Re: Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Chef Melissa -

I'm so glad the cake worked out. It seriously is delish. I myself enjoy the coffee flavors because I do like coffee (I'd forgotten that about you!) and, as Ina says, coffee is an ingredient that brings out the flavor in chocolate, along with salt and vanilla. Anything that makes chocolate more chocolate-y, I love! But yes, the actual cake part is a great base for other flavors toppings. I love the idea of something simple like Cool Whip and some berries. Maybe some kind of chocolate syrup too? Mmm!

Recently I re-worked one of my mom's famous cake recipes and used Ina's chocolate cake for the base and then used my mom's icing recipe to top it. My mom usually uses a store-bought German chocolate cake mix, but I knew the Beatty's cake was always so moist and fabulous, that I wanted to try it out. It was perfect! Plus, my mom's icing recipe is for a two-layer cake (with some left over), so really - it was just meant to be!

Here is the icing recipe for Lass's Mom's Hershey Bar Cake:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. regular sugar
10-1.5 oz. Hershey Bars with almonds - chopped*
12 oz. Cool Whip

Beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth. Stir in Cool Whip. Fold in chopped Hershey bars. Ice cooled cake.

*My mom recommends using three large Hershey Bars with Almonds, which is a little less than what is listed above but still quite enough. Also, you want the bars pretty fine, so putting them in the food processor is the fastest (and easiest!) way to get that consistency.

There was SO MUCH of this icing left over, I used it to top graham crackers when I needed a quick dessert after dinner (or breakfast) once the cake was all gobbled up.

I think there may be some baking in my future this weekend!

Happy eating,
Kara

P.S. Your picture is so appetizing! You do a great job with icing...way better than me!