Day 56.
Sometimes you just need a big crock full of hot chocolate pudding cake. Or at least I do.
Last Thursday was the Democratic debate and Adam and I were desperately trying to watch it. We did set the Tivo (well, we have DISH, so it's their version) but since we're both on the Internet so much (read: we can not seem to ever unplug, ever) it's better for us to see the debates semi-live. We get irritated when we see the news headlines pop up that so-and-so said this and that before we've actually gotten to see it for ourselves.
Anyhow, since we were completely ignoring the children during the time of the evening where children seem to demand the most attention, they decided to take full advantage of the situation by throwing toys, fighting, knocking things off of book shelves and generally misbehaving.
We couldn't handle another second.
So we did what all parents-of-the-year do. We bribed them with chocolate cake.
I hopped on the laptop and found an awesome crockpot chocolate cake-y type concoction that featured ingredients that we had on hand.
After pausing the two talking heads, we headed to the kitchen to whip up some chocolaty goodness.
The Ingredients:
This is an adaptation of Chocolate Obsession from MJ's What a Crock! site--which is the best blog name, ever. (edited: links are removed, the site no longer exists. bummer).
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder (Pamela's does have baking powder in it, but I decided to add 1 teaspoon anyhow. MJ uses 2teaspoons with regular all-purpose flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup shredded coconut
The Directions:
Read this all the way. It's easy to get confused. I kind of did. You need to only use some of the brown sugar and cocoa powder at first.
In your crockpot stoneware insert, mix 1 cup of the brown sugar, the cup of flour, 1/4 cup of the cocoa powder, the baking powder and salt. Wisk in the milk, melted butter and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and 1 1/2 cups of hot water. Add the chocolate chips and the coconut.
Pour over the stuff in the crockpot. The chocolate chips and the coconut will fall to the bottom and you won't be able to see them. This will be a bummer.
Cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean.
This never really set. It very well may be because we didn't do it right. Neither Adam or I remember who helped to measure out the milk and the water. So there could be an extra 1/2 cup of something in there. Updated: nope, this is a *pudding* cake, so it's *supposed* to be like this! go figure.
It really didn't matter. The taste was wonderful. Since it never really firmed up, I kept cooking and cooking it and the kids ended up being bored to sleep by the debate. We were forced then to eat most of it ourselves, but I did save a bit for the kids to eat for breakfast.
Next time I think I want to use coffee instead of the water, watch who is measuring (doy.), and skip the chocolate chips. They completely disappeared.
