Triple Chocolate Poke Cake

My favorite cake to bake is remission cake.  It never looks the same or has the same ingredients, but it's by far the best one to make.  Every time my uncle Scott's lymphoma is in remission, I bake him and his family a remission cake to celebrate!  Luckily two weeks ago, I got to make another one.  He loves chocolate, so I found this triple chocolate poke cake on Pinterest and decided to try it out.

Have you ever made a poke cake?  You literally poke holes in it once it's done baking, and pour a glaze over the top.  The idea is that the glaze fills in the holes so the cake is extra moist and has pockets of chocolatey sauce inside!

Here's a rule of thumb that I learned while making this poke cake: less is more.  Less holes, that is.  I poked so many holes that the cake looked like brown swiss cheese.  I figured, more holes must be better than less holes!  Unfortunately, then I ran out of glaze real fast.  It barely filled half of the holes, and the ones it did fill weren't even completely full.  Then you are supposed to sprinkle chocolate shavings on the top, which I did, and they sort of looked like brown saw dust, and they melted a little too.  The cake, in short, looked like crap.

I was horrified.  In an attempt to fix its cosmetics, I filled my holes with whipped cream and covered it all with sprinkles.  Then I frantically delivered it to my aunt and uncle and told them not to tell me if it sucked.  This was the picture I got sent later:

 along with a text that the cake was "the best chocolate cake ever," and an offer to return the favor in exchange for smoked salmon! Haha.  No thanks to the salmon, but I was really happy to find that my ugly cake was still delicious.  Since Scott compared it to the legendary chocolate cake of his childhood, I supposed I would have to share the recipe with you, even though I tried to pretend it never happened.  Just don't go overboard with the holes and all should be well!

Recipe:

triple chocolate poke cake
from The Two Bite Club

Ingredients:
for cake:
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup mik
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
for glaze:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
chocolate shavings (freeze a chocolate bar, then use a vegetable peeler to shave it)

Instructions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

2) Ina  mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes with an electric mixer.  Stir in the boiling water; the mixture will look very thin and runny.

3) Pour the mixture into greased baking dish.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let sit for at least 10 minutes.

4) Meanwhile, add all the icing ingredients to a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute.  Cool for 5 minutes, then beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes.

5) Using the handle of a wooden spoon, carefully poke deep holes into the cake (not too many, you crazy hole poker!!!) .  Pour the glaze over the top of the cake, making sure to get some of the glaze evenly into all the holes.  Use a rubber spatula to carefully spread all the glaze if you need to.

6) When the cake and glaze are cool, sprinkle chocolate shavings over the entire cake.