CANDY CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE (w/magic ingredient!!!)

{How on earth did I manage to get so many goodies into one dessert name?  You can’t tell I like sweets, can you?! }

A couple months ago, I discovered an interesting way to use canned pumpkin (no, not that interesting!).  Anyhoo, apparently you can mix canned pumpkin with any boxed dry cake mix in place of all the other ingredients you usually have to add (eggs, oil, etc.).  Who knew?  I have done it a couple times with yummy-good results, both with yellow and chocolate cake mix.  With the yellow, it looks/tastes a little pumpkin-y, but ultra-moist.  With chocolate, it’s just rich chocolate goodness!
This weekend, I noticed a can of pumpkin I needed to use.  By the way, I can’t find it year-round, so I buy extra during the holidays.  This time, I added the canned pumpkin to a box of fudge brownie mix, iced it with chocolate frosting and topped it with M&Ms (you could sub in any icing, candy you like).  Lookie here!

 

Oh.my.goodness.  Combining the dry brownie mix with the canned pumpkin resulted in a super decadent baked-pudding-consistency chocolate cake!  The frosting and candy just added more sinfulness to it all!  We are all thoroughly enjoying it! If you wonder what I mean by pudding-consistency, this cake reminds me of the chocolate molten-center cakes, but a little more solid.
It’s so much fun to experiment in the kitchen with new ideas! And how can you go wrong with chocolate and candy involved?!
Hugs & Yums,