Devilishly Delicious Chocolate Cake

Over wine and dinner of quinoa stuffed peppers with a friend, we realized we needed something chocolatey and delicious to finish our evening right.  We picked a recipe from my favorite dessert cookbook, The Cake Mix Doctor, and modified it a little for what I had in the house.  The result:  exactly what we needed.

Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
• Flour for dusting the pan
• 1 square (1 oz.) bittersweet baking chocolate, finely chopped (unsweetened works, too)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 package devil's food cake mix
• 1 package (3.9 oz.) chocolate instant pudding mix
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Chocolate frosting

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Lightly mist and flour a Bundt pan, shake out excess flour and set pan aside.

Combine the chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat.  Heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is melted, 3 to 4 minutes.  Set aside.

Begin to combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Add in the melted chocolate.  Blend with an electric mixer, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.  The batter should look thick and well combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula.  Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake 45 to 50 minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed.  Remove the pan from the oven and cool for 20 minutes.  Invert cake and remove it from pan.  Allow to cool another 20 minutes, if you can (we definitely couldn't), then spread with warm frosting, and enjoy!

Adapted from The Cake Mix Doctor