Melanie's Cake

Melanie- a name that means dark or black and beautiful.  It is also the name of a longtime best friend! About 30 years ago, Melanie made Watergate Cake for me (YUM!) and later shared her Grandma Ritz's (diminutive of her real name, Ritzenthaler) recipe for said cake.  Woot!  I recently unearthed the recipe and made the cake for Christmas for Cliff's family who loves Watergate Salad*.  Well, they love Grandma Ritz's Watergate Cake too!  Shortly before Christmas, Cliff's sister, Sheila brought a triple chocolate cake from Sam's Club (of all places) to the house for dessert.  It was amazingly rich, moist, and devilishly chocolate.  I immediately fell in love with the cake and therefore have had to ban myself from darkening the doors of the local Sam's Club to protect my virtue! 
That said, when I was making Watergate Cake I couldn't help but think that the texture was similar to the triple chocolate cake Sheila brought to the house.  Could I replicate it? I began to wonder.  So in my mind, I recreated the Watergate Cake with a chocolate theme.  I couldn't wait to try it out to see if my hypothesis was tenable.  Today we had soup and sandwiches at church after services.  I knew exactly what I was going to bring.  But I couldn't call it Death by Chocolate- its' been done.  I couldn't call it Triple Chocolate Cake- I wanted mine to be better.  So I thought of the inspiration for the recipe.  I thought about what Melanie's name means... and well, this morning  I brought my first attempt at Melanie's Cake to church.  It was a hit.  I didn't have anything but crumbs to bring home!  Want to try it for yourself?  See the recipe below!  Enjoy! 

What you need:
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 (3.5 oz) boxes of instant chocolate pudding
4 eggs
8 oz of Dr. Pepper (Say no to diet soda when baking!)
3/4 cup of oil
2 cups of dark chocolate baking chips (1 cup for cake mix and 1 cup to sprinkle!)
1 container of dark chocolate frosting

What you do:
1. Heat the oven to 350 degree.  Grease and flour your favorite cake pan (I used a Bundt pan.). 
2. Combine all ingredients except the baking chips in a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Do not over beat.  Add 1 cup of baking chips and incorporate.  Pour into pan and place in the oven. The cake mix will be thick.
3. Bake for 30 - 45 minutes depending on your oven and the pan you chose.  I baked mine for 37.5 minutes.
4.  Let cool for a few minutes.  Remove from pan and cool completely.
5.  Frost cake with chocolate frosting.  Sprinkle with baking chips.  Slice and EAT!  

Notes:  I will make this again.  And I will likely use mini chips instead of the regular chocolate chips.  Additionally, the choice of Dr. Pepper over Pepsi was made because I wanted to drink the remaining 4 ounces and didn't want Pepsi.  I think any dark, non diet soda would work.  I will likely try this again with Pepsi and again with a Root Beer.  Try it with one and let me know what you think in the comments. *I must also note that the BEST Watergate Salad has a can of Mandarin oranges in it!  I like them better than the marshmallows, but still put those in for the kids. This was supposted to post on 1/25/2015! Imgaine my suprise to find it sitting in my drafts on May 8, 2021!