Chocolate Butterscotch Cake

After making many free-standing cakes this year, I needed a break. If you want to make a tasty, good-looking cake, it can take quite a while. At the very least, you spend a couple hours spread out over a few days. But I wanted to break free of my rut and do something easy but delicious. I was charged with making a cake for a true Southern boy, so who better to turn to than Paula Deen?

Chocolate Butterscotch Cake
From Paula Deen. Yields 12 servings.

Ingredients
3/4 cup softened butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 cups milk
12.5 oz butterscotch
12 oz whipped topping, thawed
3.5 oz butterscotch pudding mix

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9" baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add this to the butter mixture, alternatively with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Spoon into prepared pan.


Bake the cake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.


While the cake is still warm and using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes halfway through the cake at 1/2" intervals.


Pour butterscotch evenly over the cake and allow to cool completely.


After cake has cooled, combine the whipped topping and pudding mix in a medium bowl. Spread evenly over the cooled cake. Be sure to make this frosting right before you use it and don't worry if it tastes gritty. The pudding will set up in the whipped topping gradually over time. This makes it taste better, but it also makes it more difficult to spread once it has started to set up. Cover the cake and refrigerate it. When ready to serve, cut it into squares. Don't forget an insulin shot as a chaser.

For as simple and saccharine as this cake sounds, everyone loved it. The birthday boy even took home the remainder over the weekend and had to bring my baking pan back to me. The butterscotch keeps the cake lusciously moist and complements the chocolate very well. The additional butterscotch on top with a creamier base is actually a nice relief from the intense flavor and sweetness from the cake. I'm always amazed to see what types of desserts come out of a Southern kitchen. I really shouldn't be surprised that everything is so sweet since any baby south of the Mason-Dixon line is raised on sweet tea instead of formula. And let's face it, no one does a killer, simple dessert like Paula.