Chocolate

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Ingredients:

Flour:2 cups
Sugar: 1 cup
Baking Soda:2 teaspoons
Salt: 1/4 teaspoon
Cocoa: 6 Tablespoons

salad dressing: 1 cup
Water, warm:  1 cup

Vanilla: 1 teaspoon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift dry ingredients together, stir in salad and warm water and beat until smooth. Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into greased and floured cake pan and bake for 45 minutes.

Please note:
You need to use salad dressing and not real mayonnaise for this cake.

If you want to turn this into a spice cake, then replace the 6 Tablespoons of Cocoa with:
1 Tablespoon of Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and
1/4 teaspoon of cloves (or spices as you desire) and in this case, you want to use real mayonnaise instead of the salad dressing. It really does make a difference.

This recipe came from a long time Internet friend Liz G. Cherry Chocolate Cake

With summer picnics and gatherings coming, here's an easy way to enhance a basic chocolate cake:

1 box of chocolate or Devil's Food cake mix
1 can of cherry pie filling (20 to 22 oz. size - use a good quality to avoid pits and get lots of cherries)
1 can of cream cheese icing
(Bakes nicely in a 13 x 9 pan.)

Mix the cake batter according to package directions. Gently fold in the cherry but add approximately 10 - 15 minutes to the baking time. A toothpick test will not work for this cake - it is done when the center springs back and the edges have pulled away from the pan. Cool and top with cream cheese icing and yum! This is a very moist cake which should be refrigerated. This preserves the cake and keeps the canned icing from losing its texture. You can also use peach or apple pie filling with white or yellow cake mix.

This recipe came from reader, Lin Peck.
Better Than Sex Cake (You be the judge! lol)
Ingredients:

1 box chocolate chip cake mix (or your choice of flavor)
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix (or your flavor choice)
4 eggs
1 bar German sweet chocolate, grated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1 8-oz. carton dairy sour cream
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (pecans are great)
1 6-oz. package chocolate chips (mini chips work best!)


Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well.

Pour into a lightly greased tube or bundt pan.

Bake for approximately 55 minutes or until toothpick comes
out clean.

Frosting can be varied according to your preference. You can simply dust the cake with powdered sugar or make a glaze to pour over it. If your feeling really indulgent how about putting a frosting on it.

Chocolate, Chocolate, and MORE Chocolate:

Now, how about everybody's favorite BROWNIES!!!! Borrowed this recipe from the Betty Crocker website and just reading the recipe made my mouth water!

The Ultimate Brownie
PREP: 20 min; BAKE: 45 min
Makes 16 brownies

This is our all-time favorite brownie--rich and chocolaty! Double the chocolate decadence by swirling on the Chocolate Frosting.

2/3 cup stick margarine or butter*
5 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into pieces
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour*
1 cup chopped walnuts
Chocolate Frosting (below), if desired

1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease bottom and sides of square pan, 9x9x2 inches.&nbsP;
2. Melt margarine and chocolate in 1-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Cool slightly.
3. Beat sugar, vanilla and eggs in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture on low speed. Beat in flour just until blended. Stir in walnuts. Spread in pan.
4. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or just until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Spread with Chocolate Frosting. Cut into 4 rows by 4 rows.

Chocolate Frosting
2 tablespoons stick margarine or butter
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, cut into pieces
2 cups powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons hot water

Melt margarine and chocolate in 2-quart saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly; remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and hot water until smooth enough to spread.

Lets start with what Raven calls:

The PMS Chocolate Special
1 box of instant chocolate pudding
1 tub of non-diary whipped topping
1 plain angel food cake

Prepare the chocolate pudding according to package directions
Tear or cut the angel food cake into bite-sized pieces
Mix all three items together in a large bowl.
Refrigerate until served.

Simple and easy. And easy to vary.
Raven recommends using fat free whipped topping and skim milk, to lower calories.

It would be easy to use different flavors of pudding also. Or to add little extras like chopped nuts or maybe some chocolate chips. (The choc chips are for the hard core chocoholics among us.)

I made this for the family this weekend, and it was a big hit!! I also left it only more swirled together, than mixed. That gave it an attractive marbled appearance.

Our second recipe this week, is similar to the one Raven sent us. And it is a concoction of my own.

It doesn't really have a name, so you can call it anything you like.

Like the previous recipe you start with-

a plain angel food cake
a tub of non dairy whipped topping
and to that you add a package of gelatin dessert
and fruit of the same flavor.

You cut or tear the angel food cake into bite sized pieces
Add a package of strawberry gelatin to the tub of whipped topping and mix well.
In a large bowl combine the whipped topping/gelatin mixture and the angel food cake.
Then add fresh cut up strawberries to the mixture.

A variation to that would be orange gelatin and mandarin orange slices added to the mixture instead of the strawberry. Just use your imagination and see what you can come up with.