Bird Crap, aka Chocolate Cake Crumbles with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Pudding

I know what you're thinking. What good could possibly come from an entry titled Bird Crap, but I assure you that a great deal of good can come of this post.

My roommate Melissa and I had the urge to make something delicious, and didn't want to spend too much money on ingredients, so we settled on a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Sometimes you have hiccups in the kitchen, and to be honest, we had a big hiccup that day. We beat the cake batter too long and when the cakes were done baking they literally crumbled out of the pans. There was no hoping in attempting to frost them, none what so ever. So as we stood there in the kitchen, cracking up at our mistake I remembered a delicious dessert my mom introduced to me a few years back. It's a different take on "Better Than Sex Cake", that includes crumbled chocolate cake, layered with chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and chunks of toffee or heath bar. Although it made my mother mad, my friends and I called it Bird Crap and boy did we love it. As it so happened, miraculously I had whipping cream in the fridge, and a box of chocolate pudding in my cupboard (what are the odds?), so we decided to make an even better dessert than we already had planned. I urge you to try this dessert. It's so incredibly simple and sooooo good. And it's even better with homemade cake! (Though you can use a boxed kind)

Chocolate Cake:

4 ounces (120 grams)unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup (28 grams) unsweetenedcocoa powder

1 cup (240 ml) boiling water

2 1/4 cups (315 grams) all purposeflour

2teaspoonsbaking powder

1 teaspoonbaking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (226 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

2 cups (400 grams) granulated whitesugar

3 largeeggs

2 teaspoons purevanillaextract

1 cup (240 ml) milk

Chocolate Cake:Preheat ovento 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray, and line with parchment paper, two - 9 x 2 inch deep (23 x 5 cm) round baking pans. Set aside.

In a stainless steel or heatproof bowl place the chopped unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate and cocoa powder and stir until they have melted. Set aside to cool while you make the batter.

In a separate bowl, whisk to combine, the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is fluffy (this will take about 3-5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and melted chocolate mixture and beat to combine.

Add the milk and flour mixtures in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat only until the ingredients are incorporated.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for about 35 - 40 minutes or until atoothpickinserted in the center comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Once the cake has cooled, remove from pans and crumble up. Prepare a box of instant chocolate pudding, set aside. Then prepare the whipped cream:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 table spoons confectioners sugar

Beat on high speed with a mixer until fluffy peaks form.

Now get a large bowl and put a layer of crumbled cake on the bottom. You can choose to sprinkle chocolate chips or crumbled heath bar on top of the first layer as well. Then follow with a layer of chocolate pudding, then a layer of whipped cream. Repeat until cake and pudding are gone, but make sure to save enough whipped cream to cover the top layer. Sprinkle with shaved chocolate or crumbled heath bar. Voila!