Chocolate Caramel Bundt Cake Recipe

Mornings come too early.  Without warning.  Unprecedented.

It's bad enough that I signed myself up for a yoga class before work, but let's face it, when else was I going to get it done?  Evenings belong to The Circus.  Evenings belong to The Man.

And that need to run eats at me.  Which causes turmoil because I can't honestly say that I like to run?  I don't know what's going on with me feeling like I need to do it but with all the snow and inversion when am I supposed to fit that in?

Before yoga.

Am I crazy?

Without argument.

Because of all the things I am, a morning person is not one of them.

I have to be completely honest and say that most mornings I have only two motivations to get out of my bed and hit the road earlier than early.  Those two reasons would be:

1.  If I leave early to run before class I miss the stupid meter lights on the freeway entrance.  They aren't on yet.

and

2. If I leave early to run before class I get good parking so I don't have to walk that far in the early morning cold.

I guess whatever gets it done.

Today I promised to post my chocolate caramel bundt cake recipe.

Guys, it's so easy, you're going to love me.

I got the cake recipe a few years ago off of one of the forums on cakecentral.com.  Cake Central is like a social media for cakers.  They have crazy cool designs, how to's, and recipes.

So here it is, the most easy, moist beyond moist every time cake recipe.  And it works for any flavor that you can buy in a box.

Cake:
1 box of chocolate cake (any chocolate flavor will do, though I will say not all chocolate flavors were created equal)
1 sm box of instant chocolate pudding

Here's the scoop: mix the cake batter up like it says to do on the back of the box.  Then in addition to that add the chocolate pudding powder, 1/4 C water and 1/3 C oil.

Done.  Bake as directed on the box.

Use it for any cake, any flavor, and pan.  I make my cupcakes this way too.

To die for.

For the caramel I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen.
1 C heavy cream
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

you'll also need a candy thermometer.

Bring cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a heavy saucepan (1 1/2 qt) over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved.  Boil until it registers 210 to 212* F on thermometer, about 12 to 14 minutes after boiling point, then stir in vanilla.

Pour that gooey stuff over top your cake and enjoy.

I'll add here that when I was doing cakes more heavily, I found that caramel when amazingly with yellow cake (use vanilla pudding or cheesecake pudding in the cake).  Just an added thought.  

So there it is.  

And if you can add 43 candles to it... do it.