Deep Dark Chocolate Pudding Cake

A friend of mine from work's birthday is this Monday. I had planned on making something sweet for her to bring to work on Monday until I realized that many of the people around here will be gone for a conference. I didn't want her birthday to go by unnoticed, so I made a few things and brought them in today for everyone to enjoy. I wanted to make vanilla cupcakes with lemon filling (I will write about those next), but the recipe only makes 15 cupcakes. I wanted to do something a bit more than that. Since the cupcakes would be light and airy, I thought it would be a good time to make something nice and chocolatey. I didn't want to spend a lot of extra time on this, so I wanted a one pan kind of chocolate dessert, that way I wouldn't have to wait for a cake to cool, make frosting, then frost the cake on a weeknight and still make the cupcakes. I found a recipe from King Arthur Flour for deep dark chocolate pudding cake (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/deep-dark-chocolate-pudding-cake-recipe) that fit all my requirements: very chocolatey, I already had all the ingredients, it is a one pan cake that is serving from the pan, and I didn't need to spend time beyond the actually baking part of things.

I really don't have much to comment on regarding the process of making the cake, which I doubled and baked in a 13x9 cake pan. It could not have been much simpler. Though I have to admit, I was a bit worried when I added the water to the cake and it was super liquidy. I was starting to worry that I had added too much, considering I was doubling the recipe as I went and my dog was whining to go for a walk (I took her to pee, but made her wait while I put the cake together so that we could go for a walk while it was baking) and I thought I got too distracted. I forged ahead anyway. When I first took it from the oven, it was very puffy, and it deflated a little bit as it cooled. I left it at room temperature overnight and brought it to work today.

I made a little sign that said Happy Birthday and placed it next to my creations. I also put little notes telling people what each one was. I also made sure to note that this one has a fudgy soft bottom, I just didn't want anyone to think the softness was unbaked cake. It is intentionally soft since it is a pudding cake.

I got a few people's reactions about the cake, and everyone really liked it. The fudge bottom with the cake top is really nice and the entire cake has a good flavor. I think this one will have to go into my 'tried and true' folder on my computer. It will be a great to go recipe when I am pressed for time, but still want to make something that looks impressive. It is nice to have a one-step cake that once it come out from the oven, it is completely done.