Suprise!!!! Chocolate Pudding Cake

I love surprise parties!!!!  And so I'm taking a momentary break from baking through the Scrumptious Cupcakes book.

Last night my friends and family threw a surprise party for my guy who just turned 18 on January 18th!! It's a golden birthday!!! So we decorated in all blue and yellow ( his favorite team is Michigan) and we had a great time.

I, of course, made the cake (and we bought a cake from Dairy Queen but shhh.... I haven't figured out how to make ice cream cake yet ).

It was quite the cake to make.  Granted, I started the process Friday night at nine thirty, but I had to work earlier that day so it was the only chance I had.

There he is, blowing out his 18 candles.

I found this recipe in the 2008 edition of The Best of America's Test Kitchen.  I highly recommend exploring one of these fine cookbooks because they house incredible recipes, both sweet and savory.

If you happen to have a copy of this book nearby, please flip to page 260 to see the glorious cake this post is all about.  Looks pretty right?  Then flip to page 291 for the recipe.  Yes, you did read that right, it calls for homemade pudding.  Jell-o is doing something right because mine is chocolate milk. So instead I whipped up one of the instant packages and it made just enough pudding to cover and fill in between the layers.  But it turned out just fine :)