Down in the Dumps Cake

When I was a little girl, my mom made this recipe and when she was a little girl, her Grandma and Aunt Neetsa made it. My mom has told me her memories of eating this yummy dessert while watching slides and 8 mm movies of their latest family vacations (camping trips usually) with their friends the Zimmers. Mom is one of 10 kids and the Zimmers had 6 kids so these two family picture-nights were no small gatherings. This dessert is so rich it can feed a small army. My memories of it are at home with our family and sometimes with company. I remember my own Grandma making chocolate pudding with ice cream so it also reminds me of her. =0)



Nothing healthy about it unless you use the chopped nuts! This chocolate cake is made by pouring hot water over top of it and then the cake bakes up on the top and the rest turns into a hot pudding underneath waiting to be uncovered. I've made this many times in my oven according the directions below but this time I made it in my crock-pot while we were out to dinner. We had company coming back to our house for dessert and when we got back it was ready and waiting for us! Crock-pot directions are at the bottom of this post....



but first just to be sure this is the longest recipe post EVER, my early married story of making this dessert was taking it to a church meeting which we were late to. My ever so skillful driving husband was taking turns quite sharply in order to make up for our being late and I cringed as I knew my hot pudding would most likely not withstand all the tipping while it was sitting on the back seat of our car. Somewhere in the world, that car probably still has a chocolate pudding stain on the back seat....try as we did, we could never soak it all up. So, consider yourself warned before trying to transport this dessert! My lesson learned, DON'T transport a dessert with the word "dump" in the name of the recipe!

Original Recipe:



BATTER:

Mix together-

2 c flour

4 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 tsp salt



Blend in-

1 cup milk

4 tbsp veg. oil

2 c chopped walnuts (optional)



Pour batter into an ungreased glass 9x13 baking dish.



PUDDING:

In another bowl mix together-

2 c brown sugar

1/2 c cocoa powder

Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over the batter.



Pour 3 c hot water over the top of brown sugar and batter.



Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. Let cool about one hour. The water makes a chocolate pudding underneath the baked chocolate cake. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream while watching family videos.



Crock-pot cooking instructions:

Coat crock with butter before putting batter in.

Cook on high heat for 2-2 1/2 hours. (it's very forgiving so if you cooked it for 3 hours it would probably be fine)

Let cool for about 30 min. or so out of the heating element.



You can make this in a dutch oven over coals as well!