Stacy’s shippable, giftable chocolate chip cake is a warm taste of home

This recipe comes courtesy of cookbook author Anne Byrn's blog, "Between the Layers." You can read more of Byrn's work here.

This is one of the Cake Mix Doctor’s favorite recipes, and I updated it for "A New Take on Cake." Stacy Ross of Nashville, the cake’s creator, not only has been baking this cake since 1976, but she’s been gifting it, too!

The first time she shipped this cake was to her fiance, now husband, who was a Naval officer stationed in California. Stacy sends this chocolate chip cake to her children but also to people in need.

For example, her husband hand-delivered this cake to the mother of Kelsee Lainhart, a Marine Corporal who was severely injured in the Kabul attack during the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan in August. Stacy surrounded the cake with bubble wrap, and her husband carried it on his flight to Washington, D.C.

This cake has been spotted in Wyoming, in Colorado, and in Alabama post-Hurricane Michael, as a gift to relief workers there. And Stacy routinely packed this cake in the car to tote on summer vacations, which isn’t really shipping, but with all the packing of the car and four children, it sure feels like it!

Makes 12 servings

Prep: 15 to 20 minutes

Bake: 45 to 50 minutes

Ingredients

Cake:

Vegetable cooking spray or shortening, for greasing the pan

All-purpose flour, for dusting the pan

1 bar (4 ounces) German’s sweet chocolate

1 package (15.25 ounces) yellow or butter recipe cake mix

4 tablespoons (half a 3.4-ounce package) vanilla instant pudding mix

3 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (6 ounces) regular or miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Garnish:

1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar or 1 teaspoon each confectioners’ sugar and unsweetened cocoa

Instructions

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set the pan aside.

Break the German’s chocolate into four pieces. Finely grate the bar using a food processor (drop the pieces one at a time into the processor fitted with a steel blade) or hand grater. Set the grated chocolate aside.

Place the cake mix and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl, and stir to combine. Add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until blended, 30 seconds. Stop the machine, and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 1 minute longer until the batter is smooth and fluffy. Fold in the grated German’s chocolate and the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan, smoothing the top with a rubber spatula, and place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 42 to 47 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.

Run a long sharp knife around the edges of the cake, shake the pan gently, and invert the cake onto a wire rack or cake plate. Let the cake cool at least 20 minutes longer. Sift the top with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. Slice and serve.