The award competition was sponsored by Ghirardelli, so you know some good chocolate was going into these creations!

The method for the cake is actually pretty simple and looks amazingly delicious: two melted bars of Ghirardelli 100% cacao bars, butter, flour, salt, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Once everything is mixed into a batter, she puts about half of it into a bundt pan, and then layers Ghirardelli caramel squares, toasted pecans, and then the rest of the batter on top.

Chocolate California Goldrush Cake
by Michele Cobarrubio

8 ounces (two 4-ounce bars) Ghirardelli 100 percent Cacao Unsweetened Chocolate Baking Bar, chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 bag (5.3 ounces) Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares, Milk Chocolate with Caramel Filling, unwrapped
1/2 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped
1/4 cup powdered sugar

~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray fluted two-quart bundt pan with baking style cooking spray. In a one-quart saucepan over low heat, melt butter and both baking bars. Remove from heat when chocolate is almost entirely melted. Continue stirring until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.

~ In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Set aside.

~ In a stand mixer on low speed, mix sugar, eggs and vanilla. When these are incorporated, gradually increase speed to medium-high. Beat on medium-high for approximately 10 minutes. Batter will be pale yellow and fluffy. Alternately add chocolate mixture and flour mixture to egg batter, beginning and ending with the chocolate. Mix until just incorporated.

~ Pour half of the batter into prepared pan. Place unwrapped Milk Chocolate Squares side by side around the center of the pan on top of the batter.

~ Sprinkle toasted pecans over the chocolate squares. Pour the rest of the batter in the pan, spreading it evenly over the candy and nuts. Bake cake at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for about 15 to 20 minutes. Invert cake onto serving plate and cool completely.

~ Before serving, dust cake with powdered sugar.

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Bobby Flay’s Chocolate Blackout Cake. He created it for an episode of his Food Network show Throwdown, wherein he had to create a wedding cake to compete against someone who made wedding cakes for a living.

It uses chocolate, ancho chile powder, buttermilk and coffee for the cake, two different kinds of chocolate for the whipped ganache filling, and coconut for the frosting.

I would love to give this a try — and I give props to flickr user kimberlykv who did make it! — but I know my family would never make it through the whole thing before it would be time to toss it, and with that much good chocolate it would be such a waste… I am tempted to do it anyway just try it, though!

[image: flickr]

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Oddly enough, the cake didn’t originate in Germany. The name actually comes from Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, the brand used by a Texas homemaker in 1957 who used the chocolate to make her “German’s Chocolate Cake.”

The possessive “s” was dropped by General Foods, who subsequently distributed the recipe, and became the German Chocolate Cake we all know and love today.

Check out David Lebovitz’s amazing German Chocolate Cake Recipe, where the flickr picture up top came from.

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The dessert is described as “Warm chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling. Topped with vanilla ice cream under a crunchy chocolate shell.” Sounds delicious, right?

In the video above, Todd Wilbur from topsecretrecipes.com shows you how to clone the decadent treat at home with just a few changes: instead of a fluted tart pan, he uses a giant muffin tin and just a basic boxed chocolate cake mix, and Hershey’s hot fudge for the filling.

I have to admit, Todd’s looks much more appetizing than Chili’s!

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My friend Sherry sent me the link to this decorated cake several months ago, and I printed it out immediately and have had it stashed in my recipe folder since. I’ve been so excited to try it out but couldn’t really do a test run because that obviously would have given it away!

Luckily it was easy enough that I didn’t need one, and the cake turned out perfectly. My daughter decided she didn’t want the licorice hair sticking out the top (which was good because I couldn’t find chocolate Twizzlers anywhere), but other than that it turned out exactly as it should. She loved helping out with making the actual cake, and then with the sprinkles and smile.

My other twin had fun decorating her cake as well even though it wasn’t as involved as the monkey cake. She chose a strawberry cake with chocolate frosting, and fresh cut strawberries on top. She got to do the frosting, the strawberries and the gel. The strawberries were still a bit wet when we place them on the frosting so they slid a bit, but that didn’t affect the taste!

She adores our cupcake cake pan and was excited that it was finally her turn to get to use it (her older sister had a giant cupcake for her birthday last November).

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Chocolate Picnic Cake

1 (5 ounce) package non-instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.

In a large saucepan, prepare the pudding according to the instructions on the box. Remove from heat. Mix cake mix into the hot pudding and stir until blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan, and sprinkle with the chocolate chips and walnuts. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving.

[image: flickr]

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What’s your favorite kind of chocolate cake? Plain? Molten? Zucchini?

[image: flickr]

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Today’s a chocolate cake kind of day!

[image: flickr]

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This week’s Chocolate Zen is a simple chocolate birthday cake I found on flickr. It was made with a ganache frosting and looks delicious!

[image: flickr]

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This week’s chocolate zen is a chocolate cake from flickr user david nikonvscanon. It looks amazing!

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