Everthings Going to be Alright

This weekend my Grandma turned 85.

A few relatives came in town to celebrate her 85 years.  My aunt requested a chocolate cake and while I can totally appreciate a chocolate cake I knew this one had to be special.  

After all, it's not every day you celebrate 85 years.

What could make a chocolate cake more special, you ask?  Well, caramel and pecans, of course.

 Topped with more chocolate cake.

Which turns a chocolate cake into a turtle cake!

I used my Too Much Chocolate Cake recipe.  It's my go to recipe when anyone asks for an excellent chocolate cake.  It's the chocolate cake recipe I used when I was running Deelicious Sweets and it always had rave reviews.  It always turns out and it's always super moist.

You won't need another chocolate cake recipe after this one.  Go ahead and throw all of your chocolate cake recipes away now.  Okay, don't do that.  Because, honestly, there's no such thing as too many chocolate cake recipes, right?  And as long as we're being honest with each other here I have a confession about my infamous chocolate cake that everyone requests.  It's made from a box cake mix!  I never claimed to be Martha Stewart, my friends.  Don't get me wrong, I have an excellent from scratch chocolate cake recipe.

Have you seen my  Chocolate Mocha Cake?

I'm sorry, all of this talk about chocolate is distracting me.  On with the recipe for Turtle Cake!

Turtle cake
Yield: 20 servings

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Ingredients for Too Much Chocolate Cake:

• 1 (18.25-ounce) package devils food cake mix
• 1 (5.9-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Ingredients for Caramel:

• 1 (14-ounce) bag caramels
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Garnish: Chocolate ganache, caramel and candy turtle

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease or spray a 13x11-inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour 1/2 of the batter into your pan. Bake 22 minutes. Refrigerate remaining batter.
3. Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, heat caramels and evaporated milk over medium heat, stirring frequently, until caramels are melted. Stir in pecans. Pour caramel mixture over warm cake in pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Spread with remaining batter. Bake 25 to 28 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cool at least 30 minutes. Serve with ice cream, drizzle with toppings and sprinkle with pecans. Store loosely covered.
4. Before serving, drizzle the top with chocolate ganache and caramel and place a turtle on top - if desired, but really, why wouldn't you? This is a rock star dessert after all. Dress it up like a rock star!

Adapted from Allrecipes.com and Betty Crocker

It's very difficult to take blog pictures with my bother around.  He's always trying to grab the garnish.  Brat!

Special thanks to my Aunt Rachel for the title suggestion. After she suggested it, my Aunt Cheryl agreed that it was indeed a good title as this cake could make anyones problems go away.