"The Birthday Cake"

Maybe it's a little strange, but I bake my own birthday cake pretty much every year. That way, I get exactly what I want. Tomorrow is the big day, so I'm getting this done tonight.  Now, usually I end up with a fresh strawberry cheesecake, but this year, I was in the mood for some serious chocolate.  So, rather than make one I've made before, I decided to be daring in my old age and try something completely different.  I went online (Pinterest... one of my favorite go-to places for browsing delish looking stuff to eat) and came upon a recipe for "Nanny's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cake".  Ok... I like chocolate fudge!  I like brownies!  I like cake!  By cracky, I'm gonna try this.

Now mind you this was weeks ago.  After all, you have to plan in advance for something so earth shattering as your GASP...... 63rd birthday.  Ok, I said it, and it's the truth. 

I passed the recipe on to a couple of friends, just because it looked good and it was so darn easy to make.  One of them passed it along to her sister, who made it.  She said it was a keeper, so right then and there, I decided this was it, I'm making this thing for my birthday this year!

Here's the ridiculously simple recipe:

In a large bowl, combine the following 5 ingredients:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Duncan Hines Devil's Food)
• 1 box Duncan Hines Decadent Brownies (I went with the California Walnut one)
• 4 eggs
• 1 & 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup vegetable oil

Now, the recipe said, "In a bowl add the cake mix, brownie mix, oil, eggs, and water. Pour into bundt pan......  

I decided to mix all the ingredients up with my hand mixer before pouring it into the pan. :) 

Anyway...  back to the recipe....  

The recipe said.... Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and a light coating of flour or you can use Baker's Joy.

I decided to prepare my pan the way I like, which is coating it generously with non-stick cooking spray and then mixing about a half a cup of sugar and a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon up and dumping it into the sprayed pan to coat it all over.  The cinnamon ends up mostly on the bottom, and the cake will absolutely not stick to the pan.  You don't need flour.  This creates a really nice light crunch of cinnamon and sugar all around the cake, and it's so good!  I do this with just about every recipe I think cinnamon would work well with, and that's lots of them.

The recipe said... bake 50 to 55 minutes, and that was pretty close to how long it took mine.  I used my good old trusty shiny tube pan.  If you use dark pans, your baking time will probably be a bit shorter, so use a toothpick or cake tester for doneness.  Nobody wants a dry cake, although I didn't think that would be possible here, considering it called for an entire CUP of oil... oh well, it's a birthday cake..... happens once a year, so I'm splurging already....

After you remove the cake from the oven, let it rest in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove it to a cooling rack.  While it's still warm, you use the final ingredient, which is a ready made container of your favorite chocolate icing.

 The recipe said... put 1/2 of the tub of icing in a small bowl and microwave it for 30 to 45 seconds until it is able to be drizzled over the cake.  Well, this is America, and it's my birthday, and it's a Friday night, and it rained today, and, and....I used the WHOLE thing!

So, there you have it.  I can officially say that it's good.  I agree with my friend's sister... it's a keeper.

Happy Birthday to ME!!