Chocolate Italian Love Cake

Recently, I was invited to a potluck with an Italian theme.  Yum! I love Italian, although I quickly came to the realization that I don't really make any Italian dishes... I usually always opt for dessert since I am more of a "baker" rather than "cook" so I headed on over to Pinterest to try to find an Italian dessert that I could take to the potluck.  I did a search for Italian desserts and saw the usual, such as tiramisu and cannoli, but I wanted something different.  Then I saw a recipe for Chocolate Italian Love Cake from Chew Nibble Nosh and my search was over!  The recipe seemed simple enough and looked pretty cool with its layers so I bought the ingredients I needed.  The potluck was on a Saturday night and since this cake needed to be chilled for several hours, I actually made it Friday night and then put it in the fridge until the big event.

Ingredients:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix AND the ingredients needed to make the cake according to the package directions
• 2 lbs (32 oz) ricotta cheese
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 box instant chocolate pudding mix (recipe said 5.1 oz, but the one I found in the store was 5.9 oz)
• 1 cup cold milk
• 8 oz Cool Whip topping

(The extra eggs and vegetable oil in the photo were needed to make the cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 13x9 inch pan with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, mix together cake ingredients according to the directions on the box.  Set aside.

In another bowl, beat together the ricotta cheese, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth, using a hand mixer.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared 13x9 baking dish.  Spread to fill pan evenly.  Once the cake batter is in place, carefully pour the cheese mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter.  Spread to cover the cake batter as best you can.  Please note:  cake batter goes on the bottom, cheese mixture goes on top. When baking, the layers "switch" and the cheese part will be under the chocolate cake.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

(Don't worry if the top looks like this, you're going to frost over it anyways!)

Once cooled, stir the box of pudding mix and milk together with a whisk until combined.  carefully, fold the Cool Whip topping into the pudding until combined.

Spread the pudding mixture over the top of the cooled cake. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.  (It tastes great the next day!)

Enjoy!

So, the verdict:  This cake is pretty tasty, and everyone at the potluck said it was good.  I actually already made it again for Valentine's day for my family and they liked it also!  The only disappointment (for me) was that when it was finished baking, it was "lumpy" so I did not get the nice evenly defined layers like I saw in the photos online.  But, hey, what's more important - looks or taste? Definitely taste!

I hope you enjoyed this post and please feel free to comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts!