Day 14 - Tunnel of Fudge

   My mother made this cake, and I remember bringing it to school, a small gift for my formidable 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Bailey.  Whether bribe or treat, it was extremely well-received.  The original, the one Mother made excellently and many times, was a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest winner;  I wonder who created that recipe.  It requires at least one ingredient no longer on the market, but Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Cake has an updated version.  I couldn't resist giving it a try.
   Following the directions as exactly as possible, I hit a couple of snags.  Michelle tells us to prepare the pudding according to directions on the box, but she also says to use 1 1/2 cups of milk and not the 2 cups on the box.  If you do use 2 cups of milk, it's trouble.  You have more pudding than can fit.  You don't want pudding touching the sides of the pan, ruining the tunnel effect and making strata of fudge instead; with pudding overload this can happen.  SO stick with the book directions, a little less milk.  If you still have excess pudding (and who knew there could be such a thing?), spoon it into ramekins and put it in the fridge for other adventures.  There are lots of things in life worse than an extra bowl of chocolate pudding in the refrigerator.
   There was a little of the strata effect when I attempted this one.  It was not the perfect tunnel my mom always accomplished,  so this cake received the stunning White Chocolate Glaze before I let it out of the house.  Good stuff that glaze on page 331; it  hides mistakes well.  The cake went to a luncheon honoring a plague scientist on a nearby Army base where people devoured it with great relish, at least so I'm told.