Chocolate Cream Cake

I was at the store today with the intent of just quickly picking up some Cool Whip. I noticed cake mixes were on sale. I went back to the store entrance and exchanged my basket for a cart so could stock up.
My thoughts returned me to my most memorable childhood Christmas.
On that cold December night, long ago we stood in awe for a moment of the service done on our behalf. After we brought all if the tall brown grocery bags into the house, we unloaded each one with delight. It had been a few years since we had this much food in the house at one time. One of the sacks had a couple of cake mixes in it. All of our eggs had been used to make the Holiday Pumpkin Bread, so it wasn't possible to make a cake. Nonetheless we dumped one of the mixes into a large bowl and the six of us kids huddled around it eating the dry mix by the spoonfuls. We were thrilled by our treat.
The recipe I share today isn't written down in any of my recipe indexes. Thus- I haven't made it in a considerable amount of time. But it's a simple dessert that is a hit anywhere I take it.

Chocolate Cream Cake

Use a 12 x 17.5 baking sheet. Begin by making Yummy In My Tummy Chocolate Cake, omitting the chocolate chips. This is a refrigerated dessert. If you make the cake with chocolate chips, they will be hard and produce an undesirable crunch to your dessert.
Chill the cake.
Spread the chocolate cream onto the cake layer.

Chocolate Cream
12 oz. softened cream cheese
3/4 cup dry chocolate pudding mix (about 5 oz.)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. almond extract (optional)

I use the food processor to thoroughly blend all of the ingredients until smooth.
Then, fold in 12oz. Cool Whip.

Spread 12 more ounces of Cool Whip onto the chocolate cream layer.

Refrigerate for several hours.
Before serving, drizzle with room temperature Chocolate Glaze.
Serve cake well chilled and refrigerate leftovers.

The 12 x 17.5 baking sheet makes nice snack size informal desserts. You can also make this into a round, square or rectangular layer cake.

I have been experiencing some memory glitches lately- can’t remember why I enter a certain room, names of people I’ve known for twenty years are unable to be recalled, etc. A friend who is just a few years older than me has assured me it is just a phase. She told me I’d never again be as sharp as I was in my twenties, but I won’t settle into middle age long term being quite this bad. My family was delighted that I could still remember this recipe :) It was enjoyed tonight after the Stromboli we ate for dinner.