Marcus' birthday cake

Some of you (ok, ONE of you) have asked for the recipe for Marcus' birthday cake.  Marcus had asked for a "pudding cake" as he does almost every year, and doesn't mean a cake with pudding filling.  He means a cake with a box of pudding in the batter, to make a really moist cake.  So I found this easy recipe and it fits the bill perfectly:

The Easiest Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 3.5 oz pkg non-instant chocolate pudding mix
2 cups milk
1 pkg devil's food cake mix
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.  (I use cocoa to "flour" the pan.)
2) In a large saucepan combine the pudding mix with 2 cups milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the pudding is thickened.  Remove from heat.  Pour the dry cake mix into the saucepan and mix until smooth.  Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
3) Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

For Marcus' cake, I couldn't just stop there!!  I cut the cooled cake lengthwise to make a 2-layer loaf, and filled it with the Chocolate Mousse Frosting recipe from Joy of Cooking.  Then I topped the whole thing with chocolate ganache (4 oz chocolate chips to 1/2 cup cream, melted and mixed).

Notes:  For the mousse filling I followed the recipe but replaced 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder for each ounce of unsweetened chocolate, and increased the butter a bit.  It worked fine.  Also, I strained the hot egg mixture to ensure there would be no lumps.  Finally, for the ganache, the best way is to heat the cream to boiling then pour it over the chocolate chips, but I usually just put it all in the microwave. You have to heat it slowly in 30 second increments, stirring in between, but it works out fine in the end.  It will be very soupy, so wait a bit until it thickens before pouring it on top of the cake.