Hot Fudge Cake and a Cherry on Top

My family expects at least one dessert a week. I try to do something special on Sundays. It is quite hard to get up early, get Sunday dinner started, shower, get dressed, read a devotional, and get to church by 10 am. Therefore, I bake our dessert the night before or use one of my beloved cake mixes. It seems that as they have grown older, everyone has a newly found love for chocolate. This Hot Fudge Cake originally came from one of my early 1980's Southern Living cookbooks and uses a devil's food cake mix.

Personally, I believe that cake mixes and self rising flour were the best creations of the 20th century. My mother, a real South Georgia farm girl, most always used cake mixes, but made her icing from scratch. Her philosophy was that icing makes the cake. She also rolled out dumplings from canned biscuits and used self rising flour most of the time. She was a teacher and had to make the most of her meal preparation time, while pleasing a picky husband. He needed three meals a day, would not touch leftovers, and always wanted a dessert after supper. 

I'm sure that your family will love this Hot Fudge Cake - served while warm with vanilla bean ice cream. Don't get me wrong, the room temperature leftovers are delicious as well. 

Hot Fudge Cake

1 package devil's food cake mix without pudding

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

2 cups very hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Vanilla Ice Cream

Prepare cake batter according to package directions. Pour into a 13 X 9 glass pan that has been sprayed lightly with  Baker's Joy. Mix together the next three ingredients and pour over the batter - this mixture will sink to the bottom of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Top with Vanilla Ice Cream. Don't forget a cherry on top of the ice cream, or two or three for your little ones. 

Nutella Cream Pie with Ritz Cracker Crust

Nutella is a rather new spread for my pantry. My grandchildren love it. Their other grandparents are from Venezuela and Spain. They grew up on Nutella spread and ate sandwiches on white bread with the chocolate hazelnut  spread as the filling, One taste and I was hooked. This yummy no bake pie is so delicious without being rich or heavy, especially in the summertime. We have made the pie several times with different crusts, but really enjoy a Ritz Cracker crust. The salty crackers are a nice accent to the sweet hazelnut spread.

Ritz Cracker Crust

2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers- crushed - about 60
1/3 cup butter - melted and cooled
4 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

I like to crush my crackers in a gallon baggie with a rolling pin - It is also easy to use the food processor, but I hate to have to wash all of those parts.

Mix crumbs and sugar in a medium size bowl- Pour butter into mixture. Mix well. Spoon into a 9 inch pie plate and press evenly on bottom and sides. I like to use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to get the crumbs compacted in the plate and up the sides

Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly browned. 

Cool

Nutella Cream Pie Filling

1 8 ounce cream cheese block - softened

1 cup of Nutella Hazelnut  Spread

1/4 cup of Powdered Sugar

1 16 ounce Cool Whip

Mix cream cheese with mixer until smooth.

Add Nutella and powdered sugar.

Continue mixing until well incorporated.

Fold in 8 ounces of the Cool Whip.

Pour into cooled pie crust and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Top with the remainder of the Cool Whip and drizzle Nutella over all.

Chill for a few hours before serving. 

Enjoy!