Let Us Eat Cake! Karo Frosting Cake

You may begin to see a pattern in my cake making if you stick around long enough.  The truth is I almost always use a mix.  Mixes are so easy and honestly, why fool with it, who has the time?  All you have to do is make a cake mix, and then... MAKE IT WONDERFUL.

Take this cake for example.  The frosting is the star.  And, I truly mean it, sent directly to you from heaven.   And the frosting is SO easy, totally beautiful and like I said, delish. 

I ALWAYS make this cake with a devils food mix and really, it is so good there is no reason to change it, but I decided to try something different this time (so I could make something else with the other half of the cake).  It was pretty good... I used a white cake mix, following the directions except that I used applesauce instead of oil.  I also added shaved coconut and a tsp of coconut flavoring.   On to the recipe.

Karo Frosting

enough to frost a two layer cake generously! 

1 1/2 cup Karo Syrup

1 shake salt

3 egg whites

1/4-1/2 tsp coconut flavoring

One King size Hershey's Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar

Or Chocolate Chips and Toasted Almonds

In a Heavy Sauce over medium high heat pan bring Karo syrup to a boil, boil Karo and salt for 5 to 6 minutes.  While it is boiling, in another bowl beat 3 egg whites till stiff peaks form.  Have this ready when you are done with the 5 minutes!

After the 5-6 minutes is over (don't wait at this point or your Karo syrup will harden), while beating, slowly pour the Karo syrup into the egg whites. and just beat it, beat it!! 'til it is thick and glossy, then add the coconut flavoring and beat it in.  (I also added some food coloring this time)

When frosting the cake:

Our traditional method is to take 2 -8" chocolate cakes, frost the bottom layer and add a 1/3-1/2 of the melted Hershey's Almond bar and swirl it in the frosting.  Add the top layer of cake, frost completely and swirl the remainder of the chocolate into the frosting.  It looks beautiful and tastes like a dream!  Chocoholics beware!!!

***This time, I wanted the frosting to be pink, so I hid the chocolate under the frosting and let it cool first.  There is one con to doing it this way.  It is difficult to cut through the hardened chocolate, FYI, but it looks pristine.  Here is what I did, I melted chocolate chips spread them on both layers and sprinkled the chocolate with toasted almonds.  Then once the chocolate was hardened, I frosted it.

 

- A funny family history to this cake:  My dad had it at my mother's 16th birthday, and we like to joke, since he is such a chocoholic, that the moment he tasted it he knew she was the one!!  Well after 45+ years, I think there is probably a little more to it than chocolate cake! 

If you are wondering what I did with the other half of the cake...
Let me tell you.  I wanted to try my hand at making cake bites.

I crumbled the cake, added about a cup of cream cheese frosting, and mixed.
Let it cool in the fridge.  Then I scoped it with my small cookie scoop.
Dipped the balls in melted chocolate and then in some toasted almonds.
they. were. good. 'nuf said!