Jeff's chocolate birthday cake.

We're not big on birthday presents.   Or Christmas presents, either.  The first birthdays we had together, we gave gifts.  But now we pretty much just try to make sure each other has a good day.

So, for Jeff's birthday*, he wanted a chocolate cake.  In fact,  I'm pretty sure he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate with chocolate with chocolate.  And moist.

Well okay then.  Chocolate.  I can do that!

I started with...

...yep, cake mix, canned frosting, store-bought pudding, and Oreos.  Nothing says home-cookin' like starting with processed foods.  :-)

After I made the 2 round cakes (and undercooked them because I didn't realize my appointment was at 9, not 9:30, so I had to jet out of the house earlier than usual), I let them cool while I was out.

Next came the "moist" part, as well as the "chocolate with chocolate" part.

I took the Oreos and crunched them up...

...and then added the Oreo pieces to the pudding (ended up being total of 6 Oreos and 2 pudding cups).

Tasted way better than it looks...

I put all that on the first round cake, and then added the second on top.  That's right - pudding with Oreo in the middle instead of frosting.  I'm a rebel like that.

Pinterest said that by adding powdered sugar to your canned frosting and beating it will make it better.  So I tried it.

I have to disagree with you, Pinterest.  I couldn't tell the difference.

I then used a star tip and piped the chocolate icing on the cake, basically because I was all worried that my frosting job would be, well, not Birthday Worthy.  Plus I bought a Wilton Beginner set back in December and it's fun to play with them.  :-)

It looked a bit like like a tree stump, but a delicious tree stump!

When Jeff & Rhy got home, and after dinner (stupid "rules" about eating dinner before having dessert anyway!), we had Jeff's Birthday Cake!  The pudding softened the Oreo pieces, and then the pudding was basically absorbed by the cake.   It was definitely chocolaty and moist,  per Jeff's request.


*Yes, this is a Belated Birthday Cake post.