Box Cakes Are Awesome: Chocolate Cake with Hot Fudge and Peaches

I am all for things baked from scratch- cookies, lasagna, bread, etc, but there are some things that are just better when they are just "semi homemade", I think cakes are one of those things. Making a cake from scratch can be tricky. There is always the issue of the cake being too dry, dry ingredients measured in weight instead of volume, and throw altitude and humidity in there and you are in for a rough road, but do you know what makes that easier? Yeah a cake from a box. And sometimes that is a cheaper way to go, so anyway, here is my brief plug for cakes from a box- in lots of cases they are just better than the ones you spend the time to make all the way from scratch- plus there is "pudding" in the mix (better) and I mentioned the cheaper part...

When I was a kid my mom would occasionally make us a chocolate (devil's food) bundt cake with hot fudge sauce. She would pour the hot chocolate over the warm cake and we would fight to get the extra hot fudge (because as we all know bundt cakes are perfect mediums for consuming hot fudge). It was even better when we left the cake overnight and the chocolate soaked into the cake, really delicious. My mom always used a cake mix, because as mentioned above it is better, but she made the hot fudge herself. I dont have her recipe, but over the years I have cobbled one together myself. I must say hers is better, but through trial and error (mostly error) I have finally found the secret ingredient for making the sauce quickly and lump free (sorry to anyone that had it before this discovery was made).

My mom often served this cake when my grandparents would come for dinner, and every time without fail my grandpa would request canned peaches to go along with the cake. I thought this was strange because doesnt ice cream go with cake, then one day he made me try it, and it was delicious- forget the ice cream! Let's just say the combination of warm cake, hot fudge, and cold peaches is delicious... if you like that sort of thing (kinda like egg nog in pumpkin pie ;)).

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Hot Fudge and Peaches

Bake one devil's food cake according to the package instructions.

Place one can or bottle of peaches in juice or light syrup in the refrigerator until chilled.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 c. heavy cream or half and half

1/4 c. corn syrup (this is what makes it smooth do NOT skip)

1 t. vanilla extract

4 T UNsalted butter

10-12 oz semi sweet chocolate

Bring heavy cream/half and half, corn syrup, and butter to a boil, add in chocolate, stir until melted, add vanilla, stir to combine. Pour over cake (yeah, that's it).

Enjoy, and remember, say yes to box cakes!