This recipe is from my mother-in-law, and my wife insists that I make it exactly like her mother made it. In truth, this recipe is extremely flexible and is really only limited by your imagination, as I've made it with lemon, pineapple, pistachio, you name it.
I first introduced this recipe into the original Jane's location when I had it back in Los Angeles, and it has stayed a tremendous favorite with all of our customers. It is literally a cake that everyone loves and is easy to make.
INGREDIENTS:
1 Box Duncan Hines Chocolate Cake mix
1 small box chocolate instant pudding mix
1 to 2 tablespoons dutch processed cocoa (if desired)
1 to 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules (like the international coffee brands) (if desired)
4 eggs (cold)
1 cup sour cream (cold)
½ cup cold water (or coffee, or Khalua, or bourbon, or ...)
½ cup oil
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large bowl whisk all dry ingredients until combined. Add the eggs, sour cream, water (or other liquid), and oil and mix on medium to medium-high speed for 1 to 1 ½ minutes until incorporated and no lumps appear. Do not overbeat. Fold in the 1 ½ cups chocolate chips. Pour equal amounts into two 8" parchment-lined pans or into one large bundt pan sprayed with a non-stick spray like Baker's Joy that contains flour in the spray.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes if using 8" pans or 60 to 70 minutes if using a bundt pan. Because this is a dense, moist cake, it may take longer to cook. Once a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean remove from the oven.
After 5 minutes place a small cooling rack on top of the cake pan and flip over the cake. Let the cake cool completely with the cake pan on top of the cake for the entire cooling period. This will allow the warm, moist heat to be trapped under the pan and keep the cake moist. Additionally, it helps to flatten any doming that occurred during baking alleviating the need to trim the top of the cake to flatten it.
Variations: Your six main ingredients will always be (1) cake mix, (2) pudding mix, (3) 4 cold eggs, (4) 1 cup sour cream, (5) 1/2 cup oil, (6) 1/2 cup cold liquid.
You can substitute:
Yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding mix
Lemon cake mix, lemon pudding mix, lemon juice and lemon zest
White cake mix and pistachio pudding mix (with a cream cheese icing)
White cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, orange juice, and orange zest
Yellow cake mix, coconut cream pie mix, well drained crushed pineapple and use the pineapple juice in place of the water
You are only limited by your imagination when using this recipe.
Bonus Life Hack:
One thing I do on a bundt cake is to do two glazes: one thinner that I pour onto the bundt cake as soon as it leaves the oven to infuse even more flavor goodness into the cake; and then a second, thicker glaze that I apply after the cake is cool that is the presentation glaze and extra punch of sugary perfection.
