As I posted yesterday, this Thanksgiving dinner was composed of mostly canned and frozen items that only needed to be reheated. However, I did find a semi-homemade dessert on the Kraft website that I wanted to try: Slow-Cooker Chocolate Pudding Cake. It is basically instant pudding and chocolate cake mix layered in a crock pot. I figured this would be something simple to throw together that would still have the feeling of a freshly-made dessert. However, my attempt to follow this simple recipe was a perfect illustration of the fact that I am more out-of-practice in the kitchen than I thought.
Starting out, everything went well. I mixed the chocolate pudding directly in the crock pot, and then started making the cake mix according to the package directions. I added the eggs and the oil to the mix. Even though I was using an electric beater, my arm got sore doing the mixing because the batter was so thick. I think I even smelled the motor burning a little. I had to scrape the batter out of the bowl and spread it on top of the pudding, but that didn't seem strange because the recipe said that the cake batter should be on top of the pudding and not stirred together. It was only when I went to throw the empty cake mix box away that I realized I forgot to add WATER to the batter! I felt like such an idiot. I've baked cakes before, but it has been so long that I totally forgot that cake batter should be pourable and not thick like taffy. Luckily, the batter was so thick that I was able to scoop it back out of the crock pot and add the water to it.
The whole time I was scooping the batter back into the bowl, the kids were saying, "It's OK, Mami. I bet it will turn out just fine" and "I'll eat it, anyway". That's another reason I should cook more often. My kids are so happy to see me with a whisk and a recipe in my hand that the are willing to eat my kitchen disasters!
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