on pizza earlier, we were starting to doze off. Thus, it was time for some sugar to get us moving again, and we brought out the cake. The first bite, and I knew I had nothing to worry about as the mix of chocolate and raspberry was perfect, and everyone was quite happy with it. All was good.
(Recipe originally from The Cake Mix Doctor is In, instructions changed for copyright purposes)
Double-Chocolate Rum Cake
1 18.25 oz package plain devil's food cake mix
1 3.9 oz package instant chocolate pudding mix
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup rum
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 6 oz package (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
Raspberry Sauce:
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
1/4 cup rum
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Take a bundt pan and spray with vegetable oil (or a cooking spray), and lightly dust with flour.
Mix the cake mix, pudding, water, rum, oil, and eggs togeter in a large mixing bowl, and blend on low speed for about a minute, until everything is combined. Use a spatula to scrape batter down from the sides, and start blending at medium speed for about 2-3 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour the mixture into the bundt pan, and smooth with the spatula.
Bake for about 50-55 minutes. The cake should be just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger.
Remove the cake from the oven, and let cool about 20 minutes. Turn the cake out onto the serving platter.
Mix the jam and rum in a saucepan, and put on low heat to melt the jam. Poke holes in the top of the cake with a toothpick or skewer, then spoon the raspberry mixture on top. (It will run down the sides)
Wait a few minutes for the raspberry mixture to soak into the cake, then spoon on warm Shiny Chocolate Glaze. Let cool completely before cutting.
It will hold for about a week, but must be stored in the refrigerator.
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